Voice-activated search has gone mainstream as the voice recognition technology has improved significantly in recent years. Basically, instead of typing your query, you speak into the microphone and the search engine’s algorithm will do the rest.
Siri, perhaps, had the biggest role to play in mainstreaming voice search. Back when it was introduced by Apple, it was considered a novelty and nobody took the results seriously. Now, you have Alexa, Echo, Cortina, and Google Assistant, among others.
The Internet of Things really brought voice-activated search to another level.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that one-fifth of the search on mobile right now is voice. But this is projected to hit 50% in 2020. That’s an astounding increase of 30% in just a few months.
However, we’ve had some bold statements regarding voice search and voice-activated devices that it’s hard to keep track of all these predictions.
What’s clear, however, is that voice search on mobile is growing and it’s going to have a major impact on your digital marketing campaign.
More People are Turning to Voice-Activated Search to Buy Online
What should interest you is that consumers are now using voice-activated search to look for a product or service online.
According to Google data, more than 7 in 10 people said they will likely use voice-activated search to buy something from digital retailers.
This is not surprising, of course. A vocal command is more intuitive compared to typing. The interaction with the machine is more natural. It also frees up their hands so they can multitask.
There are a few factors why voice-activated search is becoming more mainstream:
- AI technology has become more accurate
- The semantic search used by Google and other search engines is more sophisticated
- The IoT has been weaved into the fabric of our daily lives
- People no longer think of voice-activated search as a novelty
- They realize that it’s making their lives more convenient
- Digital assistants are becoming more affordable
What Does This Mean for Your Business?
When you’ve been doing SEO this whole time, it’s time to optimize your campaign for voice.
Obviously, you need to take a slightly different approach. The long-tail keywords you are using for your SEO marketing campaign will have to be modified and enhanced for voice.
What does that mean?
It means that your SEO campaign is not going to be geared for the search engine. Rather, you need to optimize your keywords to be human-friendly.
Here are some common elements of voice-activated search:
- They contain longer queries in a conversational tone
- User intent is important to guarantee the accuracy of query results
- Voice search is geared more toward local and hyper-local content
In order for your voice search optimization campaign to succeed, you need to be more strategic about your approach. There are good practices that you can do right away such as speeding up your website or updating your business listing. While you think that you might be the answer, but what is the question? Voice-activated search optimization seeks to find that question. If you need assistance with your SEO, please contact us today and we can setup a no-hassle consultation.
