The Ultimate Copywriting Guide for Google, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa

Technology has simultaneously made life easier and completely obliterated our attention spans. Today’s consumers want it, they want it now, and they don’t want to have to work that hard to get it. Welcome to the Internet Age, friends.

And search giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon have made instant gratification even more instant. Now, instead of taking the time to pull out your device, open a browser or app, and actually type in your query, you can simply just ask for it out loud.

I’m talking about voice search.

As a conversion copywriter, it’s my job to take an audience from a casual browser to a next-level brand loyalist. To do that, I’ve had to adapt to voice search SEO methods that make the search engine powers-that-be happy.

While it can be tedious, it’s absolutely worth the effort — and becoming increasingly crucial for business owners.

Let’s Talk Voice Search: My Top Tips for Writing Voice-SEO Friendly Copy

There’s not (yet) a magic button on your website that lets you push your products and services directly to voice assistant technology. Instead, you need to implement written SEO strategies that mimic voice search.

Here are tips for writing the best voice search optimized content for GoogleHome, Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa:

1.   Write Conversationally

When people speak to voice assistants, think of the first thing they often say.

“Hey, Siri!”

 “Hey, Alexa!”

 “Hey, Google!”

People speak to their voice assistants as they would to another human being — simplified and casually.

Consider the following two queries:

1. Pet feed store that offers food specially formulated for ducklings between the ages of one and six weeks old
2. Where can I find a pet store that sells duck food?

The latter phrase is more conversational, simplified, and more likely to deliver results of what customers are actually looking for. While a store may sell the very specific product as mentioned in the first query, it’s important to consider that the entire point of voice search is to simplify, so simplify your copy and write conversationally.

2.   Use a Question and Answer Format

Another important technique for writing for voice SEO is writing in Q&A format.

Because people most often perform their voice search queries so conversationally (and as if they were speaking to another person) these queries are often in the form of a question.

Utilize the headers within your content to both answer questions that your customers might have, and to optimize your website for voice search SEO.

Great places to utilize this technique include an FAQ page or a blog post, where this kind of format flows more naturally.

3.   Utilize Long-Tail Keywords

Voice search SEO is a great opportunity to utilize some of your long-tail keywords.

A long-tail keyword is a phrase typically more than five words long that goes further into detail. Users who are searching using these more-specific keywords are typically further along in the sales funnel than those who are searching for very broad terms.

Let’s look at an example of two queries:

1. Where can I buy a raincoat?
2. Where can I buy a raincoat in Columbus?

The second query is not only more specific — it allows for multiple search terms in one phrase:

Where can I buy a raincoat, buy a raincoat, buy a raincoat in Columbus, raincoat in Columbus.

Using long-tail keywords gives you more opportunities to rank for more phrases that people are searching for.

4.   Speak Your Audience’s Language

This is an essential step when writing for voice search, and one you should definitely take no matter whether you’re writing for SEO or not.

For the best voice search results, you need to speak your audience’s language.

Consider the following:

What phrases are they using?

Is your audience using a more refined term or a more common phrase for what you’re offering?

For example, is your target audience looking for a botanical face wash or simply soap that smells good? It all depends on what you’re offering and who your target market is. Not that these two terms wouldn’t overlap, but using the phraseology of your target audience is more likely to bring in the kind of customers that convert.

Are there any localized slang words your audience might use, such as a nickname for a neighborhood?

I’ll give you a personal example of this. I live in Austin, Texas, where people use the last two digits of their zip code to tell people where they live.

If you’re a brick and mortar, there’s a greater chance that you’ll find people specifically looking for you if you say you’re a barber in Austin in the ‘45 instead of just a barber in Austin. This delivers results to someone looking in your exact area, and it shows that you’re familiar with how the people in your location speak about it.

Everyone loves local — and by using the nicknames given to people in the area, you’re local-local.

5.  Look Past Your Website

Your website isn’t the only place you can optimize for voice search. Consider that GoogleHome, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri all have shopping options (yep, you can actually tell Siri to order you groceries)  Voice shopping makes it essential to optimize your product descriptions.

If you’re a copywriter, you can have fun with this. You can turn your product description into mini sales pages (after all, that’s kind of what they are). Use question and answer format, write conversationally, use the phraseology that appeals to your audience, and use long-tail keywords within your product descriptions. This isn’t great for voice search SEO, it makes for better copywriting and better conversions overall!

Writing for Voice Search: Worth the Effort

Voice technology is advancing every day, and more and more people are investing in voice assistants for their homes and businesses. Business owners and marketers that are adapting to this trend will stay ahead of the curve, ahead of the game, and ahead of the competition.

GoogleHome, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri are three of the voice search elites; adapting to the technology and the market is extremely beneficial if you intend for your business to succeed.

Liz Slyman

Over the past decade, Liz has worked as a copywriter and digital marketing executive for a multitude of companies from startups to and mid-sized businesses to working as the VP of marketing for award-winning, platinum-selling artists. Leveraging an understanding of the nuance of language in marketing, Liz founded Amplihigher, a content marketing and copywriting agency, designed to connect consumers to companies in a way that results in next-level brand expansion.