With more than 20% of mobile queries executed via voice and Google enabling access to voice queries to a billion people globally, it’s clear voice search is disrupting the search landscape. Digital marketers have a unique opportunity to optimize content to provide their customers with the best answer to their voice search queries. seoClarity researched nearly 40 million keywords from billions of data points (from our proprietary search landscape data in the Research Grid) and shared insights from 2,500 brands to bring you this comprehensive webinar that includes a FREE detailed report and best practices for all attendees. This webinar will focus on the evolution of voice search, the role Google’s Answer Box plays, and focus on the practical content marketing strategies to win the “single answer”.

1. Win the Voice Search Battle
Practical Insights & Content Strategies to Win the Single Answer
Webinar | September 20, 2017

2. Enabling Brands
to Connect with Customers
in the Right Moments

3. About the Experts
Richard Chavez
VP Professional Services, seoClarity
He’s a true SEO expert with deep expertise
in technical optimization, content strategy
and analytics. Richard has 17 years of
experience helping brands optimize and
drive results in SEO.
Sherry Bonelli
Owner, early bird digital marketing
She specializes in SEO, Reputation
Marketing, Social Media, Content
Marketing, Retargeting and Display
Advertising to help make local and national
businesses successful online.
Jayson Akers
Digital Strategy Architect, Digital Current
Jayson’s 15 years of experience allows him
to craft the strategies that help forward-
thinking brands generate measurable
growth in their website's traffic,
conversions, and revenue.
3

4. Agenda
• Voice Search Landscape
• The Single Answer and its Reach
• Growth Trends
• Content Strategy & Optimization
 Customer Journey
 Impact on Content Development
• Measurement and Performance
 Impact to the Business
4

5. seoClarity Professional Services
• Goals
• Jumpstart and/or accelerate goal attainment
• Provide best of breed talent on-demand
• Objectives
• Strategic planning
• Technical expertise
• Project support
• Advanced Analysis
• Research Insights
5

6. Voice Search Reach
6
Voice
Search
Distribution
Google
Desktop
and
Mobile
Google
Home
Amazon
Echo
Siri
Cortana
• Voice Search impacts just
about all form of connected
devices
• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Laptops
• Personal Assistants
• Smart TVs
• Smart Refrigerators

7. 20%
of queries on Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches
*At Google I/O 2016 Keynote, Google SEO Sundar Pichai announced this stat.

8. Overview of the Answer Box

9. What is Voice Search Answer Box?
• Google’s Answer Box, or “featured snippet block,”
is a solution to a user’s query that is displayed in
Google’s search results.
• It is Google’s way of understanding user intent by
giving the best answer without requiring the user
to scroll down the result pages
• It's also Google's way of rewarding brands for
having the best answer to the user's question
• Primary results: paragraph, bullet points, charts,
images and video
9

10. Where do the Answer Box Results Originate?
• Desktop Answer Box
results can also show
additional results that
Google considers relevant,
but secondary to the
primary answer
• The Answer Box can be
removed from mobile
results
10
Desktop result
Mobile result

11. Where do the Answer Box Results Originate?
• For more popular queries
Google will display text ads
and PLA ads
• This can push Answer
Box results below-the-fold
and can potentially
reduce CTR
11
Desktop result
Mobile result
Answer Box is pushed below-the-fold

12. Answer Box Growth Trends
Understanding its significance
The research covers a sampling of nearly 40 million keywords with ~20% that triggered a Google Answer Box
result. The full report can be downloaded here: www.seoclarity.net/next-generation-search-voice-17099/
seoClarity Proprietary Research of Billions of Keywords from Research GridTM

13. ↑35x
Google Voice Search Queries up 35x since 2008 & 7x since 2010
* Google Trends 2008 – 2016 data imply queries associate with voice-related commands after the launch of iPhone & Google Voice Search.

14. Growth of Google’s Answer Box in Results
3.60%
9.80%
12.19%
13.20% 13.45%
15.73%
17.04%
18.52% 19.03% 18.95% 18.78% 18.91% 18.49% 19.13%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
Percent of Keywords Triggering Answer Box
seoClarity proprietary research of billions of keywords from Research GridTM
14

15. “How”,
“What” &
“Best”
are the most frequent words to trigger an
Answer Box result
Trigger Words Count % of Total
how 658,976 8.64%
what 382,224 5.01%
best 200,206 2.63%
the 75,025 0.98%
is 53,496 0.70%
where 43,178 0.57%
can 42,757 0.56%
top 42,277 0.55%
easy 31,178 0.41%
when 27,571 0.36%
why 25,980 0.34%
who 24,930 0.33%
new 24,779 0.33%
recipe 22,967 0.30%
good 22,807 0.30%seoClarity proprietary research of billions of keywords from Research GridTM
15

16. 68%
of the time resulted
from sites outside of
the first position
Position 1
32%
Positions
2-10
68%
Brands – Take Advantage of this Opportunity
seoClarity proprietary research of billions of keywords from Research GridTM
16

17. 32%
of the time came from the
first position and was also
Google’s voice
result
32%
22%
16%
30%
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Voice Result and First Rank Position
seoClarity proprietary research of billions of keywords from Research GridTM
17

18. Top 10 Domains Winning Answer Box
 The top 10 domains with the highest share of answer box results accounted for
less than 5% of all keywords analyzed in seoClarity's data set
0.00% 0.20% 0.40% 0.60% 0.80% 1.00% 1.20% 1.40% 1.60% 1.80% 2.00%
en.wikipedia.org
www.youtube.com
allrecipes.com
www.webmd.com
www.wikihow.com
www.mayoclinic.org
www.healthline.com
www.food.com
www.zillow.com
www.foodnetwork.com
seoClarity proprietary research of billions of keywords from Research GridTM
18

19. Brands Need to Catch-Up
 The Top 10 sites of key industries have fairly low penetration with the exception of
Health and Food
1. https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Home
2. https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Health
3. https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Reference
4. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271450/monthly-unique-visitors-to-us-retail-websites/
5. http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/car-websites
6. http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/travel-websites
5.07%
12.78%
11.71%
25.79%
52.85%
73.51%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Travel Retail Automotive Reference Health Food
Avg. % of Answer Boxes by Industry
19

20. How does this fits into the Customer Journey
Optimizing for this opportunity

21. Where Does the Answer Box Fit in the Customer Journey?
• > 65% of Answer Box queries analyzed
contained 3-5 words with a monthly average
search volume less than 1,000 (long-tail)
• This lends to higher conversion rates
• Primarily impacts Intent and Conversion
stages
• Understanding customer intent at all stages is
critical for success
• Brands must understand the behavior at
each stage and create an experience that
gains visibility and solves customer needs
Awareness
Consideration
IntentConversion
Loyalty/Engagement
Customer
Journey
21

22. How do we get started?
• Understand where your Answer Box opportunities are
1. Does it solve a customer need?
2. What’s the volume of opportunity / audience size?
3. Can it help customers complete the purchase?
4. Can it lead to repeat visits and loyalty?
5. What is needed to get this off the ground?
22

23. Voice Search: Hierarchy of Needs
23
Usability
•Schema
•Page speed
•Mobile compliant
•Solve tech issues
•Content fits in
appropriate Customer
Journey
Relevance
•Content solves the
problem
•Data/content is
contained within table
•Uses natural language
that answers user
question
•Data-driven topic
research
•Local pages
•Content has a
permanent home within
hierarchy
•Content fits your KPIs
Authority
• Content is linked
internally (nav, XML,
etc.)
• Local (reviews –
google)
• Images
• Accept user-reviews
• Respond to user
complaints and poor
reviews
Domination
• Consistently achieve
Voice Search results

24. Optimize for Voice Search
How can we as SEO professionals create and optimize content for a
voice search queries?
Sherry Bonelli

25. Optimize for Questions and the Way People Talk

26. Strategize for Devices Differently
• Nimble and flexible to create content
and code pages
• Examples:
• Voice Search on Google typically uses
Answer Boxes
• Local searches on Amazon Echo often
rely on zip codes

27. Voice Search = New Content Strategy
• Content & Keywords
• Content structure is different
• More than five words and are literally spoken
• Use words and phrase strings that people say
when they’re asking a real question

28. Topics, Keywords and Phrases
• The keywords should answer the question
you’re trying to optimize for
• That phrase should be in the first paragraph
on your landing page – preferably in the first
sentence.
• Look for keywords that involve a question and
write content that answers those questions.

29. Identify More Complex Questions
• Look for questions that
you will be able to
answer in great depth
• Include keywords “how”,
“why” and “where”

30. Use Trigger Words
• Use “trigger words”
– More than 20% of
featured snippets
are triggered by
these top 25 words
Trigger Words Count % of Total
how 658,976 8.64%
what 382,224 5.01%
best 200,206 2.63%
the 75,025 0.98%
is 53,496 0.70%
where 43,178 0.57%
can 42,757 0.56%
top 42,277 0.55%
easy 31,178 0.41%
when 27,571 0.36%
why 25,980 0.34%
who 24,930 0.33%
new 24,779 0.33%
recipe 22,967 0.30%
good 22,807 0.30%
homes 21,132 0.28%
make 19,774 0.26%
does 19,449 0.26%
define 19,375 0.25%
free 18,315 0.24%
i 18,245 0.24%
list 17,136 0.22%
home 17,118 0.22%
types 16,575 0.22%
do 16,448 0.22%Source: seoClarity Proprietary Research of Billions of Keywords from Research GridTM

31. Long-Tail Keywords Just Got Longer
• When optimizing for voice search,
research long and longer keyword
phrases
• Use variations of keywords
• Semantic keywords – different ways
of saying the same thing (think
synonyms)
“iPhone” and “release”

32. Optimize Your Pages
• Use the search query or keyword phrase in
your headline (H1)
• Write your answer as a complete sentence
near the top of the page
• Include your key phrase or query in your
meta data, alt tags and URL structures
• Use keyword variations throughout the rest
of the content

33. Use Schema Markup

34. Content Strategies
• Use H1 tags with the keywords
• If you’re a local business trying to get
local customers – write with “local
intent”
• Write pages on individual/specific
topics

35. Content Strategies
• Voice search is also typically mobile and
often locally focused
• Because they’re more conversational, voice
search queries are also usually longer than
typical text keyword search queries.
• Local Businesses: Claim and optimize your
Google My Business listing with voice
search in mind

36. Create Q&A Pages
• Find out what questions your
customers/potential customers
are asking and create Q&A
Pages
• Brainstorm with your team
• Talk to your sales people
• Ask your customer support reps

37. Write “Topic Specific” Pages
• Create pages with rich, quality
content that focusses on the
keywords you’re trying to rank for

38. Google Answer Box
• Goal: Get listed in Google’s
“Answer Box” for the
keywords you’re targeting.

39. Position Zero
• This coveted spot is often referred
to as “position zero” because these
rich snippet boxes show up above
all other search results – even ads.

40. Different Search Queries Results in Different Snippet Types

41. List Snippet

42. Table Snippet

43. Video Snippet

44. Local Search = No Answer Box (Yet)
No “Answer Boxes” for
local search intent keywords

45. Tools for Voice Search Optimization Strategy
• Tools to find out what questions people are asking about a
particular keyword:
• Storybase
• blogsearchengine.org
• hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
• answerthepublic.com
• seoClarity

46. Measure and Performance
Jayson Akers

47. Impact Potential: Adoption
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2015 2016 2017
Growing number of Voice-First Devices
New
Total
SOURCE: Google http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teens-use-voice-search-most-even-in-bathroom-googles-mobile-voice-study-finds-279106351.html
SOURCE: https://moz.com/blog/how-voice-search-will-change-digital-marketing-for-the-better
0 20 40 60 80
18-29
30-43
44-53
54+
Smartphone Virtual Assistant Usage
Voice has fastest feature adoption rate, deep adoption across demographics

48. Impact Potential: Integration
SOURCE: Google http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teens-use-voice-search-most-even-in-bathroom-googles-mobile-voice-study-finds-279106351.html
55% of Teens 40% of Adults
Voice-search has become largely normalized as a part of daily device usage

49. Measurement: Voice Search Query Data
Segmented queries from voice search might
come in the next year to Search Console
"we are going to fix voice search" to give
people more insight into when they're
showing as voice query answers
Voice Search Query Data Filtering coming to Google Analytics & Search Console?
source: John Mueller, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3SEjHefk4#t=1393, https://www.stonetemple.com/everything-mobile-google-john-mueller-mariya-moeva
source: Gary Illyes, https://twitter.com/GregGifford/status/874665674781597696

50. Measurement: Indicator Metrics to Monitor
What metrics can we monitor to provide insight into voice search effectiveness
1. Rankings of ‘voice search’ type phrases
2. Rankings of ‘voice search’ focused pages
3. Traffic via ‘voice search’ type phrases
4. Traffic to ‘voice search’ focused pages

51. Measurement: Monitor Queries
What ‘voice search’ phrases can we use to monitor voice search effectiveness
1. Longer, longtail phrases
2. Conversationally phrased queries
3. Question based query phrases
4. Localized interest phrases
5. Featured Snippet phrases

52. Measurement: Longer, Longtail Queries
Voice search queries even longer than mobile, which were longer than desktop
SOURCE: Hitwise http://hitwise.connexity.com/070116_MobileSearchReport_CD_US.html
SOURCE: https://moz.com/blog/how-voice-search-will-change-digital-marketing-for-the-better
10 12 14 16 18 20
Desktop
Mobile
Voice
Character Count Of Search
Queries

53. Measurement: Conversational Queries
Voice search queries are longer, in part, due to the natural speech used

54. Measurement: Localized Queries
Voice search queries are 3x more likely to be localized than text queries
SOURCE: Benu Aggarwal @ SMX West 2017 http://searchengineland.com/optimize-voice-search-273849
Text
Voice
Localized Queries

55. Measurement: Monitor Query Rankings
Create a breakout keyword set that only includes phrases most likely to appear
for voice search queries, track your site’s visibility for these phrases over time
(pay particular attention to mobile rankings for these phrases)
Break out rank tracking for potential voice search query phrases

56. Measurement: Monitor Query Traffic
Create a breakout keyword set that only includes phrases most likely to appear
for voice search queries, track the traffic to these URLs over time
(pay particular attention to mobile traffic numbers for these phrases)
Break out traffic reporting for potential voice search query phrases

57. Measurement: Monitor Page Rankings
Create a breakout page set that only includes pages which are most likely to appear
for voice search queries, track the average ranking for these URLs over time
(pay particular attention to mobile rankings for these pages)
Break out rank tracking for potential voice search query pages

58. Measurement: Monitor Page Traffic
Create a breakout page set that only includes pages which are most likely to appear
for voice search queries, track traffic to these URLs over time
(pay particular attention to mobile traffic numbers for these pages)
Break out traffic reporting for potential voice search query pages

59. Measurement: Monitor Rankings & Traffic
Make your life simple and the data more accurate - just use a digital marketing intelligence
platform with integrated Featured Snippet ranking & traffic data like seoClarity
Track featured snippet rankings & related traffic

60. Measurement: Monitor Local Listing Activity
Measuring the engagement of these listings should
give you some advance insight into how effective your
efforts are at reaching this audience
Due to the high potential for voice search queries to be localized
expect your local listings (particularly your Google My Business
listing) to be the first point of contact for many voice search users
Particularly you google my business page & map listing

61. Post-click Impact: Hyper-focus on Mobile
Usability
Source: https://baymard.com/mcommerce-usability/benchmark/mobile-page-types/search-field
Visitors driven by voice search most likely arriving via mobile device
Mobile-first On-site Search Experience

62. Post-click Impact: Hyper-focus on Mobile
Usability
Source: https://baymard.com/blog/search-within-current-category
Visitors driven by voice search most likely arriving via mobile device
Mobile-first On-site Search Experience
Contextual UX – “Search With-in Category”

63. Post-click Impact: Hyper-focus on Mobile
Usability
Source: https://www.labnol.org/software/add-speech-recognition-to-website/19989/
Visitors driven by voice search more likely to use voice interactive elements
On-site Voice Command Navigation & Usability

64. Post-click Impact: Hyper-focus on Mobile
Usability
82% of mobile users use mobile search from inside the store
in-store maps (department location, restrooms, request assistance etc),
interactive restaurant menus, deal alerts
Does your site address the needs of customers ‘on location’?
On-premises Search
App-like usability

65. Voice Search: Hierarchy of Needs
67
Usability
•Schema
•Page speed
•Mobile compliant
•Solve tech issues
•Content fits in
appropriate Customer
Journey
Relevance
•Content solves the
problem
•Data/content is
contained within table
•Uses natural language
that answers user
question
•Data-driven topic
research
•Local pages
•Content has a
permanent home within
hierarchy
•Content fits your KPIs
Authority
• Content is linked
internally (nav, XML,
etc.)
• Local (reviews –
google)
• Images
• Accept user-reviews
• Respond to user
complaints and poor
reviews
Domination
• Consistently achieve
Voice Search results

66. Even more insights and
strategies available in
the full research report.
Download here:
bit.ly/voicesearchresearch
Schedule 15 minutes to
see your site’s voice
search opportunities.
Email us:
sales@seoclarity.net