In 2025, optimizing for voice search is no longer a ‘maybe’ for businesses that plan on being a dynamic competitor in their industry. According to recent stats for 2025, nearly 50% of all searches will be voice based.
Moreover, by the end of this year, a whopping 8.4 billion voice assistants are expected to be in use worldwide.
Those are two of many highly convincing stats for any savvy business owner or marketer.
You’re in luck — we’re about to explore how you can prepare your content for the voice-activated future that’s already here.
Last year, Slinky Digital Agency worked on SEO for a business that wanted to explore Voice Search Optimization.
Why Should I Care About Voice Search?
Because, voice search matters. Let me give you a few reasons:
- Changing lifestyles and user behavior means more and more people are using voice assistants for everyday tasks.
- Local search dominance, which means voice searches are often local in nature, which is great for local businesses.
- Voice search results often pull from featured snippets, giving you a chance to leapfrog competitors.
- Natural language processing — voice search is making search more conversational and natural.
- Voice search aligns perfectly with Google’s mobile-first indexing approach.
How Voice Search Differs from Text Search
Optimizing for voice search effectively requires an in-depth understanding of how it differs from traditional text-based search:
- Longer Queries: Voice searches tend to be longer and more conversational.
- Question-Based: Voice searches are often phrased as questions.
- Local Intent: Many voice searches have local intent (“near me” searches).
- Featured Snippets: Voice assistants often pull answers from featured snippets.
- Mobile-Centric: Most voice searches happen on mobile devices.
How Can You Optimize Your Content For Voice Search?
First things first, focus on long-tail keywords. Use longer, more conversational phrases in your content. You should also create FAQ pages that answer common questions your customers might ask.
Another aspect to ensure is that your Google My Business listing is up-to-date and complete — so you know you’re optimized for local SEO. Aim for featured snippets, and structure your content to increase chances of being featured.
Improving website speed is also a great move, as voice search results often come from fast-loading pages.
Featured Snippets in Voice Search
When a voice assistant answers a query, it often pulls the information from a featured snippet. Want to amp up the possibility of actually getting prominently featured?
- Concise answers (40-50 words)
- Header tags for better layout
- Make it scannable with bulleted lists.
- Lay out content with questions and clearly worded answers
Local SEO and Voice Search
Let’s look at local voice searches, and see how you can make your business stand out.
- Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is step 1 — this is where everything starts
- Name, address, and phone number (NAP) should be the same on every online platform
- Do not ignore customer reviews — responding is important
- More content with local keywords
- Have different pages for multiple locations — don’t cram it all on one
Mobile Optimization for Voice Search
Needless to say, voice searches take place on mobile. Making a website highly responsive to mobile, and taking the necessary steps to improve the load speed, can go a long way for better optimization. Consider using some larger fonts and creating better buttons so it’s easier to tap. Implement more data markups. And don’t forget that an app can work wonders for your business — but don’t force it. If it makes sense for your type of business, do it.
User Intent in Voice Search
Voice searches often deliver incredible revelations about user intent, much more than text searches. When people speak about what they want instead of typing it out, they’re usually more specific. Once you understand and implement your knowledge about such human intent, you can work better toward creating more relevant content,
Seeking info? “How do I make a good iced mocha at home?”
Want navigation? “Where’s the nearest burger joint?”
Requiring a transaction? “Order a large chocolate shake.”
An inquiry? “What’s the best coffee place in [city]?”
The DUO: AI and Natural Language Processing
Artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) have ended up walking hand-in-hand. These technologies are making leaps of improvements. As a result, voice assistants are getting more astute, smarter, and insanely human-like in understanding what the context and intent is behind what the customer has said.
How do you make sure your business stays ahead of the competition?
- Topics > keywords
- Write content in a tone that matches how you speak
- Context is important so assume that the customer has no knowledge at all
- Stay up to date on the trends shaping the AI and NLP landscape
Voice Search and Ecommerce
When it comes to e-commerce, there’s no one set plan that can get voice optimization right. Maybe get started by more natural sounding descriptions and product pages, implement some structured data markups, look at more question based keywords that are primary long tailed. Is the checkout process voice activated? Get that sorted. Voice search is changing the way people shop online, and you don’t want to get left behind.
Voice-Friendly Content
Committed to creating content that’s optimized for voice search? That will require a shift in mindset. Write like you talk, create content that directly answers common questions, use long-tail keywords that incorporate longer, more specific phrases, Also use schema markup to help search engines understand your content better.
Voice Search Performance
There’s no direct tool to track voice searches in most analytics platforms. Therefore, measuring the performance of your voice search optimization efforts can be tricky. But you can still get a basic idea from these metrics:
- Increase in long-tail keyword traffic
- Improvements in featured snippet appearances
- Increase in “near me” search traffic
- Growth in mobile traffic
- Improvements in local SEO metrics (GMB views, direction requests, etc.)
Voice Search Optimization Tools
Google’s Natural Language API will allow you to understand how Google interprets your content. Then there’s SEMrush — it can bring you opportunities that analyze featured snippets. Another amazing tool that can be used is Answer the Public, which offers the ability to discover question-based keywords. One of our team members passionately recommends Mobile-Friendly Test, ,which is a go-to for a mobile-optimized site. Another tool to be considered is Schema Markup Generator for more organized and data markup.
The Future of Voice Search
Voice recognition technology is continually improving, which translates to increased accuracy. Personalization is also getting better and more refined, as voice assistants learn user preferences over time. Voice activated shopping has brought more attention and interest into voice commerce. There’s also the ability to provide support for multiple languages spoken in a variety of different accents.
By reimagining the creation and design of content to match the natural nuances of how humans interact using language, businesses can unlock the enormous potential that is up for grabs. The future is highly voice activated, and businesses that lead the adoption will take a larger piece of the audience pie.