With the emergence of voice responsive personal assistants, the trends in mobile voice search are only heading upward and are expected to continue to grow. About 60 percent of searches are done from a mobile device, with voice search making up a large number of those inquiries.

Today, optimizing your SEO means tailoring content so that it can capture traffic from both traditional and voice search inquiries. Let’s look at how voice has changed what we know about SEO and how you can use it to drive traffic.

Adapt Your Keyword Strategy

Optimizing for voice requires a different approach to SEO and how you compose your content to include keywords. With a keypad search, the user is looking to take the shortest route. They choose keywords that they know will bring results and often don’t add in anything extra. Typical keyword searches average 1-3 words.

Voice search is different. Users speak into their device much like they would if they were speaking to you directly. For example, rather than Googling “X restaurant menu”, a voice search might be more along the lines of “What are today’s features on X’s menu?”.

For voice optimization, long-tail keywords win. Also, think of trigger words for a winning content marketing strategy. Keywords that would normally get left out of your content marketing strategy can make all the difference in voice search. Top trigger words for voice SEO include:

• How
• What
• Best
• Where
• Is
• Can
• Easy
• When
• Who
• New

Bring Q&A Front and Center

Voice searches are often in question form, looking for specific answers. One way to optimize content for voice search is through your site’s Q&A page.

Pay attention to the questions your customers are asking. What are the specific inquiries when the call, email or visit? How are they forming the questions, what words are they using?

These are important details because this is exactly how your potential customer will approach voice search. Adapting your Q&A section to match this language is one of the most important SEO strategies you can adopt.

When a mobile user connects with your page though voice search, make sure that the information they want is front and center. Try taking the Q&A section, normally found at the end of a page, and moving it to the front where mobile users can have easy access.

Recognize Local Value

Mobile voice searches are often done by people on the go, looking for the next spot to land. That means that they are in your backyard, looking for a reason to come through your door.

Create content marketing with a strong local intent. What is it about your business that stands out among local competition? Keywords like “best” combined with your location will pull you up in the ranks when mobile users want the best that the local area has to offer.

Voice optimization is presenting some exciting changes in the SEO industry. Are you ready to optimize for your voice search customer base? We want to help you, so contact us today.