AEO guide · Chapter 6 of 9

How to be the answer a voice assistant reads aloud

For local businesses and brands whose customers ask their phones and smart speakers for answers. After reading, you can write answers that sound right spoken and fix the listings that voice assistants read for local questions.

Updated November 6, 20264 min readBy Pop & Soda

In one paragraph

Voice assistants read one answer, so you win by being the shortest clear source for spoken questions and by keeping your business listings accurate. Write a 25 to 40 word answer that sounds natural read aloud, put it at the top of a page that ranks well, and complete your Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places listings. Say 300 people a month near a café ask their phone which coffee shops are open now: the assistant answers from map listings with correct hours, not blog posts.

Voice answers come from a few main sources

Voice assistants answer from either the web or business listings, so you need to cover both. For general questions like 'how long should I steep green tea', assistants have long read a short answer from a web page, often the same text as the featured snippet. For local questions like 'florist open near me', they answer from map and business listings.

Assistants are changing fast. Newer AI assistants, such as Gemini on Android phones, often give a spoken summary built from several sources rather than reading one page word for word. Either way, the pages and listings they draw on are the ones that state facts clearly and accurately. The groundwork in this chapter helps with both styles.

Write answers that sound right when spoken

A voice answer is heard, not seen, so write it the way you would say it. Keep it short: 25 to 40 words is a comfortable spoken length. Use short sentences and everyday words.

Avoid things that do not translate to speech. Tables, brackets, symbols, long lists and phrases like 'click here' all fall apart out loud. Write numbers the way people say them, such as 'about 20 minutes' rather than '15-25 min'. Then test it: read the answer aloud at normal speed. If you stumble or need to see it to follow it, rewrite it.

Worked example

a physiotherapy clinic

Say a physio clinic gets about 40 calls a week, and a quarter of them ask the same few things: whether they take walk-ins, whether parking is free and how long a first visit takes. Its Google Business Profile still shows old hours from before it added Saturday sessions.

The clinic fixes its hours on Google, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places, and adds holiday hours for the next six months. It adds a short 'Before your first visit' section to its booking page, where each question has a spoken-style answer: 'Your first physio visit takes about 60 minutes, including an assessment and your first treatment. Please arrive 10 minutes early to fill in a short form.' Say that the share of calls about hours and parking drops by half within two months, and Saturday bookings start coming from people who found the clinic by asking their phone.

Local voice questions are won in your listings

For questions about places nearby, your business listings matter more than any page on your site. Assistants answer 'open now', 'near me' and 'how far' questions from map data, then pick businesses with complete, accurate details.

Google Business Profile feeds Google Maps and Google's assistants. Apple Business Connect controls how you appear in Apple Maps, which Siri uses. Bing Places feeds Microsoft's maps and services that use Bing data. Other assistants draw on their own map and directory partners, so keep your details the same everywhere.

Business name, address and phone number, identical across every listing.
Regular hours, plus holiday and special hours set ahead of time.
Primary category chosen carefully, such as 'Med spa' rather than just 'Spa'.
Services, menu or product categories filled in where the platform allows.
Steady, recent reviews, with replies from you.

Speakable schema is narrow, so do not count on it

Google's speakable markup, which flags parts of a page as suitable to read aloud, has stayed a limited beta aimed at news publishers. It is not a general tool for business sites, and adding it will not make an assistant pick your page.

Your effort is better spent on the basics: a page that ranks well, a short answer at the top of it, and accurate listings. Other schema, such as LocalBusiness markup with your hours and address, still helps engines confirm your details match your listings.

Target the questions people say out loud

Spoken questions are longer and more casual than typed ones. People type 'physio clinic hours' but say 'what time does the physio on Main Street close today'. They ask full questions starting with who, what, where, when, how and can.

Find these questions in your phone calls, front desk notes and chat logs, since those are already spoken questions. Write a short answer to each on the relevant page. Questions about hours, parking, prices, booking and what to bring are common voice wins for local businesses.

Do this next

Check and correct your hours on Google, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places.
Set holiday and special hours ahead of time.
Collect the questions customers ask by phone or at the front desk.
Write a 25 to 40 word spoken-style answer for each one.
Read every answer aloud before publishing.
Ask a phone assistant your top questions monthly and note who it names.

Questions people ask

Do smart speakers still matter for businesses?

They matter less than phones, where most voice questions happen. The same work, short answers and accurate listings, covers both.

Should I add speakable schema to my site?

Usually not. It is a limited beta aimed at news publishers, so your time is better spent on clear answers and accurate listings.

Why does my assistant name a competitor instead of us?

Assistants favor listings that are complete, accurate, close to the person and well reviewed. Check your category, hours and reviews against the business it named.

Start with a free scan.