How is voice search taking over traditional forms of search
How is voice search taking over traditional forms of search
All of us are aware of the limited but very strong set of virtual assistants. They have taken over everything in our lives. From setting an alarm to birthday reminders to searching for fresh recipes to cook. When typing seems too tedious, speaking to our voice assistants is easier! Ok Google, Hey Alexa, Hey Siri, Cortana… Voice search is taking over your world and ours at the speed of light!
So what exactly is all this new technology that everybody is so excited to adapt to their lives?
What is voice search?
By definition, voice search is voice-enabled search meaning using the voice command to browse the internet using your smartphone. It is also referred to as directory assistance or local search.
Voice search is inclusive of a lot of things:
Hands-free dialling
Opening applications
Dictating messages
Setting up meetings/reminders, etc.
Translation
Fact files
Over half of the teenage population in the USA and 40% adults use voice search every day to call someone, ask for directions, play a song, find out movie timings, check the time and dictate texts.
A major chunk of them believes that voice search makes them more efficient, good at multitasking, and believe that voice is the future.
About 20% of the overall voice searches come from mobile, which means people want information access on the go. The technology is being adapted very quickly in India and a tremendous sale was registered immediately after the launch of Google Home, surpassing Amazon echo.
Another reason why Voice is here to stay is that the users feel that typing is too much of an effort. And in a way, it’s true. An average user is able to type 30-40 words per minute whereas searching with voice is about 4x times faster. This shift in mentality has also given rise to inclusion of long tail keywords. Where you could initially type “india population” you now resort to saying,”Ok google, tell me the population of India”. Long sentences but more convenience. Voice search is the way forward, it’s a trend.
Why it is important to optimize a website for voice search :
We all use mobile devices which has Siri / Google voice search / Amazon echo / Alexa etc.
– 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020, as per comScore
– As of January 2018, there were an estimated one billion voice searches per month, per Alpine.AI
– 20% of mobile queries are from voice search
– Mobile Voice searches are 3x more likely for local businesses
How we can optimize a website for voice search through SEO :
1. Use of long tail keywords / conversational queries in website content / blogs / FAQ pages
2. Optimization of Google business listing for local businesses
3. Optimizing website loading time upto 5 seconds on any devices
4. Making websites mobile friendly and responsive
5. Making websites secure (HTTPS)
6. Schema code updation on website
7. Generating informative but easy-to-read and long-form content with long tail queries related to business
8. Optimizing website / blog content for featured snippets
Shift in platforms/devices
Our queries are slowly turning from search based to solution oriented queries. We no longer have the patience or time to go through 10 links. That’s one more advancement the virtual assistant has come up with. If you ask a question, you will get one answer instead of “I’ve found the following things on the internet”
Certain digital marketing companies have started using the voice features for client brands: You can use voice search to avail the best offers from Big Bazaar. Swiggy just launched a contest #VoiceOfHunger using Instagram voice notes.
At SRV Media, which is one of the top digital marketing agency in pune, we have already started to provide voice search friendly solutions to our clientele.
Time to rethink that strategy? Go ahead and leave a comment on what you think!
