Sound advice: optimize your website for voice search

Voice search used to be a futuristic idea. But now, it’s here and growing rapidly. In 2024, 27% of people globally were using voice search technology on mobile devices. Clearly, voice search is a routine part of how users interact with the internet, whether it’s through Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. For website owners, an essential part of staying competitive now means optimizing for voice search.

Before we go further, let’s first clear up a common misconception: voice SEO doesn’t mean adding voice recognition to your website. Instead, it involves making your site comprehensible to virtual assistants so they can provide accurate answers to user queries. Think of it as preparing your content for spoken questions like “What’s the best pizza place nearby?” or “How do I bake sourdough bread?”

Beyond improving search rankings, voice search optimization has another critical benefit: it increases accessibility. If your website is voice-friendly, you better serve those who rely on voice commands.

With all of this in mind, this article breaks down several key strategies so your website is voice-ready for all.

Let’s get started!

What is voice SEO and why does it matter?

Voice SEO focuses on optimizing your website to respond effectively to queries made via virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. Unlike traditional search, where people type keywords, voice search queries are more conversational and often phrased as full questions.

For example, instead of searching for the keyword phrase “best Greek food Los Angeles,” someone might ask, “What are the best Greek food restaurants in Los Angeles?”

This shift in how people search online has far-reaching implications for website owners and marketers. Voice search can directly impact:

• Search rankings: Voice assistants often pull results from featured snippets or highly optimized content. If your site isn’t voice-search-friendly, it’s likely to lose visibility.
• User behavior: Voice searches are faster and more convenient, often done on the go. People want instant answers. This makes concise, well-structured content essential.
• Accessibility: For those with disabilities, voice search offers an inclusive way to interact with online content. Optimizing for voice search helps to bridge this gap.

Adapting your website for better voice SEO means meeting these user expectations while ensuring you maintain strong visibility in search engine results.

Next, let’s explore strategies for making your site voice search optimized.

Key strategies for optimizing for voice search

Optimizing your website for voice search requires a combination of technical adjustments and content strategies to ensure your site structure and content align with how virtual assistants process and deliver information.

Here are a few ways to ensure your site is voice-search-friendly.

1. Use schema markup

Schema markup helps search engines understand what your website is about. For voice search, this helps virtual assistants tremendously since they rely heavily on structured data to provide quick and accurate answers.

It works by adding a layer of context to your content, helping search engines like Google understand things like event details, recipes, product information, or FAQs. For example, adding FAQ schema makes your site more likely to be featured in voice search results when people ask questions related to your industry.

Optimize these primary schema types with voice search in mind:

• FAQPage: Perfect for answering common questions in a way that matches up with how people phrase voice queries.
• HowTo: Great for instructional content. It ensures step-by-step guidance is accessible to voice assistants.
• LocalBusiness: A must for local SEO, helping assistants pull accurate location-based data.
• Product: Helps with e-commerce sites by highlighting product details in search results.

2. Optimize for local SEO

Voice searches often have a local intent, with people asking questions like “Where’s the best bakery near me?” In fact, around 58% of people who use voice search do so to find local business information. This makes it essential for brick-and-mortar stores to rank for “near me” searches. To capture this audience, your local SEO strategy needs to be airtight.

To properly optimize for local SEO, consider the following:

• Set up a Google Business Profile: Claim and optimize your profile. Include accurate business hours, an updated address, and relevant categories.
• Use location-based keywords: Integrate phrases like “best coffee shop in [city]” into your content.
• Prioritize customer reviews: Encourage reviews on platforms like Google. Positive feedback boosts your credibility and rankings in local search.

3. Optimizing for featured snippets

Featured snippets are usually the source for voice search responses. Structuring your content to be snippet-friendly increases the likelihood that voice assistants will choose your site as the go-to source.

Virtual assistants tend to read the content of featured snippets verbatim when answering user queries, making this prime real estate in search results.

You have a few options when it comes to structuring your featured snippets, including:

• Question-and-answer format: Write content that directly answers common questions. For example, “How do I bake sourdough bread?” should be followed by a concise, step-by-step answer.
• Bullet points and tables: Use clear formatting to organize information for easy scanning, as follows:

Question: Why do birds migrate?

Answer:

• Birds migrate to find food and suitable breeding grounds.
• Seasonal changes often make it difficult for them to survive in one location year-round.

4. Improve technical SEO

Voice search users expect quick responses and technical SEO is critical for meeting these demands. Virtual assistants prioritize fast, secure, and mobile-friendly sites when retrieving answers. So focusing on these technical elements can enhance the user experience and search engine rankings.

Here are a few ways to improve technical SEO with voice search in mind:

• Prioritize site speed: Voice search users often need immediate answers, and a slow-loading site could cost you the top spot. Compress large images, minify CSS and JavaScript, and enable browser caching to ensure your pages load quickly. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix can help you identify performance issues, too.
• Mobile-friendliness is key: Since the majority of voice searches happen on mobile devices, your site must be optimized for what could be smaller screens. A responsive design ensures your content looks great on any device.
• Secure your site with HTTPS: Websites using HTTPS are more likely to appear in search results, as search engines prioritize secure sites. If your site isn’t yet using HTTPS, install an SSL certificate. (Many hosting providers — including Kinsta — include this as a free feature.
• Optimize your code for clean performance: Cluttered code slows down your site and can confuse search engines. Use lightweight WordPress themes like GeneratePress or Astra, eliminate unnecessary plugins, and conduct regular audits to fix broken links and remove redundant scripts.

Accessibility and voice search optimization

Voice search makes looking for things online more convenient. But it also factors into making websites more accessible. For those with disabilities, voice commands provide a quick way to interact with websites and it broadens the reach of your content.

Voice search optimization with an accessibility focus typically involves the following:

• Write conversationally: Voice queries are often phrased as natural, spoken sentences rather than just keywords. For example, instead of “best-rated deli Orlando,” someone might ask, “Where can I find the best-rated deli in Orlando, Florida?” Your content should reflect this conversational tone by addressing common questions directly and using clear, easy-to-understand language. FAQs and blog posts formatted in a Q&A style are especially effective.
• Use alt text for better context: Adding descriptive alt text to your images makes your site more accessible for visually impaired users and helps search engines understand your content. Instead of generic alt text like “Image of pizza,” use more specific descriptions like “Wood-fired margherita pizza with fresh basil.”
• Simplify site navigation: A well-structured website with intuitive navigation benefits all, but it’s especially important for those using screen readers or voice commands. Use clear, descriptive menu labels and avoid overly complex navigation paths. Implementing ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles also improves accessibility for assistive technologies.
• Ensure text-to-speech readability: Make sure your content is easily interpreted by the text-to-speech technology on which voice assistants rely. Avoid overly technical jargon, keep sentences concise, and break up large blocks of text with subheadings and bullet points.
• Use tools for accessibility: Plugins like WP Accessibility can help identify and fix accessibility issues on your WordPress site. For non-WordPress users, tools like the WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool provide insight into what you need to change.

Tools and plugins for voice search optimization

Optimizing for voice search sounds like a lot, but you don’t have to complete all these tasks on your own. Thanks to a range of tools and plugins designed to simplify the process, you can improve voice SEO with guidance on hand. From structured data implementation to keyword research, these tools help you fine-tune your site for better performance with voice assistants.

We’ve broken down these tools into two categories: SEO tools and schema markup tools.

SEO tools for voice search optimization

These SEO tools offer advanced features to help you uncover voice-friendly keywords and validate your structured data:

• Semrush: Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that can help identify long-tail and conversational keywords that are common in voice queries. Use its keyword research feature to focus on questions your audience might ask, such as “How do I…” or “Where is the best…”
• Ahrefs: Ahrefs, lets you analyze competitors’ content to discover which queries they’re ranking for in voice search. Pair this with the built-in keyword explorer to refine your own voice-focused strategy for best results.
• Google Search Console: Google Search Console shows how your site is performing in search engines. While it doesn’t isolate voice queries, you can use performance reports to track changes after implementing voice search optimizations.

Plugins for structured data and schema markup

Voice assistants rely heavily on structured data to retrieve accurate information. These plugins make adding schema markup to your WordPress site easier than ever:

• Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO optimizes your site’s content for traditional search and includes features for adding structured data like FAQ and HowTo schemas.
• Schema Pro: Schema Pro is another great tool for WordPress users, offering pre-designed schema templates for everything from local businesses to product reviews.
• Rank Math: Known for its versatility, Rank Math provides a schema generator and supports multiple schema types. This plugin is particularly useful for ecommerce sites or blogs with rich content.

Misconceptions about voice search tools

Many people confuse voice SEO tools with plugins that enable voice commands on their websites. The latter — while beneficial for user experience — won’t improve your site’s ranking in voice search results. Focus instead on tools that enhance your content structure, keywords, and technical SEO to align with how voice assistants deliver answers.

Frequently asked questions

Voice SEO often raises many questions, especially for website owners who are new to optimizing for this technology. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about voice search:

What is voice SEO, and how is it different from voice search plugins?

Voice SEO involves optimizing your website so it ranks well for queries made via virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. This includes strategies like using schema markup, improving technical SEO, and optimizing for featured snippets.

Voice search plugins, on the other hand, are tools that add voice recognition to your site — for example, letting people search your site by speaking into a microphone. While these plugins enhance user experience, they don’t directly affect how voice assistants pull data from your site for search results.

How can small businesses benefit from optimizing for voice search?

Small businesses, particularly those that rely on local customers, stand to gain significantly from voice search optimization. Many voice searches are local in nature, with people asking questions like, “Where’s the nearest flower shop?” When small businesses optimize for local SEO through tools like Google Business Profile and location-based keywords, they can attract more foot traffic and local customers.

What are the most common voice search queries?

Voice searches are usually longer and have a more conversational tone than traditionally typed queries. They often take the form of questions, like:

• “What’s the best pizza place near me?”
• “How can I fix a clogged drain?”
• “What’s today’s weather?”

These queries are usually action-oriented and require precise, concise answers. Structuring your content to address such questions can help your site perform better in voice search.

What are the best tools for voice search optimization?

Some of the most effective tools for optimizing your site for voice search include:

• Semrush and Ahrefs for keyword research and competitor analysis.
• Yoast SEO, Schema Pro, and Rank Math for adding schema markup.
• Google Business Profile for local SEO optimization.

Each tool addresses a specific area of voice search optimization, making them essential for building a strategy that works.

Is voice search only relevant to mobile users?

Voice search is used across various devices, including smart speakers (like Amazon Echo), desktops with virtual assistants, and in-car systems. While a majority of voice searches do come from mobile users, optimizing for voice search ensures your content is accessible to people across all platforms.

Summary

Voice search is changing how people interact online, and optimizing for it helps your site stand out. Putting the strategies discussed here, like using schema markup, improving local SEO, and focusing on technical performance, you’ll improve your search rankings and make your site more accessible to a wider audience.

Ready to see the results? With Kinsta, you get access to analytics within the MyKinsta dashboard, meaning you can track traffic trends and measure the impact before and after implementing voice search optimization. Take the first step toward creating a voice-ready website today!

The post Sound advice: optimize your website for voice search appeared first on Kinsta®.