5 Smart Speaker Voice Search Optimization Tips for Success
With more than 47.3 million U.S. adults having access to a smart speaker, it’s important to optimize your site for voice search so you don’t miss out on valuable leads.
If you want to reach valuable leads, you must optimize with search engine optimization (SEO) for voice search.
On this page, we’ll provide you with five smart speaker voice search optimization tips. If you need help optimizing your SEO campaign for voice search, call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist.
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What are smart speakers?
Smart speakers are devices that enable voice activation. To active these devices, you speak to them. They are usually triggered by a name or phrase, such as “okay, Google,” “hey Google,” or “Alexa.”
People can use these devices to find information about products, subjects, locations, and more.
The most popular smart speakers are made by Amazon and Google.
Alexa: What devices does Amazon offer?
Amazon offers numerous smart speaker devices. Their most basic device is the Echo Dot. This smart speaker allows you to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, set timers and alarms, play music, send messages, control lights, and more.
In addition to the Echo Dot, Amazon also offers the Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Spot, and Echo Show. All these devices use Alexa for the voice functionality.
Each of these devices gets increasingly more advanced than the basic device. Amazon also offers an Echo Dot specifically for kids.
The variety of devices offers many options for users, and they can choose the device that best matches their needs. The price for these speakers ranges from $49.99 to $229.99.
Hey Google: What are the different types of Google smart speakers?
Google’s smart speaker offerings are slightly less expansive. Their main device, and most popular one, is the Google Home Mini. Similar to the Echo Dot, you can ask the Google Home questions, set reminders, get news, play music, set reminders, and more.
In addition, Google offers the Google Home and the Google Home Max. These speakers range in price from $49 – $399.
The continued growth of smart speakers
Google Home and Amazon Echo are the two main types of smart speaker devices on the market.
Many other companies are trying to develop their own personal smart speakers. Samsung announced the Galaxy Home will be coming to the market soon. It’s a smart speaker device that operates on the voice search program Bixby for the voice commands.
These devices are becoming more prominent in people’s homes as more companies develop their own smart speaker.
In fact, 32 percent of consumers own a smart speaker like Google Home or Amazon Echo. Of that 32 percent, 71 percent of smart speaker owners use the device every day. In addition, 44 percent use the speaker multiple times a day.
Considering smart speakers have only been on the market for about two years, the growth of these devices is rapidly increasing. As the popularity of these devices starts to grow, you must adapt your SEO campaign to keep up with this growth.
How do people use smart speakers?
Before we dive into the nitty gritty of how to optimize for smart speaker voice search optimization, it’s crucial that you understand how people use smart speakers. When you understand the circumstances surrounding smart speaker use, you can adjust your strategy to better reach users.
When people use smart speakers, it’s mainly in situations where their hands are full, or a device, like a laptop or cell phone, is out of reach.
The most common areas people put their smart speakers are:
- Living rooms (61 percent)
- Bedrooms (46 percent)
- Kitchens (46 percent)
When users conduct searches with these smart speakers, they have four main search intents:
- Looking to know: People ask their smart devices questions to obtain information. These are extremely common, with people asking questions as simple as “What’s the weather for today?”
- Looking to go: Many people ask their devices things such as “Where can I get the best Chinese food?” or “Where can I buy rain boots?” These searchers intend to find and visit the business that best meets their needs.
- Looking to buy: Smart devices are often used to purchase products. People can order products through these devices and get suggestions of where to purchase those products.
- Looking to do: When users are looking for something to do, they can ask the Google Home or Alexa for help. People can search with questions such as “What festivals are near me?” or “Where is the closest mall?”
When you’re optimizing your SEO campaign for voice search, it’s important to keep the search intent in mind. This will help you optimize your SEO campaign better to match search intent more effectively.
5 ways to optimize for voice search on smart speakers
If you’re ready to start optimizing for smart speakers, here are five tips to send you on the right path.
1. Provide valuable content
If you want to help your business rank for voice search queries, create content. It’s an opportunity for you to share your knowledge with your audience. You provide them with valuable information that builds your business’s trust and authority.
When you create content, you can rank higher in the search results. The more relevant and substantial your content is, the more likely you are to be in position 0. Position 0, also known as the featured snippet, is the box you see at the top of the search results that typically contains a paragraph of helpful information.
Smart speakers typically pull information to answer questions from this featured snippet. If you create quality content, you have a chance of making it into the featured snippet. That means that, whenever someone asks a question pertaining to your keyword, it will use your information to answer the question.
This is valuable to your business because the speaker will read the site it obtained the information from. It exposes new people to your brand and business. This is also valuable for driving traffic to your page.
So, how do you rank in position 0?
There is no set guide or formula to get into the position. The best thing you can do is create quality content that is relevant and answers a user’s question.
In addition to creating content, you can also create an FAQ page pertaining to important, industry-related content. If you answer questions people are searching, it will help direct more leads to your page because you are answering their question directly.
2. Optimize for conversational searches
If you want to effectively optimize your SEO campaign for voice search on smart speakers, you must start by matching phrasing. People search differently on smart speakers than the way they search on search engines.
When you’re optimizing for voice search, you’ll want to optimize for questions. When people talk to their voice search devices, they ask questions. If you want to reach these people, you must adapt to the way people search.
Let’s say someone is searching for cast iron pans. When searching on Google or Bing, someone will simply type “cast iron pans.” With voice search smart speakers, people will ask, “Where can I buy cast iron pans?”
The phrasing is different from how people type in a search query. You must adapt your strategy to include how people phrase their questions.
In addition, you’ll want to target the right keywords. Like traditional SEO, you’ll want to focus on long-tail keywords, which contain three or more words. Long-tail keywords help you drive interested traffic to your page.
So in this example, your long tail keyword is “cast iron pans.” You can optimize for questions such as “What can you cook in cast iron pans?” or “How much do cast iron pans cost?”
These are relevant questions that people may ask regarding cast iron pans. If you were selling cast iron pans, you could optimize your SEO campaign to account for these types of questions.
Overall, if you want to see the best results with voice search optimization on smart devices, focus on matching the user’s search intent. It will help you rank higher in search results and drive more traffic to your page.
3. Optimize your local business listing
When people search on their smart speakers, they often ask questions like, “Where is the closest pizza place?” or “Where can I buy a mountain bike?” These searches direct people to businesses where they can get these products.
This means that Google will direct users to local business listings that match those search queries. If you want people to visit your business, you must ensure that your website is updated and accurate.
You’ll want to check and make sure your address, contact information, and description are up to date. If anything has changed with your business, make sure you update it in your local listing. This prevents you from missing out on leads because of something like the wrong hours of operation.
Optimizing your local listing will help you drive more local traffic to your business from voice searches conducted on smart speakers.
4. Optimize for Bing
When you optimize for smart speakers, you’re optimizing for the search engines that power them. Google’s devices use Google’s search engine, but Amazon’s devices use Bing to obtain information. This is something that if often neglected by businesses due to Google’s search engine popularity.
Despite the fact that Google is a more popular search engine, Amazon Echo devices are more popular in homes than Google Home devices. In fact, 11 percent of people own an Amazon Alexa device compared to 4 percent who have Google Home products.
Optimizing for Bing requires similar practices to Google. While the algorithms are different, the focus is still on using relevant keywords and improving site experience to boost your ranking.
The biggest difference between the two search engines is Bing is focused more on local search results. If you’re searching for a place to buy a certain product, Bing will put local businesses first. It’s important to remember this when you’re optimizing for Bing.
If you want to ensure that you cover all your bases, make sure you optimize for both Google and Bing. These search engines operate similarly, so you can use similar strategies to help optimize your listings.
5. Consider language and slang words
The way people speak is much different from how they talk. People will talk to their smart speakers as if they are having a conversation with another person. If you want to drive these leads to your page, you must adapt to conversational tones.
So, what does this mean?
When you’re optimizing your SEO campaign, think about the people you’re trying to target. You’ll want to consider their geographic location and culture and how that factors into language.
In the northeast United States, most people say “soda,” while most people in the Midwest say “pop.” These two words have the same meaning, but they are specific to certain regions. There may even be a difference within the same state.
These are small distinctions, but they have a huge impact on how your website ranks in a particular region. If you’re trying to sell a carbonated beverage in Montana and you’re using the keyword “soda,” you’ll miss out on leads for your business.
When you’re selecting keywords and optimizing your SEO campaign, consider how people speak in the area you’re targeting and adjust to meet their dialect.
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WebFX will help you optimize for voice search on smart speakers
Voice search will continue to rise in popularity, so it is crucial that you optimize your website for smart speakers. By adapting to voice search, you’ll help your business earn more conversions and drive more valuable results.
At WebFX, we know how to adjust your SEO campaign to help your website appear in results for voice search. We offer featured snippet creation & optimization services that will help you reach more users through voice search SEO.
We’re a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in voice search optimization. Our team of over 500 experts will bring their knowledge and expertise to your campaign. We’ll help you optimize your website to drive more voice search traffic to your site.
If you’re looking for a company that drives results, look no further than WebFX. Over the past five years, we’ve driven over $10 billion in revenue and over 24 million leads for our clients. We focus on creating campaigns that help our clients grow their businesses.
Don’t believe us? Just ask our clients! Check out our 1,100+ client testimonials that attest to the awesome work we do for them.
Start optimizing today
If you’re ready to start optimizing your website for smart speaker voice search optimization, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services.
We look forward to taking your business to new heights!
