How To Optimize For Voice Search - 6 SEO Strategies For Success

15/11/2020 How to Optimize for Voice Search: 6 SEO Strategies for Success
SEJ » Mobile Search
How to Optimize for Voice Search: 6 SEO

Strategies for Success
If voice search optimization isn't part of your SEO strategy, it's time to fix that. Learn six tactics to optimize for voice
search today and beyond.
Aleh Barysevich / September 10, 2020 / 8 min read

263 8.5K
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“Star Trek: The Next Generation” aired in 1987.
At the time, having a casual conversation with a computer must have seemed like far-flung science fiction.
Fast forward to today: We see people speaking into their watches, interacting, and getting voice responses from their phones.
It looks like we are almost there.
Not quite, though.
The allure of voice chat is undeniable – it’s faster, it’s hands-free, and it lets you multitask.
Especially with COVID-19, more people are turning to voice search.
According to Gartner, 32% of consumers are interested in hands-free technology that would limit touching or contamination.
Voice search is one of the fastest-growing types of search.
55% of users do voice search to ask questions on a smartphone, according to Perficient.
39.4% of U.S. internet users operate a voice assistant at least once a month, according to eMarketer.
Voice chat is also becoming increasingly reliable as technology improves.
Voice search is now no longer just a fad.
Beyond mobile phones, connected devices, and smart speakers, over 49% on Google Home and Amazon Echo users find
them a necessity.
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CONTINUE READING BELOW
As voice search evolves from voice recognition to voice understanding, Google gets nearer to its aim to transform voice
search into “an ultimate mobile assistant that helps you with your daily life so that you can focus on the things that matter.”
If voice search optimization isn’t already part of your SEO strategy, it’s time to fix that.
In this article, we’ll look at:
How voice search has evolved.
Six strategies to take you into 2021, and beyond.
The Evolution of Voice Search

Search Is Getting Smarter Than Ever Before
Few people type the way they speak – especially for search queries.
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When you type, you adopt a sort of stilted shorthand, so you enter something like “weather Paris” into your search bar.
When you speak, you’re more likely to ask the complete question, “What’s the weather like in Paris?”
This pattern holds true with voice search queries as well.
As programs like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana become more popular, and their programming becomes more refined, it’s
increasingly essential that search engines learn to interpret natural phrases.
AI is helping voice search become capable of interpreting and responding to:
Spelling Corrections / Queries
If you ask Google to show you a picture of Wales and you get a shot of whales, you can then clarify, “W-A-L-E-S,” and a picture
of the country will now pop up.
What’s Been Previously Said / Searched For
If you ask, “Where is the Golden Gate Bridge?” and follow that up with, “I want to see pictures of it” and “Who built it?” Google
can interpret what “it” is based on your initial search.
Alternatively, if Google cannot immediately answer a query, you can help it narrow down the answer through context.
So, if you ask “How high is Rigi?”, voice search may not respond because it’s an obscure mountain in the Swiss Alps.
But if you ask, “What are the mountains in Switzerland?” first, and follow that up with the query “How high is Rigi?” Google will
tell you that it’s 1,798m in elevation.
Context Based on Location
If you’re at a Convention Center in San Jose and you ask voice search, “How far is the airport from the Convention Center?”
Google will understand that “the Convention Center” refers to your current location in San Jose.
App-Based Context
If you’re chatting about a specific restaurant in an app, you can ask Google to “Show me the menu.”
Google will understand which restaurant’s menu you want to see based on context and bring up the menu for that
restaurant.
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Context & Conversation

Context and conversational search are now essential as voice search continues to evolve.
Marketers need to thoughtfully incorporate a voice search strategy into their websites and double down on excellent content,
written in a conversational tone.
We also need to understand that people who type a query, and people who ask questions into voice search, are often two
different types of people.
The “typer” might be OK with doing research, while the “talker” typically wants quick answers and instant results.
We need to appeal to both types of people.
For example:
Context of What You See On-Screen
Looking up a Wikipedia entry on Johnny Depp?
Asking voice search to “Show me pictures of Johnny” results in a smorgasbord of Johnny Depp photos because he’s the
“Johnny” you currently have on screen.
Context About You
Asking Google “What’s my office address?” will bring up your office address, without the need to clarify who “my” refers to.
As Google works on conversational commerce and local search, we now use voice search to help make instant purchases.
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Asking voice search to “Order me a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza from Pizza Hut” or “Show me blue jeans / Show me
size 12 / Order me the pair from American Eagle” makes shopping easier.
6 Strategies for Voice Search Optimization Success

At its core, optimizing for voice search is similar to the SEO of yesteryear, but with a refined focus.
1. Understand Your Type of Customer & Device Behavior

Just as voice search algorithms use data, location, and several data points to understand search context, marketers have to
dig deeper into understanding the consumer and their behavior.
Real-time data and research on consumer insights can help understand how different people use voice search and on what
type of voice-enabled device.
2. Focus on Conversational Keywords

While I don’t believe that short tail keywords will ever disappear entirely, they do become far less relevant when we consider
the natural phrases used in voice searches.
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More than ever, marketers need to focus attention on conversational long-tail keywords.
It’s essential to work out what questions you need to complete to answer.
3. Create Compelling Persona-Based Content

Brevity, context, and relevance are essential when optimizing for voice search.
What might be different from your usual SEO strategy is that now you also need to pay special attention to:
Creating detailed answers to common questions.
Answering simple questions clearly and concisely.
Create rich, compelling content that answers your users’ most common questions and solves their pain points.
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A good strategy that’s already been adopted successfully by many websites is to:
Create content or a webpage with a headline that asks a common question.
Immediately after the headline, provide a concise answer or definition to the question.
Use the rest of the page to provide further elaborative detail on the topic.
The significant thing about this strategy is that the rich, robust webpage ultimately appeals to Google’s ranking algorithm.
At the same time, the short-and-sweet information at the top of the page is optimized for voice search and might even
become a featured snippet.
4. Provide Context with Schema Markup

Get acquainted with schema markup, if you aren’t already.
Use schema to mark up your content and tell search engines what your site’s about.
This HTML add-on helps search engines understand the context of your content, which means you rank better in typical
searches, and more relevant in specific queries made through voice search.
Google understands language by utilizing schemas, and they can be a great way to add more information to your website,
so you’re ready to answer questions.
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According to Milestone Marketing research, based on 9,400 schema deployments, they found significant gains of +20-30% –
with an average of:
40 schema types.
130 attributes and properties.
This is the kind of information mobile users and voice searchers will most often be after.
5. Build Pages That Answer FAQs

When voice searchers ask a question, they typically begin it with “Who,” “What,” “Where,” “When,” “Why,” and “How.”
They’re looking for answers that fulfill an immediate need.
To answer these queries, make a FAQ page and begin each question with these adverbs.
Then answer them conversationally to appeal to voice search.
From a performance perspective, make sure your website is technically sound and includes schemas.
Ensure navigation and informational structure are easy to find, and page load speeds are fast.
6. Think Mobile & Think Local

We are shifting to a mobile-first world where devices and people are mobile.
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As a result, it is important to remember that mobile and local go hand in hand, especially where voice search is concerned.
Mobile devices allow users to perform on-the-go local queries.
Voice search, in turn, enables users to ask hyper-local questions.
Make sure things like directions to brick-and-mortar locations and XML sitemaps are readable to visitors and search engines
on your website.
Also, create different experiences for desktop and mobile users – i.e., optimize for “near me” type searches on mobile.
Lastly, ensure your mobile strategy is sound and focus on improving page speed and load times.
Voice Search Optimization Moving Forward

Many that grew up in an age where technology couldn’t talk back still have a certain stigma attached to talking to our
phones when another human being isn’t on the other end.
Younger generations don’t have that same hesitation, and most feel “tech-savvy” using voice search.
Voice search is clearly on the rise, and we’d be foolish to ignore this trend in the SEO industry.
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It’s time to stop thinking about it and optimize for voice as it is a winner-take-all search result.
More Resources:
5 Voice Engine Optimization Strategies to Get Ahead
4 Reasons Why We Need Voice Search Analytics Now
3 Content Optimization Tips for Voice Search Success
Image Credits
All screenshots taken by author
CATEGORY MOBILE SEARCH SEO
SEO for Images: See What You’re Missing in

Your Visual Search Strategy
Are you missing out on organic opportunities for image search? Learn how to boost your traffic from Google by
optimizing images.
Danny Goodwin / August 5, 2020 / 9 min read

467 6.9K
SHARES READS
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The visual aspect of communication and marketing has become increasingly important.
But why is SEO for images – and the general concept of visual search – still considered a little more than a marketing nice-to-
have?
In his SEJ eSummit session, Gianluca Fiorelli detailed all the visual search opportunities you might be missing out on that can
increase your organic traffic through the correct usage and optimization of images.
He also talked about how to get more and better organic traffic using Google Search, Images Search, Google Lens, Photo
and Assistant.
Here’s a recap of the presentation.
Many SEO professionals underestimate the power of images and visual search.
What they don’t realize is that they’re missing out on a growing opportunity that has the potential to drive significant organic
traffic and conversions.
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The Most Natural Way of Searching

Using images and visuals is the most natural way of searching for things.
As Kevin Systrom, Co-Founder at Instagram, puts it:
“People have always been visual; our brains are wired for images. Writing was a hack, a detour. Pictorial languages
are how we all started to communicate; we are coming full circle.
Even Amazon promotes visual search.
Amazon knows that visual search is perfect for shoppers who face two common dilemmas:
“I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.”
“I know what I want, but I don’t know what it’s called.”
However, when it comes to visual search, we should be aware that it’s harder for a machine to recognize images than voice.
Clay Bavor, VP, Virtual & Augmented Reality at Google, summed up this challenge:
“In the English language there’s something like 180,000 words, and we only use 3,000 to 5,000 of them. If you’re
trying to do voice recognition, there’s a really small set of things you actually need to be able to recognize […] So the
problem of search in vision is just vastly larger than what we’ve seen with text or even with voice.”
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That said, advances in technology have made machines so much better at recognizing images – and more users are now
relying on image search for a variety of purposes.
Various studies show how much visual search is being adopted by younger generations and how essential it is in most users’
digital shopping experience.
Visual search is especially important for ecommerce brands right now.
Who Is Investing in Visual Search?

As expected, big brands are investing heavily in visual search.
Fashion brands are already ahead of the curve, but they are not the only ones looking to leverage the channel.
Some of them include:
Forever 21
Wayfair
Walmart
Tommy Hilfiger
Ikea
Conforama
Idealista
Macy’s
If you think of visual search as a feature to offer to your users, the market has plenty of opportunities to start creating products
like these.
Search engines, marketplaces, and visual social networks – such as Google, Bing, Amazon, and Pinterest – are also investing a
lot on visual and image search as it creates a new space for researches based on visual associations.
It can also lead to conversions with just one click from the image to the cart, eliminating passages that can, instead, cause the
conversions to be lost.
Out of all these platforms, Google is the place where marketers can find more opportunities.
Google & Visual Search

In the past, Google was just about images search.
Right now, we’re seeing classic image search and visual search merging.
Soon, visual search is going to be part of a bigger concept of conversational search, where visual, voice and traditional
textual search will all work together on a multi-device ecosystem.
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Google Patents on the topic give us a glimpse of how that might play out in the future.
Google Images
In recent years, Google Images has become a big source of clicks and traffic to websites from SERPs.
Sparktoro projects that Google Images holds around 20% of search engine market share.
Below is how a Google Images SERPs look like for the query [oversized glasses].
A Google Images SERP is typically composed of:
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Tags.
Paid Shopping results.
Organic Shopping results.
Tags (Related Entities)

The first thing we see at the top of each page are tags which are entities related to the query.
Tags have a behavior similar to People Also Ask boxes.
If we click on a tag and then go back with the back button of the browser, new tags will appear in the queue that are related
to the tag opened and closed previously.
You can substantially create and obtain a very large list of related entities for your search.
Organic Shopping (Desktop)

In Google desktop, you can see images that are labeled with an icon.
When you click on that, there will be a preview that shows:
The title tag.
Relevant text taken from the product description.
Structured data – Product schema (if available).
ADVERTISEMENT
This preview is richer than if you’re searching for something in universal search.
Organic Shopping (Mobile)

In mobile, this is more evident.
If we have labeled our product pages with schema.org/Product, then Google will show the product label in the image, plus
other information if available (“in stock”).
On mobile, Google also allows users to create Collections where you are able to search, save, and then recover all the
products (or photos) that you want to investigate more.
ADVERTISEMENT
People can reach their collections easily through an icon at the bottom right of the user’s screen when they are in Google
Images mobile.
Both from Google Images and from Collection, the extensive search results is the same as seen on desktop – the only
difference is that it is in full screen.
Google Images is designed especially for mobile searches.
How to Identify Image Search Opportunities

Use a tool that tracks search features (such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz).
In SEMrush, go to your Project > Position Tracking or Organic Research > Position Filter to show only SERPs with Images Box.
You can then determine all SERPs that have the Image Box and Google Ads and/or Google Shopping.
ADVERTISEMENT
These are keywords where organic visual shopping has huge possibilities for success.
‘Images’ Is Not Only About Google Images

Remember, image is not only about Google Images.
Images are key in rich results, including:
News AMP (required).
News non AMP (recommended).
Event (recommended).
How To (recommended).
Live Streaming (required).
Local Business / Restaurants (required).
Logo (required).
Film (required).
Product (required).
Recipe (required).
Video (required).
The Devil is in the Details

Google offers best practices for using imagery in your content.
Images Should Be At Least 1,200 Pixels Wide

For instance, for Google Discover, publishers are encouraged to include “compelling, high-quality images in your content,
especially large images that are more likely to generate visits from Discover.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Image URLs Must Be Crawlable & Indexable

According to Google’s Image sitemaps documentation:
“In some cases, the image URL may not be on the same domain as your main site. This is fine, as long as both
domains are verified in Search Console. […] In addition, make sure that your robots.txt file doesn’t disallow the
crawling of any content you want indexed.”
More Recommendations Depending on Your Situation

There are also a few other things to consider depending on your circumstance.
‘Images’ in Universal Search Are Not Just Rich Results

Images are not just image boxes or rich results.
ADVERTISEMENT
They are also present in the Knowledge Graph and featured snippets.
Try to have your own images in your featured snippet.
In January 2020, Google rolled out a new addition to search results which made it easy to shop for popular products.
As Matt Southern reports:
“In order for merchants to have products surfaced in the Popular Products section, they’re encouraged to set up
product feeds in Google Merchant Center and/or apply the appropriate structured data markup to product pages.”
Images Search: Optimization Tips

Make sure to follow these image SEO tips to improve your chances of getting on Google’s Image search results.
Use descriptive images files name.
Add alt text – this is a relevant “factor” and is also for usability.
Add captions.
Supply image description (recommended for Images Galleries).
Create images XML Sitemaps (required).
The content surrounding the images must be consistent with the image itself.
Google Lens
Another Google feature that’s worth exploring is Google Lens.
With Google Lens, people can frame a product and search for it on Google.
ADVERTISEMENT
People can select a text and use it as a query in Google Search.
They can also frame a product, look for similar ones, and go shopping online or offline.
People can look for inspiration, and investigate products that capture their attention – and buy them on
the merchant’s site.
Visual Search: Optimization Tips

Here are some tips for optimizing for visual search.
Follow Images Search SEO best practices.
Use structured data, while respecting all the indications (ratio, width, etc.).
Leverage high-quality images.
Optimize images for PageSpeed.
Choose the right format depending on the nature of the image.
Compress images without losing their quality.
Avoid mess. The main object of the image must be evident.
If stock photos are used, modify them to make them unique.

Republish all your images’ portfolio in Visual Social Networks (i.e., Pinterest).
Remember that internal and external links have a value also for Images and Visual Search.
The more pages use your image, the better it is tagged with related entities, hence more visible in Images Search.
The Takeaway
Using images and visuals is the most natural way to search.
ADVERTISEMENT
But optimizing for this is not only about alt tags.
Google offers best practices and recommendations to help you leverage images correctly.
Don’t ignore or underestimate the power of image and visual search.
Start earning traffic from images.
Watch this Presentation

You can now watch Fiorelli’s full presentation from SEJ eSummit on June 2.
Learn SEO for Images
More Resources:
Google Creates a New Way to Drive Traffic Via Image Search
Google SEO 101: Image Search Best Practices & Changes Over the Years
11 Important Image SEO Tips You Need to Know
Image Credits
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita

All screenshots taken by author, August 2020
CATEGORY MOBILE SEARCH SEO

How To Optimize For Voice Search - 6 SEO Strategies For Success

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15/11/2020 How to Optimize for Voice Search: 6 SEO Strategies for Success

SEJ » Mobile Search

How to Optimize for Voice Search: 6 SEO

Aleh Barysevich / September 10, 2020 / 8 min read

The Ultimate Local SEO Solution by SEMrush

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” aired in 1987.

It looks like we are almost there.

Not quite, though.

Especially with COVID-19, more people are turning to voice search.

Voice search is one of the fastest-growing types of search.

55% of users do voice search to ask questions on a smartphone, according to Perficient.

Voice chat is also becoming increasingly reliable as technology improves.

Voice search is now no longer just a fad.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

In this article, we’ll look at:

How voice search has evolved.

Six strategies to take you into 2021, and beyond.

The Evolution of Voice Search

CONTINUE READING BELOW

This pattern holds true with voice search queries as well.

AI is helping voice search become capable of interpreting and responding to:

Spelling Corrections / Queries

What’s Been Previously Said / Searched For

Context Based on Location

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Context & Conversation

We need to appeal to both types of people.

Context of What You See On-Screen

Looking up a Wikipedia entry on Johnny Depp?

Context About You

CONTINUE READING BELOW

6 Strategies for Voice Search Optimization Success

1. Understand Your Type of Customer & Device Behavior

2. Focus on Conversational Keywords

CONTINUE READING BELOW

3. Create Compelling Persona-Based Content

Creating detailed answers to common questions.

Answering simple questions clearly and concisely.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Create content or a webpage with a headline that asks a common question.

4. Provide Context with Schema Markup

CONTINUE READING BELOW

130 attributes and properties.

5. Build Pages That Answer FAQs

They’re looking for answers that fulfill an immediate need.

Then answer them conversationally to appeal to voice search.

6. Think Mobile & Think Local

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Mobile devices allow users to perform on-the-go local queries.

Voice search, in turn, enables users to ask hyper-local questions.

Voice Search Optimization Moving Forward

CONTINUE READING BELOW

5 Voice Engine Optimization Strategies to Get Ahead

4 Reasons Why We Need Voice Search Analytics Now

3 Content Optimization Tips for Voice Search Success

All screenshots taken by author

CATEGORY MOBILE SEARCH SEO

SEO for Images: See What You’re Missing in

Danny Goodwin / August 5, 2020 / 9 min read

Here’s a recap of the presentation.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

The Most Natural Way of Searching