Updated June 23, 2022
In general, optimizing for voice is very similar to optimizing for SEO in general – provide the answers to the questions that people are asking.
Smart speakers are becoming increasingly prevalent, but 20% of all mobile searches are voice queries. A good place to start is to optimize and organize your website for mobile use. Here are some other tips to get your local organization found on voice search.
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, is the most important resource for people searching for local businesses.
Make sure this is optimized and you are keeping each location up to date with correct categories, hours, announcements, important events and regular posts. Note posts are only visible for 7 days and then disappear, and rarely does more than one post at a time appear. Be strategic about this and include what people may be asking about. Add special hours to the profile for early closings, etc.
Bing Places
Cortana, Siri and Alexa all rely on the Bing search engine. Although information from your website and the web in general will be used for these queries, you should claim each location in Bing Places. There is now a new feature in Bing Places which lets you sync your Google Business Profile listing, so updating the information in Google will also update Bing.
Use Headings Properly
Each web page should only have one Heading 1 tag. The page should then be broken up in short sections with Heading 2 tags, Heading 3 tags, etc. providing an outline of what is covered and what is important. If you are answering a very specific question, Include the question as one of your heading tags. Keep information well organized and easily digestible as most voice answers are at most 2-3 sentences. Get right to the point!
Include Structured Data on Important Pages
Structured data is used by the major search engines, and tells the search engines what type of content is included on your page. Schema.org is a project founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex to provide a common vocabulary for various types of structured data like local businesses, events, products, and organizations. Google has a number of resources for understanding and testing structured data.
These tips do not guarantee that your information will appear in response to a voice query, but they do help define your content better for the search engines so that your information is presented for relevant queries.