Are Your Tech Buyers Using Voice Search? Time to Re-Think Your Content

5-Second Summary

• Voice-based queries are becoming quite popular due to the convenience and speed of them which requires marketers to adapt SEO and marketing strategies to better support both text and voice search.
• Voice queries differ from text queries in their conversational and question-based nature, leading to longer, more detailed phrasing.
• To optimize content for voice search, marketers can focus on creating conversational content, targeting long-tail keywords, providing direct answers, improving content readability, and ensuring audio-friendly content for a more positive user experience.

1. Create conversational content.

   Use conversational language when creating new content to better match the more casual phrasing used in voice searches. You can adopt a writing style that reflects natural human speech, by using informal words such as “you” or “we” or limiting highly technical phrases. Not only does content that more closely resembles the way people talk better reflect the language used in voice search, but it also results in a search experience that is “more organic and appealing to the average searcher” (Content Marketing Institute). Although the content may be more informal, it should still provide value to your tech audience, addressing their pain points and frequent questions.  

2. Target long-tail keywords. 

   Since people use longer phrases with voice search to increase their chances of finding the answer to their specific question, your content should include relevant long-tail keywords. Integrate the phrases that your tech audience would use as they research details about your products or company. 
   
   For example, an IT manager researching CRM solutions may complete the following voice search, “Does the CRM solution from [Vender A] offer data migration services?” Anticipate your target audience’s most common queries and develop meaningful content that addresses these questions using the target long-tail keywords. 

3. Write direct, concise answers. 

   Featured snippets are special descriptive boxes with short excerpts from web pages that sometimes appear at the top of Google results. Google displays featured snippets when they believe it will help people more easily find the exact answer to their query, both from the description and from clicking on the provided link.
   
   Featured snippets are a great resource for people using voice search, as they are typically looking for answers to specific questions. To increase the likelihood that your web page will be included in a featured snippet for a voice-based search, develop direct, concise answers to your tech audience’s most frequent questions.  
   
   

4. Increase the readability of your content. 

   The optimization of your content can also be improved for voice search by ensuring that it is well organized and easy to read. Content that can be quickly scanned and understood will more likely be picked as the first result for a voice-based query. 
   
   Use tools such as bullet points, headings, sub-headings, short paragraphs, and tables. Scannable content that is quick to read is also a great fit for the time-strapped tech buyer. You may also want to add some audio versions of your text-based articles on your website such as podcasts, to capture more voice-based searchers.  
   
   

5. Use audio-friendly content. 

   How does your content sound when it is read aloud? Sometimes words or sentences can sound a bit strange when they are read aloud. If your tech buyer hears a response to their query that does not sound quite right, they may move on to the next option that is easier to understand.
   
   You can improve the audio quality of your content for voice search by testing it out using multiple voice assistants and adjusting words or phrases when necessary.
   
   Since the future of voice search will involve brands speaking to their audience, the Digital Marketing Institute suggests that “brands should be thinking of how they want their company to sound, rather than just look.”