This Thanksgiving, we at Fasturtle hope you feast on conversions lovingly prepared by strategic optimization. Our latest Money Radio episode focused on how to optimize for voice search, a growing, soon to be dominant segment of search engine queries.

User Friendly Content for Voice Search

A common error by those new to the field of SEO is to assume our job consists of writing for machines. What they forget is that the machines are made to serve human interests. Therefore, write content for people. Don’t start by predicting how the machine will interpret and categorize your content; these are considerations for after you’ve written with the user as your primary audience.

Long Tail Keywords

Short tail keywords are somewhat based on our Boolean heritage (remember Boolean searches? Good times). We tend to type in searches that cut to the chase – “best cheesecake recipe.” Because personal assistants and voice-activated search engines require a prompt in order to activate the search function, such as “Okay Google,” they invite more conversational search terms. Users don’t tend to say, “okay Google, best cheesecake recipe.” Instead, they say “okay Google, search for how to make a cheesecake.”

FAQ Pages Are Still Fresh

FAQ pages have always been handy for our tendency to skim for the answers to specific questions. If I only want to know whether my concert venue has an age limit, the FAQ page makes it easy to find out without wasting my time with extraneous information. With voice search, people ask questions aloud, and FAQ pages allow personal assistants to recite the answers found directly beneath that question.

What is Schema Markup?

Language is a funny thing. Schema markup helps put keywords into context so that when you’re searching for The Mountain Goats, you can find the concert tour and not the territorial antelopes found on actual mountainsides. Placing schemas in your page’s HTML helps voice searchers redirect their questions — “no, I want this, not that” — and arrive at the context they intended.

Local First

If you only take one thing from this post, take this: Voice searches are hands-free. Hands-free is mobile. 82% of mobile searches are for local businesses. Local SEO strategy therefore aligns nicely with the growth of voice search, while also continuing to serve those who search soundlessly.

Learn more about how to optimize for voice search.

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