Voice search marketing

What is voice search marketing?

What started out as funny videos of completely misunderstood voice search queries has quickly progressed to a 95% accuracy rate (in English) and a widely used method for getting fast, convenient information. 
Voice search marketing has fast become one of the hottest topics for content marketers and SEOs. A massive 72% of US residents who are aware of voice search have used the functionality, so optimizing for it is essential for getting eyes on your business.

Voice search marketing is the optimization of data and content with the intention of it appearing in voice search results (Google Assistant or Apple's Siri, for example).

Why has voice search marketing become so important?

With vast improvements in accuracy has come a much bigger uptick in users leaning on voice search for hands-free convenience. Consumers no longer want to waste time typing out their search by hand, especially when on the move, and marketers need to consider this carefully when crafting content. 
Smart speakers have normalised voice commands in our home lives, with online shopping and appliance control by voice becoming commonplace, which in turn has made users more comfortable with voice searches in general.

Voice search marketing examples

Typed searches tend to be minimalist, using the fewest words possible, such as «best bakery Toronto». 
But with voice search, the user expects a more conversational exchange and will likely ask a grammatically correct question like «which is the best bakery in Toronto?» 
So to rank for voice search, you'll want to craft the most natural-sounding response so it feels like a real person has understood and answered the question. 
Voice search digital marketing is all about providing the best possible answer for questions, as well as having a great review generation strategy to rank for questions like «what's the best cocktail bar near me?»

Voice search marketing optimization

Writing in a concise, natural tone is key to getting your content to rank for voice search. 
According to Semrush's 2020 Voice Search for Local Businesses Study, 23 words is the sweet spot for voice search results across all assistants (Google Assistant goes a bit deeper and returns an answer of 41 words on average). 
As many as 70% of voice search results are pulled from featured snippets, so the same best practices that apply to ranking in this coveted Google real estate also apply to voice search marketing. Build content around commonly searched questions and use the queries as headers to organize your text. You can also leverage schema markup to make your most important and commonly searched data clearer to search engines.

A featured snippet that might rank for voice search

SEO health factors like quality backlinks and a high authority score are also deciding factors in appearing in voice search results. 
But don't try to rank for voice search by simply gaming the algorithms; focus on the human being on the other end of the search and what they would like to hear spoken back to them.