“Hey Google, How to Optimize
for Conversational Search?”
#voicesearch at #smxlondon @aleyda

Voice search seems to be everywhere now

Some even think
that it will
“finally” kill SEO

“There’s only one
result, a single answer
to each query”

Which has its own issues
@aleyda#voicesearch at #smxlondon
https://twitter.com/JeffD/status/1129428397644345344

Are we really doomed by voice though?

How many of you actually search via voice?
@aleyda
https://twitter.com/aleyda/status/1129321327293292544
#voicesearch at #smxlondon

Surprise, surprise!

People are using voice but mostly for some  
type of simple action driven queries
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/voice-assistance-parent-users/

Most of assistants requests at the moment are for  
to-dos, managing the calendar, doing simple tasks

Like this

A high share of queries
require a visual output
to satisfy users,
especially in the decision
making process

Google also don’t think everything will shift to voice as
half of the assistant interactions are of voice + touch
https://www.blog.google/perspectives/scott-huffman/five-insights-voice-technology/

That’s the reason why we now have smart displays too
https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/first-smart-displays-google-assistant-are-now-available-stores/

So, no. Voice is not going to kill SEO!
https://uberall.com/en/blog/2019/1-in-5-people-using-voice-search-every-week

Voice is an aspect of a new conversational  
search context that SEO needs to leverage though

Welcome to the voice conversational search era 
driven by the Google Assistant

Where results become answers
of a conversation journey

“How can you identify conversational
queries to target with your site content?”

They are full questions, asked in natural language
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/

People are now using the search assistants  
as personal advisors
Conversational First Person Immediate
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/personal-needs-search-trends/

For real

Sad but shockingly true

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-home-complete-list-of-commands/
Check the assistants’ voice commands  
to identify query patterns to look for

What When Who
Where Why How
Most are informational queries,  
starting with the 6Ws

Google Search Console
Go through your
existing search
queries looking for
these initial
questions patterns

Look for first
person questions
or geo-modifiers

Expand your top queries with those of your main
competitors including these questions patterns
sistrix, semrush, ahrefs

Look for Google’s
related keywords
and suggestions
keywords everywhere

Do a keyword
research focused
on questions
based on all of
these to identify
opportunities
sistrix, semrush, ahrefs

"How can you optimize your content  
for these conversational queries?”

It’s about becoming the 1st search result answer

For factual questions, these are usually “answer
boxes” powered by the knowledge graph…

…or results from Google’s own services

Featured snippets are then shown for more complex
questions, which are also usually used by the assistant

Featured snippets are then shown for more complex
questions, which are also usually used by the assistant
“40.7% of all voice search answers came
from a Featured Snippet.”

SERP Features should be
positive for your pages CTR if
you optimize them well
https://dixonjones.com/seo/structured-data-a-dirty-little-secret/

Questions, prepositions, and comparisons  
dominate featured snippet results
Questions
52.57%
Prepositions
33.65%
Comparisons
28.64%
https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-earn-google-featured-snippets-mobile-study/

These are usually targeted by FAQ, guides, resources
addressing informational queries in the customer journey

Although we can also find a few commercially  
driven queries triggering features snippets too

The featured pages need to be already ranking well

The content should be organized in paragraphs,
lists or tables of certain length based on their type

It should be well structured, easy to read content,  
featured in a secure, mobile friendly, optimised page

Take also into consideration the criteria used by the  
Google Assistant to evaluate speech results quality
https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/12/evaluation-of-speech-for-google.html

It’s not only about information satisfaction but also
length, formulation & potential elocution of your content

“usefulness of the
response, and for
audio responses, the
quality of the speech”

Use also the “how-to”
structured data for rich
results in mobile SERPs
and generate “how to”
actions for the Google
assistant
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/05/new-in-structured-data-faq-and-how-to.html

Like Instructables is doing here

Generating this
featured snippet

If you’re an eligible US news site you can use the
speakable structured data to specify your content
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/speakable

Like SERoundtable is doing here
https://www.seroundtable.com/listen-to-google-speakable-markup-in-action-26169.html

Follow the speakable structured
data guidelines to make your
content “speech ready” too
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/speakable

Use the previous criteria to optimize content to be
concise, easy to read aloud, and well structured

Besides headings and descriptive images,  
you can use lists & tables when relevant too

Google selects the best structured & concise content  
of the page that specifically answers the query

Check which of your identified queries trigger featured
snippets and format your targeted content accordingly
ahrefs, semrush

“How can you monitor your Website  
results for conversational queries?”

You can check if your site and competitors are  
already shown in them for which query and page
ahrefs, semrush, ahrefs

Follow-up by using
your own rank tracking
software, besides
ranking indexes, for
your critically targeted
queries
seomonitor

Verify if these are featured in the Google’s  
Assistant results through the mobile app too
https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/7172657

Assess their impact to identify and expand the best
performing queries also from a conversion perspective
seomonitor

It should be a win-win scenario for voice  
answers and additional SERP visibility!

“How can you expand your site presence
with the Google Assistant with Actions?”

The assistant doesn’t
only use Websites
content but also
Google Actions for
answers…

Actions are conversational
applications that can be
triggered via the Google
Assistant directly or
through a matching intent
https://developers.google.com/actions/extending-the-assistant

Check the existing actions in your  
sector with the Assistant Directory
https://assistant.google.com/explore

Finance ones, for example

You can build one to
expand the distribution
of your site content as
well as complement its
functionality

Google highly
facilitates Actions
development with
Actions Console
Projects
https://console.actions.google.com/

Providing the
option to build
actions without
coding by using
templates too
https://developers.google.com/actions/templates/

You can create
trivia, quizzes,
flash cards and
how-tos using
templates

Like I did here, taking into consideration the simpler,
action driven requests made through voice
http://whymywebtrafficdropped.com/

It’s a flash card action,
that works like this

The Actions assistant will take you through the
different Actions development steps in the console

Giving the option to build the action by using whether
Diagoflow or with the Google Docs based templates

#voicesearch at #smxlondon @aleyda#voicesearch at #smxlondon @aleyda
Allowing to
specify, design, as
well as test your
Action content,
including how it
will be invoked

Actions can expand your
voice discoverability,
allowing you to better
understand your users
voice behavior too,
giving you a competitive
advantage

As you can see voice search shouldn’t be negative…

…it’s an opportunity to better address your audience
conversational behavior and grow accordingly!

* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti
* SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries  
* Crawling Mondays Host
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal
* Featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Hufﬁngton Post
* European Search Personality of 2018
Thank you

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