Presentation for Voice Global 2020: How to audit your voice footprint and use SEO to improve your voice search presence

1. Katherine Watier Ong
WO Strategies
How To Use SEO To
Improve Your Voice
Search Presence

2. CEO, WO Strategies LLC
Built first website in 1994.
My plans can crash websites.
Once down for 4 days and still
received almost 1.3 million
visitors/mo. (up from 300K).

3. Brands Katherine Watier Ong
has worked with

4. Voice Search
Today

5. This is me.
No problem.
I’ll figure this
out.

6. Me hours
later.
This is what I
sorted out.

7. It’s now 2020
Is voice search at
50%?

8. of Americans
search with voice
daily
2019 US data- Adobe
44%

9. 87.8%
use voice
search
Most Speaker Owners Voice Search

10. Social Distancing is Increasing Use

11. How do voice search
results work?

12. More than Actions/Skills
Brand
website

13. Which search engine
powers the most
results?

14. Speakers + Phones
*Note Siri uses Apple maps
55%
Bing

15. Smart Displays
61% Bing
33% Google

16. Cars
30% Bing
30% Google
30% Other
voicebot.ai

17. Are You Optimizing for...

18. Can you rank?
It depends on the question.

19. Brand Info
Wikipedia ++
Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash

20. Fact based
Knowledge Graph

21. News Related
Search Engine’s News Algorithm

22. Products
Rank page one
Google product feed
Amazon Choice

23. Making the case for
Voice Search

24. Are there
unanswered
questions
YOU can answer?

25. Some industries don’t have answers
Source https://bit.ly/2ZkpfTV

26. Are you getting
voice searches?

27. Look for keywords that seem spoken
(Spot in Bing or
Google Webmaster Tools)

28. Does Your Audience
Over Index?

29. Ages 65+ use voice search more

30. 70% look for local information weekly
Source: https://bit.ly/3cSZ62A

31. See if you
have a
shot

32. Are you ranking in the
Featured Snippet?

33. Sometimes the voice result
⅓of the time
Featured Snippets
=
Voice Answer

34. Resources
● Featured Snippet (FS) Guide
● FS writing + image checklist

35. Can you rank
in the Featured Snippet?

36. Do you have enough EAT?
● Expertise
● Authority
● Trust
*Higher bar for YMYL sites
Google’s high quality content questions

37. Does your content answer intent?
"Intent beats identity.
Immediacy trumps
loyalty." Google's VP of marketing,
Lisa Gevelber

38. Does your content match the format?

39. Are you loading fast
enough to rank?

40. Are you loading fast enough?
1.16 sec.(desktop)
1.10 sec. (mobile)

41. Page Speed Resources
• Improve your Page Load Speed
checklist

42. Is your brand in the
Knowledge Graph?

43. “Voice search on desktop and the
Google app use the power of the
Knowledge Graph...”
- Google

44. Add context to your content
● Add schema.org attributes
● And link to data sources about you
Google recognizes.

45. KG Resources
• Do a search of Google’s Knowledge
Graph
• Structured Data Testing Tool

46. Are your products in
Google?

47. In Google’s Product feed?

48. Have you optimized
your local listings?

49. Are you discoverable via local? (US)
Consistent
Name, Address
Phone number
everywhere.

50. Resources
• Voice Readiness Tool
• Local Google and Alexa responses

51. Can you fill the gap
with a Google Action?

52. Google fills gap with Action Info
Source

53. See if you
have a
shot

54. Bing: Intelligent Answers
Source

55. Bing: Multi-perspective answers
Source

56. Bing: Yes/No Answers
Source

57. Bing Competitive Advantages
Support its content annotation.
❏Write for Fraggles
(HTML markup)
❏Schema.org

58. Resources
• Bing Voice Search Optimization
• Guide: Bing Featured Snippets

59. See if you
have a
shot

60. Amazon Voice Search Optimization
*Alexa Skill

61. Resources
• Alexa’s Product Recommendations:
Checklist

62. You have a shot!
Creating a plan

63. Conduct Keyword Research

64. Ask the devices those terms,
note answers

65. Create an optimization plan
for queries with potential.

66. Improve your Knowledge
Graph sources.

67. Add schema.org markup

68. “Building” Google
Actions =
Schema Markup

69. Speakable Schema = Google Action
Identifies sections within
an article or webpage that
are best suited for audio
playback.

70. Speakable Markup Resources
● Instructions here.
● Generator here.
● Content guidelines

71. How to Schema.org = Google Action
Most of the time these
queries result in YouTube
results…

72. Google Action Example
72
How to Action Schema markup on: https://www.realmenrealstyle.com/how-to-tie-a-tie/

73. “How To” Markup Resources
● How To markup instructions
● Generator here

74. FAQ- Schema.org = Google Action

75. FAQ Markup Resources
● FAQ page instructions.
● Generator here.

76. Guided Recipes = Google Action

77. Recipes Resources
● Recipe instructions.

78. Podcasts = Google Action

80. Podcast Resources
● Podcast Instructions

81. Build a Google Action - Templates

82. Build a Google Action Resources
● How to is here.
● Templates to build an action.

83. Building a Custom Google Action
Conversational
Design Required

84. Custom Google Action Resources
● How to is here.

85. Measuring Voice
Search

86. Measurable Goals:
● Research & Development mentality
● A brand impressions play

87. Things you can
measure

88. Featured Snippet Ranking

89. Measuring FS Rankings
● You need an SEO tool
(Ahrefs, SEMRush,
GetStat).
● Rankings are volatile.
● Tools can also measure
People Also Ask (which
often are also FS)

90. Google Action Discovery

91. Alexa Skills Invocation

92. Run a search test
with UserTesting but
with voice inputs
Search Focus Groups

93. Things you can
NOT measure

94. Voice Ranking
Photo by Joshua Golde on Unsplash

95. Visits to your site from a voice result
Photo by Webaroo on Unsplash

96. Measurement
Caveats

97. 50%
of the time
mobile SERPs
don’t match
desktop

98. Measuring Mobile Rankings Accurately

99. Google Search Console does not track:

100. GSC Measurement Confusion:
Post: What GSC data means and what is
not tracked.

101. Recap

102. Results pivot by device and
query
Source

103. Hand testing is required