More than a quarter of the US population now has a smart speaker. An incredible number of households have thus welcomed a digital assistant into their living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms. The wide acceptance of these devices is a clear sign of a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. We no longer type awkward queries in search bars but ask natural, conversational questions to a voice assistant who is never seen.
For online marketers and business owners, this change is a challenge. You might have spent years perfecting your strategy to be the #1 Google desktop search result. But here is the reality: being at the top of a screen does not mean you will be the answer Alexa gives.
When a user says, “Alexa, where’s a good Italian place around here?” or “Alexa, what are the steps to remove a red wine stain?”, she doesn’t provide a list of ten page links. She gives only one answer. Only one.
The new territory comes with a particular set of tactics called Alexa SEO. You can no longer just get eyeballs; you have to get ears. If you are not the only answer offered by the voice assistant, you are, in fact, invisible to the user of the voice search.
In this piece, we will unlock the secrets of Amazon’s virtual assistant algorithms. We will look into the technical setups, content restructuring, and voice optimization methods that make your brand the voice of authority in your space.
A Dive into Alexa SEO (And How It’s Different from Old-school SEO)
We need to get clear about what we mean by Alexa SEO before getting into methodologies.
Simply put, Alexa SEO involves strategizing digital marketing content in a way that it becomes the single answer Amazon’s virtual assistant will use to respond.
By contrast, traditional SEO has a broader focus of raising the organic ranking of a website to the first page of results.
The “Winner Takes All” Dynamic
Getting first-page ranking in desktop or mobile search is no small feat. Usually, even if your page is third or fourth most relevant, you can attract quite a bit of traffic. People look over the choices and click on the one that seems most accurate to them.
Voice search raises the bar for ranking. It is sequential and exclusive. There is no on-screen menu for the user to look through. Alexa decides on the most relevant, shortest, and trusted answer and then reads it out. This is commonly known as “Position Zero.” If you aren’t in Position Zero, You don’t exist for that instance. Hence, your exposure to the voice search user is literally zero. This situation thus makes the game more intense. You cannot settle for “good enough” placement; you must become the absolute answer.
Where Does Alexa Get Her Answers?
There is a misconception that Alexa just reads out the Google search results. In fact, she does not. Google has traditionally always been the first choice in the realm of desktop search but Amazon’s assistant has its separate set of tools.
When it comes to informational queries, Alexa sometimes uses Bing data. This implies that by not prioritizing Bing in your SEO work, you miss on a fair bit of voice search traffic.
Similarly to local searches on Google, Alexa uses third-party platforms such as Yelp and Yext to answer questions about the neighborhood. One must understand these data providers to devise a winning Voice Optimization plan.
Changing Content to Suit the “Conversational” Consumer
We are quite different when we type versus when we speak. On a computer, we use “search engine pidgin”—short, keyword-rich phrases that a software user might easily understand. So, for example, we might type “weather NY” or “best pizza Chicago.”
Speaking to Alexa, however, we interact in human-type language. “Alexa, do I need to bring an umbrella in New York today?” or “Alexa, can you tell me where is the nearest pizza place that serves deep-dish?” are two such examples.
This is exactly what Natural Language Processing (NLP) is. Your publication, in order to be considered for voice ranking, has to adopt such a conversational manner.
The Power of Long-Tail Keywords
Short-tail keywords are gradually losing the power to attract in the voice search environment. For a voice query, a keyword like “marketing” would be too generic. Instead, you should direct your efforts towards question-based, long-tail keywords.
You can base your content plan on the “Five Ws and an H”: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Voice searches are triggered by these words. Just running a gardening store, if your digital positioning is “tomato plants,” then you aren’t leveraging voice. You should be targeting a question like “Alexa, how often do I need to water my tomato plants?” or “When is the best time to plant tomatoes?”.
Specifically by answering these questions, your articles will meet the needs of the user, thus more likely to be chosen.
Why FAQ Pages are a Gold Mine
If you want to do a structural modification that returns you the highest amount of Alexa SEO, then you should excessively use your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.
FAQ pages represent best scenarios for voice search answers since they are literally questions and answers, very similar to the exact format of a voice interaction.
Here are a few suggestions of ways to optimize an FAQ page:
- Identify real questions: Tools like AnswerThePublic or your own customer support tickets can be excellent sources to figure out what your customers are asking.
- Write concise answers: Being concise is key. The answer should be easy to digest and immediately apply useful information.
- Use conversational language: Imagine speaking to a friend and then write the answer.
Writing for Readability
Certainly no one is asking Alexa to read them a thesis while they prepare dinner. The information delivered to the user should be clear and well-structured. Therefore, for voice posts, the text is aimed to be understood by a 9th-grader.
By no means are you limiting your knowledge here. Rather, it is about getting your message across effortlessly. For instance, short sentences, active voice, and common vocabulary can be handled both by the text-to-speech engines and audience pretty easily. In case your post is too professional or technical, Alexa might skip it in favor of a simpler version.
The Technical Backbone: Schema Markup
The most engaging post in the world won’t get you to the top of the rankings if search engines aren’t able to understand what it’s about. That’s where Schema Markup plays a role.
What is Schema?
You may consider Schema Markup (some people call it structured data) as tags or labels a webmaster uses to inform search engines about his/her web content in a way that machines, not humans, would understand.
You are explaining to the search engine “that string of numbers is a phone number” through a schema. In this way, you can provide labels to the ingredients of a recipe, the length of a video, or the cost of a product. This additional layer of information is particularly important for Alexa to pinpoint exactly the piece of information the user has asked for.
Speakable Schema
Among structured data types, there is one specially designed for voice assistants: “Speakable” schema. Currently, it is being tested and mostly news publishers have access to it. This markup permits one to specify what parts of the article are suitable for text-to-speech playback.
Implementing a Speakable schema is like highlighting the most informative parts of your content and telling Alexa, “In case someone wants to know about this, please read this section.” It is a very compelling signal that can highly increase your chances to be picked.
Local Business Schema
Owner of a physical business? Local Business Schema is your best friend that you can’t do without. This markup tells the search engines your exact location, business hours, phone number, and business category.
When a user wants to know, “Alexa, is the hardware store open now?”, the voice assistant uses this structured data to answer correctly. In case you do not have proper schema, Alexa will most likely say, “I don’t know,” thus diverting your potential client to a competitor who had his technical setup right.
Don’t Forget to Utilize Bing and Local Listings
It’s worth repeating: Google is not the only game in town. Since Alexa frequently relies on Bing for general search results, failing to tap into Microsoft’s search engine would be a major blunder.
The Bing Connection
While Google Search Console is probably the main focus for many marketers, Bing Webmaster Tools cannot be neglected. This is especially so when it comes to Voice Search Ranking on Alexa. Get your Bing Webmaster Tools setup done. Upload your sitemap. Fix crawl errors, if any. Get your site indexed and tuned for Bing’s algorithm.
At the same time, the basics of SEO (quality content, backlinks, and technical health) hold true for all the major search engines, and yet, one bit you have to be sure of is that your being verified and tracked by Bing puts you in a direct line with Alexa’s primary source of information.
Local Citations and Consistency
If you are running local SEO, then you should know that consistency is crucial here. Alexa, by and large, depends on various directories to confirm the correctness of the business details such as leisurely hours, addresses, and phone numbers.
A conflict in information not only confuses but also makes the consumer doubt. Just imagine that Yelp says you close at 5 PM but your website says 6 PM and Google Business Profile says 5:30 PM.
Make sure that your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) are exactly the same on the following major platforms:
- Yelp
- Yext
- Bing Places
- Google Business Profile
- Apple Maps
Reviews and Ratings
When a user requests the “best Italian restaurant,” the factor that counts is the rating, because Alexa desires to offer the best suggestion.
Customers are more willing to write and publish reviews if the company asks them to do so specifically. For instance, a customer review saying “Great pizza” is good. A review that says “Best gluten-free pizza in downtown” is better because it lets you rank for the respective long-tail voice query.
Measuring Your Voice Search Performance
The lack of a dedicated analytics dashboard is one of the most annoying issues with Alexa SEO. Currently, you are not able to open your Amazon account and check for “traffic from Alexa” graph. Thus, measuring the ROI of this channel is not so straightforward, but it can be done.
The Analytics Challenge
Instead of direct metrics, we need to look at indirect benchmarks. Instead of sitting back and expecting the tracking codes to work, we should be on the lookout for footprints.
Indirect Metrics to Watch
- Question Queries: Open Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools and change your traffic queries to ones that start with “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” and “how.” If these conversational queries are getting an increasing number of impressions and clicks, that is a strong and clear sign of growth in your voice search optimization.
- FAQ Page Traffic: Monitor your FAQ pages for increases in the number of organic impressions or direct traffic. If your FAQ pages start to perform better and better, that would be a very close correspondence to a continued success in voice search.
- Featured Snippets: There is a significant relationship between the content that a search engine like Google selects for a “Featured Snippet” (that is the little box at the top of the search results) and a voice assistant’s answer. Using Semrush or Ahrefs, you can track your ownership of the Featured Snippet. Getting snippets means that you will get voice answers.
Future of Voice Search
Voice technology is a moving target. It is changing at lightning speed, and in order to remain relevant, one has to keep an eye on where the puck is going, not just where it is.
Proactive Assistance
The present majority of voice interactions is mostly reactive: user asks and Alexa answers. The future belongs to proactive voice assistants as they will be able to suggest products or content based on the past behaviors and habits that they have learnt.
Imagine that Alexa says, “I see that you usually order coffee beans on Tuesdays. Would you like to reorder from [Your Brand] now?.” Ranking in this future scenario would require deep customer loyalty and a consistent purchasing history. Being an authoritative brand has thus become more important than ever.
Voice Commerce (v-commerce)
Voice commerce is the new frontier in the game. Consumers are increasingly becoming comfortable with purchasing low-risk items (such as household staples) via voice commands alone. Brands will have to tune their Amazon product pages if they want to be the first choice when customers make generic voice orders.
Multimodal Search
Devices like the Echo Show combine both visual and voice SEO. For example, if someone asks a recipe on an Echo Show, the user not only gets the ingredients but can also see a list and a video. That is why even your visual assets (pictures, videos, and infographics) should be optimized with the corresponding alt text and file names if you want them to appear on these screens.
Frequently Asked Questions about Alexa SEO
Is Alexa SEO different from Google SEO?
Both yes and no. The fundamental pillars of providing top-notch and highly relevant content, of course, still apply. There is a bit of difference in the technical side, however, as Alexa relies on Bing and Yelp whereas Google Maps and Google Search are behind Google Assistant. Moreover, Alexa SEO is focused on the one and only result (“Position Zero”) while Google SEO is generally targeting a position among the first page ten links.
How much does site speed matter for voice search?
It matters a great deal in fact. Usually, voice search users are out and about and are quick to expect their answers. Next time if your page is too slow to load, the search engine (either Bing or Google) might omit your result in the answer. A slow website is a signal of an undesirable user experience and algorithms hate to serve such pages.
Can I pay to rank higher on Alexa?
It is not possible for organic questions. That is, no matter how much money you throw at Amazon, you will not be able to make Alexa read your blog post instead of your competitor’s. But for product searches, Amazon’s advertising platform gives you an opportunity to purchase visibility there, which can directly influence purchase-intent queries.
Do I need a separate voice search strategy for Siri and Google Assistant?
There are certain differences here and there (Google Assistant gets its results from Google and Siri accesses both Apple Maps and Google), nevertheless, implementing a general strategy of conversational content, schema markup, and local directory accuracy across all three major assistants will do you good. By optimizing for one such as Alexa, you will naturally see your performance on the others rise as well.
Conclusion
It is not just a passing trend but a fundamental change in human online behavior when switching from writing for the eye to writing for the ear. With smart speakers and voice-activated devices entering the market, Voice Search Ranking has transitioned from being a mere “good to have” into a business imperative.
It would be similar to ignoring mobile optimization in 2012 if you ignored Alexa SEO. It is possible that you survive for some time but in the long run, you are becoming invisible to a very large section of your audience.
Best of all, the level of competition for voice ranking is still quite low when compared to the traditional SEO. By taking action now—restructuring your content, implementing schema, and getting your local listings in order—you can establish yourself as the voice of authority in your sector.
Do not let time pass by without making a sound. Review your existing FAQ page today, using some of the steps above, and start talking.
