A couple of newsletters back, where I discussed how you can optimize your website to promote your category and company to achieve a thought leadership position, I ended by saying that as more people and companies begin to rotate into using conversational search engines for market research and product awareness – Gemini, CoPilot, ChatGPT and others – there are some new search engine strategies to put into motion. I said that I would discuss this in a future newsletter.
This is that newsletter.
Conversational search is “a thing” and it’s only going to become more and more pervasive. So, it’s imperative that your website and digital content is optimized to support both traditional search (e.g., Google, Bing, et al) and conversational search.
To accomplish this objective here are just a few simple things you can do to align with how AI-driven search engines process and retrieve information.
Optimize for Natural Language & Long-Tail Queries
- Write content in a conversational tone, answering questions as if speaking to a user.
- Use long-tail keywords and question-based phrases (e.g., How do I… or What is the best way to…?).
- Analyze “People Also Ask” sections on Google for common user queries.
Implement Structured Data & Schema Markup
- Use schema.orgmarkup to help search engines understand your content’s context. Most marketers are familiar with HTML tags on their pages. They simply tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means – for example, the tag “model” could mean a person, a miniature physical representation of something larger, a software representation of a process.
- Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies you can use to mark up your pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, Yandex and Yahoo! Use the schema.org vocabulary along with the Microdata, RDFa, or JSON-LDformats to add information to your Web content.
- Go here to learn more – https://schema.org/docs/gs.html
Create FAQ and Conversational Content
- Include an FAQ section with answers in a natural, concise manner. Add FAQ, How-To, and Local Business schema to boost visibility in conversational search results.
- Structure content in a way that mimics human conversations – short, clear, and engaging.
Voice Search Optimization
- Many conversational searches happen via voice assistants, optimize for voice search queries (which tend to be more natural and question-based).
- Use featured snippets by structuring content clearly with lists, bullet points, and direct answers.
Improve Website UX and Mobile-Friendliness
- Ensure your site loads fast (Google prioritizes fast-loading pages).
- Make your site mobile-friendly, as many conversational searches happen on mobile devices
Optimize for Local Search(if applicable – this is primarily for consumer-related products/offerings)
- If you have a local business, optimize for Google My Business and local keywords.
- Ensure NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across directories.