The Comprehensive Guide to Voice Search Keyword Research

Voice search is gaining more and more popularity in the world of search engines today. The advanced technologies behind Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa and Cortana are getting smarter every day. Studies show that there are as many as one billion voice searches now every month through these smart voice assistants.

With 2 in 5 adults using voice search at least once daily, it is time that you invest your resources in optimizing your content for voice search. With this guide, we shall understand the key fundamentals behind performing research for voice search. For this guide, we shall use an example where we want to create content for a website that is selling toys online.

Choose a Keyword Set

Creating a fundamental list of keywords is a good idea for starting your optimization campaign. Find at least 50-100 keywords for your business for the initial stages. Now, segregate these keywords into two different sets, that is, primary and secondary keywords. The primary keywords will have more repeatability within the content whereas the secondary ones can be used for a limited period.

Studies show that nearly 20% of all mobile searches are now voice searches. So, once you have segregated the keywords, it is time to elongate them for voice search. To do so, look for all the pronouns and conjunctions that fit well with each keyword. You might also want to look for easy-to-read and simple adjectives that go hand in hand with these keywords. For example, words like soft, colourful, natural, etc. go great with the primary keyword ‘Toy.’

Use Auto-Complete Feature of Google

If you are unable to form sentences from your keywords, you can leverage the auto-complete feature of Google search to look for the most popular results. To make this work, you need to go to Google.com first. Now, start entering the keyword and you will see the most popular results displayed beneath the search bar. The search results will look something like the following.

The relevancy of keywords will increase when you have 2 or more keywords that you can enter within the search bar. Google is a keyword-based search engine. Therefore, with the right set of keywords, your business can easily rank on the first few pages of the search engine. Just make sure that a high density of keywords does not ruin the overall readability of the content.

Focus on Long-Tail Keywords

Long-Tail keywords are gaining more and more popularity in the world of SEO today. The two main reasons why they are so popular now include affordable prices and higher conversion rates. The normal search rate for a highly specific long-tail keyword is usually significantly smaller than that for the short-tail keyword. However, they have the potential to bring more sales-ready leads to your business. The answer to a typical voice search query contains 29 words. Therefore, long-tail keywords can produce more relevant and longer voice search answers for the audience.

The long-tail keywords also help you gather more information on the exact requirements of the prospect. This information can be leveraged to segregate the audience into good and bad prospects. For example, a person who is searching for soft toys to purchase them is a good prospect for you. On the other hand, a person who is doing competitive research for his/her online store is a bad prospect. You can pass this information on to your sales team to help it close faster, especially in enterprise-scale B2B sales models.

Form QnA-Based Keywords

If you are going to look at voice search, you need to look at it from a voice-search point-of-view to get the attention of the right audience. The voice search usually comprises of long-tail keywords that arise in the form of a question. Let’s take a small example here.

If you are searching for soft toys on the internet, you will either use a desktop/mobile to type your query or a voice search to do it in a hands-free manner. Studies show that nearly 60% of all searches are performed on a mobile device now. When you are typing your query you will type something like,

• Best online soft toys
• Soft toys near me
• Affordable yellow giraffe soft toys
• Natural and harmless soft toys for a 5-year-old.

On the other hand, if you are using voice assistants to perform a search your search query will look something like,

• Where can I find the best soft toys online?
• Which is the best soft toy shop near me for fast delivery?
• Look for the most affordable yellow giraffe soft toys
• Which online shop is the best for natural and harmless soft toys for a 5-year-old?

As you can see from this example, queries designed for voice search are more defined and use natural language. Instead of using the plain keywords in the unaltered format, these keywords have punctuations, conjunctions as well as pronouns. The big 5 Ws can help you create the most relevant keywords in an instant. These 5 Ws include Who, Why, Where, When and What. Try answering these questions related to your product/service and you will easily come up with the most relevant keywords for voice search.

Look for Related Queries and People Also Ask

Google can help you perform a keyword research naturally on its interface. When you perform a competitive research for your keywords, you will find two important features on the first page of the search results. The first feature shows the most popular search results that people often look for under the heading ‘People also ask.’ So when you search for a keyword, you will see the most relevant keywords here in a QnA format. We have taken the keyword ‘Soft Toys’ here as the primary keyword for searching.

Here is how the subheading looks for our example.

Now, you will notice that these questions do not showcase a purchase-intent for your product directly. This is where having a functional blog comes into the picture. When you are creating content for your website, you need to establish a good balance between its promotional and information aspects. While creating the informational content in form of the blogs, you need to focus on answering these questions to increase visitor count.

Leverage Local Intent Keywords

Local search is big today. Even Google AdWords focuses on local search results more than on the generic ones. The ads showed by Google for a particular keyword are usually different for different regions. Google actively accesses the location of your device and/or internet connection to showcase the local results and ads. According to the Internet Trends Report of 2016, nearly 22% of people using voice search use it to look for local content and information.

The local intent keywords can help your prospects look for your business in the most effective manner. Your prospects can access the most relevant contact information for your business with the local intent keywords. When you have streamlined your NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) credentials, Google will automatically create a v-card for your business. Here is a small example of how the v-card for a local search result looks like.

Optimize the Keyword List

After you have followed the initial tips, it is time to optimize your keyword list. The optimization process is an iterative process that can take anywhere between a few days to a few months to finalize. You need to perform experiments with multiple keywords to produce the most relevant and accurate list of keywords for your business.

The optimization process includes creating long keywords and then cutting them down again to form shorter keywords. During the process, you should focus on optimizing the keywords to increase their readability to the maximum level. Use simple and natural language for voice search. Use words like ‘important’ instead of using fancy words like ‘pertinent’ or ‘germane.’

Parting Words

Studies show that by 2025, nearly 50% of all the searches will occur either through images or through speech. So, this is the perfect time for us to start investing heavily in the optimization of content for voice search. You might not have to change all the keywords in your list. Instead, you can lay emphasis on optimizing the existing keywords to make them more relevant for voice search. The optimization techniques will help you save money as well as reuse the existing content in the simplest manner.

Before starting the optimization process, it is a good idea to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and ask the 5W questions. These questions will help you redefine the content in a more customer-centric fashion designed to answer the questions of the prospects. They will also give a more readable and natural tone to the content without additional efforts.

Make sure that you document your entire keyword research process to follow a strict timeline and overall progress. The documentation process will help you streamline your keyword research. It will also help you conduct experiments for the keywords so that you can optimize them further at later stages.

Author: Amara Luis

Amara Luis is a skilled and most creative content writer work freelance specializing in writing SEO, social media and other various topic on internet marketing.