In the world of search, the voice is an emerging trend and of course, something that should we should keep an eye on.
Google algorithms change once or twice in a day. But rarely do we experience major ranking fluctuations in it. Those are actually the updates marketers are concerned about.
We’re going to get on the impact voice search will have on SEO and why you should pay attention to the trend.
Impact on SEO
If voice search is the future, will it have an effect on SEO? The answer to this is yes.
When someone searches for something, the search engine brings up the most relevant link, some of which are paid for ads. If you have killer SEO, you can get your site closer to the top.
For users who ask a digital assistant such as Alexa or Siri, they’ll notice two differences in the responses. The assistant will answer with a short answer, usually from a news source and the user won’t see a long list of options to choose from. It gives a very clear answer to a clear query.
However, this does not mean that SEO is no longer important. In fact, when a search gives just one answer, it makes the optimization even more critical. In order to get your business noticed, you’ll have to work on optimization and notice the patterns voice searches use.
Marketers just need to ensure that all the content is conversational and natural. This will help meet the Q and A pattern of voice search. There are a lot of tools like Schema Markup to make sure that Google has got the most of the details of your business.
Blogs were and will always be an important method to make your voice search successful. So, it is important to remember that voice search is equal to mobile search and portraying a mobile-friendly website is thus more crucial than ever.
Let’s look at some statistics:
- 46% of voice search users think of a local business daily
- 58% of the consumers used voice search to find local business information during last year
- 27% visit a local business website through voice search
- 76% of smart home speaker users search for local businesses once in a week with around 53% performing daily searches
- The voice recognition market will hit $601 million industry by 2019
Why is Voice Search an Important thing for the Brands?
More and more people are using voice searches, and brands can’t get left behind. Voice searches may very well become the biggest search methods, and if brands don’t optimize correctly, they might be buried by the ones who do. Here are the reasons people are using voice search:
Increase Speed
Fact is, no other search platform is as fast as voice. In seconds, you can say what you’re looking for out loud and receive an answer. For brands, it is one of the most required assets. You execute a command and your task is done there and then. You do not have to spend time in looking for the alphabets on a keyboard and then enter your query.
Enhanced productivity
Speaking is faster than typing. Rather than using a touchscreen or keyboard to get an answer to your query if you switch to speech, you will save a significant amount of time. And when you save time, you ultimately increase your productivity.
Time is Money – Save it
Since the frequency of speech is faster than writing words, it saves a plenty of time. And when your consumers get their work done in seconds, you will be their only choice. When brands partner with voice search, they will be the number one option.
Massive Access
One of the best things about voice recognition systems is that they can be accessed by anyone. For users who are blind or can’t use a screen for some reason, voice search is the best option. This is a big group of people that you may be missing out on if you’re not thinking about voice search.
How to Start in the Voice Search?
With so many different platforms to operate and perform your voice search on, so it’s importatn to understand how to efficiently access it. These are tips for how you as a brand can optimize for voice search.
Different Optimization Strategies of different Voice Search Engines
Different voice search engines require different kinds of optimization. These tips will help you target each one.
Google Assistant – Focus on a local pack and featured snippet. Together with this, Google play optimization is also taken into consideration to offer relevant results.
Alexa – Pays attention to Bing places, featured snippets and Yelp.
Cortana – Do better optimization for Microsoft App store
Siri – Optimize according to Google Assistant and also develop Siri compatible applications.
Bing – We can see in all the four voice search processes, three of them Apple’s Siri, Cortana, and Alexa take in Bing search for basic information rescue. Facebook is also joining the league and Google obviously powers its very own Google Assistant.
No matter the search engine you give value to, there are two main areas to pay attention to local listings and featured snippets.
On-Site SEO Optimization is Vital
Despite all these strategies, old SEO is obviously the king. You cannot skip doing SEO optimization like interpreting page content, make users understand about your webpage, answer relevant queries, and finding out if your page is well optimized to rank on the search engine. Page authority has got a big role to get the featured snippets.
Moving Forward
Voice search is simply an additional interface and is not expected to replace old SEO in any case. This may change the technique or add some tasks to SEO optimization but won’t kill the good old SEO of course.
So make your business adapt to the structural changes. You just need to make sure that all the web pages are properly optimized for voice search. And because it is now that voice UX is at its peak, it’s the right time to hit the change and stand out among your competitors.
Resources
- WP Engine Study Reveals Generation Z Lives Through Digital Experiences
- Voice and Speech Recognition Go Mainstream Among Computer Interfaces
- Beyond the Hype: the Ultimate 2018 Fintech Guide
- Voice-Enabled Speaker Usage to Grow Nearly 130% This Year
- Designing Voice Experience
- IBM Future of Identity Study
- How is Voice Search Changing the SEO of Business?
Do you think voice search is taking off? Let us know in the comments below!
Vincent Lambert
Vincent Lambert is the co-founder and president of TactikMedia, an innovative digital marketing and web development agency. Vincent’s biggest priority is to attract quality traffic to website, which ultimately will bring in quality leads, thanks to top notch work in organic and paid searches. He has a solid understanding of everything relating to SEO, cost per click, remarketing, and conversion optimization.
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