The number of smartphone users who search queries on Google and other major search engines has risen from 10 percent to 25 percent over a period of 3 years. If this trend is anything to go by, then there is a high chance that voice searches will hit 50 percent of all internet searches before 2022.
And, of course, this trend is understandable: Asking Siri, Google Home, Alexa, or Cortana to find information for you instead of manually typing queries on your browser is inarguably one of the coolest things you’ll do all day. It is also pretty easy, really: A simple click on the microphone icon on Google’s search bar, for example, is all you need to do to initiate the search, and then simply speak into the microphone with your query/voice as clear as possible and you’ll get your search results in a jiffy.
But How Does Voice Search Impact SEO?
With voice searches promising to overtake manual searches in the total internet searches, it is important that you optimize your web content for voice search. Make it easy for internet users to find your website whenever they search for queries relevant to your existing keywords. Establish new keywords if you must for as long as you get voice search traffic coming your way.
Let’s face it: Smartphone users of today want accurate search results and they want them fast. That fact means that voice search will continue to cement its place in the future of internet search and SEO as a whole. Matter of fact, traditionally written searches will be phased out once AI Assistant and semantic search are rolled out fully across the world. That being said, here are 3 possible ways through which Voice Search will impact SEO:
You will need to structure keywords and keyword phrases in the manner that people speak
Today, users search for content on desktop or mobile by typing in shortened, sometimes bullet-pointed phrases, in Google’s search tab. No one really cares about the grammatical correctness or sensibility of a keyword phrase provided it gets them the information they need.
Tactica, an SEO company in New Jersey explains this with an example: “If you are searching for a reliable SEO service provider in New Jersey, you probably would type “TOP SEO PROVIDER NJ” into Google and your results will pop up right away. But because voice search doesn’t require you to type anything, you are likelier to ask Alexa or Siri a long-tail keyword such as “Who is the best SEO service provider in the New Jersey?”.
If you want your content to be visible to many voice searchers, then you must optimize long-tail keywords that align closely with the manner that people speak. Your keywords must sound natural, not like the snappy, short keywords that people are used to in traditional SEO.
Local SEO will be more widespread
Online competition has grown tremendously since small businesses started designing websites and social media accounts as a way of reaching out to as many prospective customers as possible. Google has also made it possible for small, local businesses to grow their brands online through initiatives such as Google My Business.
This widespread exposure of local businesses will gain even more ground with the growth of voice search queries. Many users will now be looking for businesses and establishments that are within their locality because, after all, voicing your query is effortless. In this case, a business that optimizes its keywords for voice search will always have an edge over its closest local competition. You will need to utilize proper geo-tagging and exact question-based queries and also implement localization in order to stand out from the competition.
Keywords will be optimized for humans, not search engines
When writing your content, you need to have your target customers in mind, not the search engines. It will be of paramount importance that you listen to how your customers see your business; engaging them on social media and reading their online FAQs and reviews will guide your keyword development, so you will start to focus less on the current keyword generation tools.
The words, the language, the slang and the day-to-day interaction of your target customers must be optimally included in your web content if you are to capture their voice search keywords. When answering their FAQs, you will need to use in-depth blog posts with no or minimal usage of marketing jargon.
Ultimately, voice search optimization will be a must for any brand that wishes to remain competitive and improve their brand identity, increase their online purchase and profits.
To complement this, Gartner study predicts that by2020 around 30% of web-browsing sessions will be done by voice-activated searches. That means that if you haven’t started optimizing for voice search, now it’s the time to start doing so if you want to increase your rankings and grow your brand reputation.
Guest post courtesy of Rilind Elezaj from Day Translations who provides Professional Translation Services and Human Interpreting Solutions That Connect You to the World
Need help with marketing challenges? Contact Jeff Slater at jeffreylynnslater@gmail.com or call or text me at 919 720 0995
Photo by Lazar Gugleta on Unsplash
