Voice Search: What Every Business Needs to Know
A decision framework for 2019: which businesses need a voice search plan, which are already covered by existing SEO and how to tell the difference.
By 2019, voice search had been a marketing talking point for a few years, and most business owners had heard some version of the pitch: optimize for voice or get left behind. Before spending a budget line on it, it’s worth working through whether your business needs a distinct voice strategy or already has one without realizing it.
Question one: are your customers’ questions local?
Voice queries skew heavily toward local, immediate intent: “is there a dry cleaner open right now,” “closest gas station,” “what’s the number for.” If your business depends on nearby customers finding you, you’re already competing for voice answers through ordinary local SEO, an accurate Google My Business profile, consistent name and address data and genuine local relevance. There’s no separate voice checklist to layer on top; the work is identical to the local search work you should already be doing.
Question two: do you already rank for direct-answer content?
When a smart speaker or assistant reads out an answer, it’s pulling from the same source that would win a featured snippet on a typed search. If you already publish clear, directly-answerable content, FAQs, how-to guides, definitions and rank well for it, you’re likely already capturing voice answers without having built anything voice-specific. If you don’t have that kind of content at all, that’s the actual gap to close, not a voice-only initiative.
Question three: does your business sell something people buy by asking?
Voice commerce, ordering a product purely by asking a speaker, remained a small slice of real purchasing behavior through 2019, mostly limited to reordering household basics people had bought before. Unless you sell a simple, repeat-purchase product that fits that narrow pattern, don’t build a bottom-line case around voice-driven sales. It’s the part of the pitch most overstated relative to what was happening.
Question four: is a custom voice app worth building?
Building a dedicated Alexa skill or Google Action can make sense for a narrow set of businesses, media companies with content people want piped through a speaker daily, or brands with a strong enough audience to drive habitual use. For most businesses, it’s an expensive way to reach a small audience that could be better served by simply making the existing website answer questions clearly.
Putting it together
Most businesses don’t need a standalone voice search strategy in 2019. They need accurate local listings and well-structured, question-answering content, the same fundamentals that already drive typed search performance, and voice comes along for free once those are in place. The businesses that do need something extra are a narrow set: hyper-local service providers doubling down on listing accuracy, and content-heavy brands with an audience large enough to justify a dedicated voice app. Know honestly which one you are before you commit a budget.
Continue browsing the SEO archive or see everything published in 2019.
