Tailoring Your SEO Efforts for Voice Searches

Using voice search is becoming more prevalent as technology continues to advance. Surfing the internet through voice assistance is slightly different from the normal, type-it-into-a-search-bar way. Of course, the only main difference is the medium users choose to access the internet. However, that difference means you need to tailor your SEO methods and tactics to ensure that you don’t miss the users trying to find you through voice search.

Differences in Voice & Normal Search

Anyone living in modern society has searched for something through a search engine before. It’s not difficult to pop open a browser and type something into the search bar. However, voice search makes it more accessible and much easier than before. That’s thanks to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant.

More and more people are using voice search to surf the internet. As of 2022, over half of the people in the US used voice search daily. Even now, a third of the population owns a smart speaker of some sort.

Voice search isn’t an obsolete feature anymore, and any business that isn’t remembering its existence is missing out. With voice search, all you have to do is speak what you want to search for instead of using your hands. It can be useful in hands-free situations, such as when you’re driving or cooking. However, the target keywords are different.

You might not realize it, but the keywords you would type in and the words you would say are different, even if it’s the same general topic. When you’re in front of a keyboard, most users tend to be more precise about their wording. That’s why most keywords that Houston SEO agencies target these kinds of precise keywords. However, you don’t want to miss the growing number of users finding products and services through voice search either.

Instead of focusing on precise keywords, you would want to target “long-tailed” keywords. Think about it – when people speak, even if it’s only to a voice assistant, their choice of words tends to be more conversational. That means even the words they use to search for something will be more conversational and longer than typical searches.

When you type a keyword into a search bar, you might sometimes see a list of suggestions appear while you’re typing. Those are all examples of long-tailed keywords.

Changing Up Your Keywords

Leave the keyword research to a Houston SEO pro. Although Actual SEO Media, Inc. is based in the greater Houston area, that hasn’t stopped us from reaching out and helping businesses in other cities get the assistance they need. Call us to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can tailor our SEO services for voice searches.