Do You Have a Voice Search SEO and Social Media Strategy – Here’s Your Guide
Consumers are smitten with voice assistant devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Since 2018, voice search has taken off in a big way. Every month, more users join the fold. Changing the way consumers search for products and services, as well as how they use search engines, voice search is also changing the way customers interact with their favourite brands.
Marketing’s an exercise is responding to and capitalizing on consumer behaviour. If you don’t already have a voice search strategy in place, you are at risk of being left behind. SEO is changing, as is how voice search is driving smartphone Internet use and social media. A new world awaits.
Is voice search a fad?
Different forms of voice-enabled technology have been on the market since the late 1950s. Throughout recent years – and even months – voice tech is getting better and better. By leaps and bounds, voice-enabled products are improving on word recognition accuracy, function, design, and more. If you have a smartphone and/or are on social media, congratulations – eventually these are areas that will be transformed by voice search.
How popular is voice search?
There are more than 51 million voice-assisted devices in North America alone and screen-less browsing accounts for 30 percent of all Internet browsing. It is estimated that roughly half of all searches on Google and other platforms are now conducted by voice search. That’s a huge impact! These numbers aren’t stagnating – they’re growing.
What are some voice search statistics?
By end of 2022, 55 percent of households in Canada and the US will own a smart voice-enabled speaker.
According to numbers from January 2018, there were more than 1,000,000,000 voice searches every month. This number has only increased, since then.
Of the people who own voice-activated devices, 52 percent put their speaker in the main living room, 25 percent keep it in the bathroom, and 22 percent keep it in the kitchen.
Over 25 percent of eCommerce shoppers during the holidays used voice assistance.
Mobile voice searches are 3 times more likely to be local-based than text-related searches.
The majority of smart home device owners are between the ages of 26 and 35.
Over 40 percent of millennials use voice-enabled digital assistants, compared to only 11 percent of baby boomers.
Why should I adopt a voice search strategy?
If you want to be a stick in the mud, sure, you don’t HAVE to adopt a voice search approach. However, if you believe the customer comes first, it’s then the customer experience one should value. More and more users have voice-enabled tech at their fingertips. When you set up platforms and strategies that facilitate capturing and entertaining the needs of this user base, you’re doing them a service. From a consumer perspective, they find voice search natural and seamless to use, saves time, and is convenient.
How is voice search changing SEO?
Voice search SEO is the first place to look at creating a voice search marketing strategy. Consumers search differently on voice than they do by text. Voice queries, for example, are generally longer, more niche and long-tail keyword-driven in their request, and have a conversational tone to them. Voice searches are also usually given in the form of a question, meaning if a website’s optimized with question-and-answers and long-tail keywords with a conversational tone, you’re far better off than you would be with content meant strictly to be read.
Will voice search make SEO more competitive?
When you search by text, Google provides to you a full page of results. Then, you can click through. If you don’t have that #1 rank but are able to nab #2 or #3, you’re still within the recommended space to get a fair look. On voice search, there is no screen nor page. Any business now has to get the top result for a search term – that’s the only way they’ll get a mention.
What are featured snippets and how do they help voice search?
Featured snippets appear any time you ask Google a question. They appear as collapsible sections on the first page of Google results, with a series of Q & As. If you can get your content listed in this section, it sets you up very well to be potentially returned on a voice search query. Google Assistant in particular uses featured snippets for voice search a lot. If you aren’t already developing content with question-based answers, give it a try. In a matter of a few months, chances are you’re going to notice a difference in your metrics – especially if you have data culled from voice search-arrived users.
How important is local SEO to voice search?
When someone searches through a voice-enabled device, geographically speaking, the algorithms try to give back something local. A lot of expert SEO techies undervalue the importance of local SEO. That’s going to have to change with how voice search is going. When users employ a search with local intent, such as searching for local restaurants, it makes it all the more integral for brands to begin using more geography alongside their SEO keywords. Depending on your service area, this may include the city you’re in, region, province or state, and country.
What are Google Home Actions and Alexa Skills?
Google Home Actions and Alexa Skills, what are they? They are essentially voice search apps. Downloaded onto someone’s voice-enabled device, it gives the user certain functions not previously had. There are more than 4,300 Google Actions and 60,000 Alexa skill available. Businesses can create and release their own voice search app which can help get clicks, attention, and increase traffic. Here are some examples of how brands have used voice applications in attracting users off voice-enabled devices:
Domino’s gives customers the chance to order a pizza without having to place an order online or by phone.
PayPal users can use Siri to send money to friends, family, or businesses with ease.
Nestle provides voice cooking instructions to you as you cook, through a voice search application.
Tide has a skill that provides advice on removing stains from up to multiple hundreds of substances.
How are Google SEO algorithms changing with voice search?
Last year, Google released the BERT algorithm. This included natural language processing, aka NLP, and advanced machine learning tech. BERT makes it so that their search engine can understand the intent of a phrase, as opposed to understanding word by word. Keyword strategies must keep this in mind, focusing on intent of what’s said more than the specific words used. The most common trigger words in voice search are ‘how’ and ‘why’ as well as ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘why’. These are all question-based.
Whether one’s content marketing and SEO changes or it doesn’t, regardless, the algorithms change which means those who don’t adapt will fall behind. A great example of this is take a keyword like ‘lawyer for wills and estate planning’. This would have been a great keyword a decade ago. Considering the algorithm changes that have happened and what’s potentially coming, a better keyword today would be ‘find a lawyer for wills and estate planning in <my city>’. Think of the language a user will give by voice and match it in supplying the question, answering it, and ensuring the intent of your article mirrors that given by the query.
At UE, you have a digital marketing dream team. We have expertise in voice search local SEO, social media, content marketing, web design, and more. Stay one step ahead of the trend. Competition shouldn’t have the advantage – you should. The base of voice search users is growing bigger and bigger. Now’s the time to pull the ripcord and react. Optimize for voice search, reap the results, and set your brand up with momentum you can carry on long into the future.
