Voice Search and Local SEO: How to Optimise for "Near Me" Queries

Key Takeaways

• Voice search queries are often phrased differently from typed queries: more conversational, and often with local intent ("near me", "open now", "closest"), making them a distinct optimisation target for local businesses.
• BrightLocal's April 2018 survey of 1,012 US consumers found that 58% had used voice search to find information on a local business in the previous 12 months, most often for details such as addresses, directions and phone numbers. That is old, US-only data, but it fits our view that keeping your Google Business Profile accurate is the best place to start.
• In a 2018 Backlinko test of 10,000 Google Home results, 40.7% of the answers that cited a source came from a featured snippet. That is one old study of one device, but it is a good reason to write clear, question-based content.
• The line between voice search and AI search is blurring in 2026 — Siri, Google's assistant and Alexa are all being rebuilt around AI models, meaning AI visibility strategies and voice search optimisation share significant common ground.

"Hey Google, web designer near me."

Some people now search this way, by speaking rather than typing. If your business details are wrong or missing where those assistants look, they cannot give people the right answer.

Voice search has been a "next big thing" in SEO for longer than anyone wants to admit. But phones and speakers can now answer local questions by voice, and the details they give depend on data you can check. This guide covers what that means for your website and what you can do about it.

What Is the Current State of Voice Search in the UK?

Smart speakers are common in UK homes. Ofcom's Audio listening in the UK 2025 report, published in May 2025, says its Technology Tracker found that 41% of UK households had a smart speaker the year before.

But smart speakers are only part of the picture. Many people also talk to the assistant on their phone: Siri on iPhone, Gemini or Google Assistant on Android, or voice search in Google's own app. We have not found a current UK figure for how many local searches are spoken, so we are not quoting one.

Typical spoken local questions include:

• "Where is the nearest [business type]?"
• "[Service] in [town name]"
• "Is [business name] open now?"
• "What time does [business name] close?"
• "Call [business name]"
• "Directions to [business name]"

These are not searches for abstract information. They are searches with immediate commercial or navigational intent, conducted by people who are often ready to visit, call, or purchase right now.

How Do Voice Queries Differ From Typed Queries?

Understanding the structural differences between voice and typed search is fundamental to optimising for both.

Voice Queries Are Longer

Typed queries tend to be short and telegraphic: "web designer Devon" or "pizza delivery Exeter."

Voice queries mirror natural speech: "What's the best web designer in Devon?" or "Find me a pizza place in Exeter that delivers tonight."

Spoken queries tend to be longer than typed ones, although we have not found a current UK figure. In practice:

• Long-tail keywords matter more for voice search
• Conversational phrases should appear naturally in your content
• Question words (who, what, where, when, why, how) are common in spoken queries

Voice Queries Are More Likely to Be Questions

Typed: "cost web design UK" Voice: "How much does a website cost in the UK?"

This distinction has a direct implication for content. Pages and blog posts that directly answer common questions — with the question as a heading and a clear, concise answer immediately below — are a better fit for spoken answers.

Voice Queries Are Often Local

BrightLocal's April 2018 survey of 1,012 US consumers found that 58% had used voice search to find information on a local business in the previous 12 months. Local intent does not need the words "near me": Google's own example is a customer searching "Italian restaurant" on their phone and finding local places near them.

If you're a local business, every voice search optimisation effort is also a local SEO effort. The two are inseparable.

What Is "Near Me" Optimisation?

"Near me" queries are a subset of voice and mobile search where the searcher is explicitly or implicitly looking for something close to their current location. "Plumber near me," "café near me," "accountant near me open now."

These searches rely on:

1. Google's knowledge of the searcher's location (Google says that if someone doesn't share where they are, it uses what it knows about their location)
2. Google's knowledge of your business location (Google Business Profile, citations, schema)
3. How relevant and well-known your business looks (Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that how many reviews you have and how many websites link to you feed into prominence, how well-known you are)

You cannot directly target "near me" as a keyword in the traditional sense — Google handles the geographic matching automatically. What you can do is ensure your business appears credible, relevant, and well-documented at a local level so that Google confidently includes you in those results.

Our guide to local SEO covers the full foundation. Here we'll focus on the voice-specific layers.

Google Business Profile: The Foundation of Voice Search Visibility

If voice search optimisation had a single most important action, it would be maintaining an accurate, complete, and actively managed Google Business Profile.

When someone asks a local question by voice, the assistant needs your name, address, hours and phone number from somewhere. Google says profile information is compiled from several sources, including crawled web content, licensed third-party data and owners who claim their profiles, and is shown on Search and Maps. Apple says the place cards you control through Apple Business appear in Siri. Details a voice assistant might read out include:

• Your business name
• Your address
• Your opening hours (including "open now" status)
• Your phone number
• Your category and description

This means your profiles are often the first point of contact between a voice searcher and your business. Our detailed Google Business Profile guide covers full optimisation, and Google Business Profile Help: A Plain-English Guide covers set-up and verification. For voice search specifically, the priorities are:

Complete every field. NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency is non-negotiable. Categories, description, attributes, services, and photos all contribute to how Google understands and presents your business.

Keep hours obsessively accurate. "Is [business] open now?" is one of the most common voice queries. If your hours are wrong on Google Business Profile, the voice assistant will give potential customers incorrect information. Update hours for bank holidays, seasonal changes, and special events.

Answer common questions where you can. Google says Q&A on Business Profiles is "available only for select business categories and regions" and that its appearance and functionality might change, so don't build your plan on it. If you have it, answer the questions you're asked most often, such as "Do you offer free quotes?" or "Is there parking?" Either way, put those answers on your website too.

Respond to reviews consistently. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking, and that replying to reviews shows you value feedback.

Optimising for Featured Snippets (Position Zero)

Featured snippets are the boxed answer blocks that appear at the top of Google search results — above all organic listings. They are one source of spoken answers on Google.

In Backlinko's 2018 study of 10,000 Google Home results, 40.7% of the answers that cited a source came from a featured snippet. That was one test of one device, in 2018, so treat it as a hint, not a rule. Backlinko itself said a featured snippet "isn't necessarily required" to appear in voice search.

How to Target Featured Snippets

Answer questions clearly and concisely. Featured snippets typically come from pages that answer a specific question directly. The question should appear as a heading (H2 or H3), followed immediately by a concise answer, optionally followed by more detail. We aim for 40-60 words, our own rule of thumb; Backlinko's 2018 average voice answer was 29 words, so shorter is fine.

Target conversational keywords. Use tools like Google's "People Also Ask" boxes to find the exact questions people are asking in your topic area. These are often the source of featured snippet opportunities.

Ensure your page already ranks on page one. Featured snippets usually come from pages that already rank well, so build your organic ranking first. In Backlinko's 2018 data, 74.9% of Google Home results came from a page that also ranked in the top three for that keyword on desktop.

FAQ Schema: Still Worth Having?

FAQ schema (structured data using the FAQPage markup type) allows Google to display your question-and-answer content directly in search results. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search from 7 May 2026, according to its Search Central changelog. We have seen no Google statement that FAQ markup feeds voice answers, so treat it as optional housekeeping, not a voice tactic.

If you have genuine Q&A content on a page, marking it up is low effort, but don't expect a visible result. The format is simple:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [{
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "How much does a website cost in Devon?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Our 7 Day Website costs £1,200 to £1,800 depending on complexity, and custom websites start at £2,500."
    }
  }]
}

The questions should mirror how people actually speak, not how marketers write. "How much does a website cost?" rather than "Website pricing information."

LocalBusiness Schema: Speaking Directly to Search Engines

Structured data using the LocalBusiness schema is the technical foundation that helps search engines understand precisely who you are, where you are, and what you do.

Useful fields to fill in:

• name — Your exact business name as registered and as you want it spoken
• address — Structured with streetAddress, addressLocality, postalCode, addressCountry
• telephone — In E.164 format (e.g., +441234567890)
• openingHoursSpecification — Machine-readable opening hours by day
• geo — Latitude and longitude coordinates
• areaServed — Geographic areas you serve
• hasMap — Link to your Google Maps listing

Google's documentation says local business structured data can enhance Search and Maps results. Keep it matching your Google Business Profile and your website, because mixed details help nobody.

See our post on local citations for more on NAP consistency across the web.

Local Citation Consistency and Voice Search

Voice assistants repeat whatever business details they hold. Citation consistency, meaning your Name, Address, and Phone number appearing the same way across online directories, helps make sure those details are right.

If your address appears as "10 High St" on your website, "10 High Street" on Yell, "High Street 10" on Bing Places, and you haven't updated your old London address on Thomson Local, Google has mixed signals. Google says profile information is compiled from several sources, including crawled web content and licensed third-party data, so out-of-date listings elsewhere can feed wrong details into your profile.

Audit your citations across:

• Google Business Profile
• Bing Places
• Apple Maps
• Yell
• Checkatrade or equivalent trade directories
• Facebook Business Page
• Any industry-specific directories

Conversational Content: Writing for How People Speak

The biggest content shift for voice search is writing in a way that mirrors natural speech. This doesn't mean dumbing down your content — it means structuring it so that conversational questions find clear answers.

Practical approaches:

Use question-based headings. Instead of "Web Design Services," use "What web design services do you offer?" Instead of "Our process," use "How does your web design process work?" This directly matches the phrasing of voice queries.

Write concise answers immediately after questions. Voice assistants usually read out a short answer, not your whole page. A direct answer of around 40-60 words straight after a question heading is our rule of thumb; Backlinko's 2018 test found the average spoken answer was 29 words.

Include local qualifiers naturally. "Our web design studio in Northlew, Devon" is better than just "our studio." "Serving clients across Devon and Cornwall" is better than generic service descriptions. These local phrases help Google connect your content to geographically-targeted voice queries.

Use natural language throughout. Read your content aloud. If it sounds stiff or corporate, it won't resonate with voice users (or, increasingly, with Google's natural language processing).

The Convergence of Voice Search and AI Search

In 2026, the distinction between "voice search" and "AI search" is becoming increasingly blurred — and understanding this convergence is important for any long-term local SEO strategy.

The assistants are changing. In June 2026 Apple announced Siri AI, a more conversational Siri, and said it would arrive as a beta for English-language users. Google began replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones on 4 September 2026, according to Android Authority. Amazon says its AI assistant Alexa+ has reached the UK. As these roll out, spoken answers may be written by an AI model rather than read from a single listing.

This means that optimisation strategies for AI search and voice search are converging. The same signals that help your business appear in AI-generated summaries — clear structured data, authoritative content, a well-maintained Google Business Profile, consistent citations — also help you appear in voice search results. Building the underlying trust and authority signals that power both channels is covered in depth in our E-E-A-T signals guide.

Our posts on AI search and local business discovery and whether your business appears in ChatGPT explore the AI dimension in more detail. Our AI Visibility service is specifically designed for businesses that want to ensure they appear across both traditional search and AI-powered discovery channels.

The practical implication: the work you do for voice search optimisation has downstream benefits for AI visibility, and vice versa. These are not separate strategies — they are the same strategy applied to overlapping systems.

Test It Yourself: What Do Your Phone and Speaker Say About You?

This takes about 10 minutes and costs nothing. Ask each assistant the same three questions about your business: "What time does [business name] close?", "What is the phone number for [business name]?" and "Where is [business name]?" Write down anything wrong.

1. Google (Gemini or Google Assistant, depending on your phone). If an answer is wrong, sign in to the Google account linked to your profile and choose Edit profile, as described in Google's guide to editing your Business Profile. No profile yet? See add or claim your Business Profile.
2. Siri on iPhone. Also search for your business in Apple Maps. Apple says the place card appears in Siri as well as Maps, so fix it in Apple Business, the new home of Apple Business Connect, using Apple's user guide.
3. Alexa. We could not find Amazon documentation saying where Alexa gets local details, so there is no official fix to point to. A free Bing Places listing is worth checking, but treat any claim that Alexa relies on it as unconfirmed.

Changes can take time to appear, so test again in a few days.

Voice Search Optimisation Checklist

Use this checklist to audit your current voice search readiness:

Frequently Asked Questions

Does voice search work differently for local businesses versus national brands?

Often, yes. Spoken questions are frequently about places and opening times, so accurate local details matter more than a national brand's head office. If you're a local business with a well-maintained Google Business Profile, accurate citations, and good reviews, you can compete effectively for voice search visibility in your area even against larger competitors with bigger marketing budgets.

Which voice assistant is most important to optimise for?

Start with Google, because a complete Google Business Profile also helps your normal search and Maps visibility. Siri shows information from Apple's place cards, so claim yours in Apple Business. For Alexa, Amazon doesn't say where it gets local details, so test it with the steps above and keep your other listings, including Bing Places, accurate.

How do I know if my business is appearing in voice search results?

Voice search results are hard to track directly because they don't appear in most standard analytics tools. The best proxies are: monitoring your Google Business Profile insights (particularly calls and direction requests, which can follow a voice search), tracking your featured snippet rankings for target queries, and asking new customers how they found you. Repeating the test above every few months is a simple check.

Is "near me" a keyword I should use on my website?

Literally targeting "near me" in your content is generally not effective, because Google works out where the searcher is for itself. What does work is including your location naturally and frequently throughout your content — your town, county, and region — alongside your service terms. "Web designer in Devon" is a better target than "web designer near me" for on-page content.

How does voice search connect to my website's SEO more broadly?

Voice search optimisation is largely an extension of core local SEO best practice — Google Business Profile, citations, reviews, structured data, and local content. Improving these elements benefits your local pack rankings, your general organic rankings, and your voice search visibility simultaneously. There is very little voice-search-specific work that is separate from good local SEO; it's more a matter of emphasis (question-based content, concise answers, accurate business data) within a shared strategy.

How often should I update my content for voice search?

Accuracy is more important than frequency. The most critical updates are practical and time-sensitive: your opening hours (especially for bank holidays and seasonal changes), your service offering (if you add or remove services), and your contact details (if anything changes). Beyond that, periodically reviewing your FAQ content to ensure it answers the questions customers are actually asking in 2026 — not 2022 — is a worthwhile quarterly task.

Related Reading

• Local SEO: A Complete Guide to Getting Found in Your Area
• Setting up and optimising your Google Business Profile (in our local SEO guide)
• Is My Business Appearing in ChatGPT? How to Check
• AI Visibility & GEO: The Complete Guide for UK Small Businesses
• E-E-A-T Signals: How to Build Trust with Google

Voice search is not a separate channel to manage alongside your regular SEO — it's the natural evolution of local search, powered by the same signals that drive all local visibility. The businesses most likely to be read out correctly in 2026 are the ones that are genuinely, consistently, and accurately represented across Google Business Profile, structured data, local citations, and quality content.

If you want help putting this into practice, our SEO Care service includes a Google Business Profile review and a to-do list, with directory, citation and link tasks on every plan. For businesses that also want to build visibility in AI-powered search channels, our AI Visibility service is designed to work alongside your local SEO strategy. Review our full pricing or get in touch to find out what's most relevant for your situation.