Like all new and latest technology, one that will catch up and gather steam in 2021 will be voice search. Voice search depends heavily on smart devices and apps like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Siri in iPhones to take in voice input, analyze the voice input, convert it into textual form and scour the internet for relevant content, finally presenting the results back to the user.
You would have to rethink your digital marketing strategy in this context. You would have to have a good voice search optimization strategy to improve your SEO ratings or keep them afloat.
With the proliferation of intelligent technology in handhelds and home entertainment systems, voice search has been a dominant factor in the search landscape. A convenience to many as against the traditional typing, you get to input your query quickly and easily.
Almost 30% of web search sessions will be conducted on screenless devices by the year 2020. Voice assistants have changed the game in the web search market, even with voice search being available for much longer.
With most of the search taking place on mobile devices, most such smart devices are voice search optimized. With over half of online searches being conducted by voice search, it is time for businesses to adapt their interfaces to the changing landscape of search engines.
In the sections below, we shall explore how voice search will change the digital marketing landscape and how you can help your business adapt to this change with proper Digital Marketing training.
If you are someone who is aspiring to pursue a Digital Marketing course, it is good to gain a deep understanding of several concepts of this technology.
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This is what transpires when you use a voice assistant to search a query. When you ask a question, the voice assistant returns with a featured snippet of your search. It reads out the featured snippet using text-to-speech programs. Featured snippets are search results that appear on top ofGoogle’se usual search results. To optimize your business content, you need to be well aware of the Search Engine Results Page SEO. The idea is to feature your content on the featured snippet on a search results page. Without an optimized voice search strategy, it is close to impossible to adapt to these changes.
Rapid Growth in voice-enabled devices and voice searches is evident from the below-listed statistics.
- Smart speaker sales in 2020 reached an all-time high of 150 million units. Even a pandemic induced slowdown did not impact the sale of smart speakers in the year 2020. The numbers were, in fact, higher in the holiday season in Q4.
- It is estimated that global smart speaker sales will touch $30 billion by the year 2024. Among the top-selling consumer electronic products, smart speakers will be as widely available as mobile phones.
- By 2022 it is estimated that over 55% of households will have a smart speaker installed. Even if we do not consider smart speakers, there are entertainment systems built with smart speaker technology to help search and play content on the internet.
- Of those who do not know a smart speaker, almost 34% have expressed interest in purchasing one.
- A whopping 65% of millennials speak into their voice-enabled devices once a day or more.
How to organize your content to adapt to voice search SEO
- Your content should be able to answer specific questions
- A question-and-answer format will be the best-suited format
- High-quality content will be the need of the hour.
With voice-based searches, featured snippets are now of more value than ever before and will lead to more competition in the SEO market.
Here are some changes that will be affected due to voice search
The semantics of Search Will Change
In a voice search often, a more conversational tone is used. Let’s take an example. In the traditional textual search, one would use the phrase “Mumbai weather”, but when using voice search, your query will change to “What is the weather today in Mumbai?” or its several variants.
Queries will turn out to be full-sized questions. Given the more conversational nature of voice searches, the search engine will prioritize the semantics of such queries. This affects the digital marketing landscape. Marketers now will have to rethink the keywords used in their content and revamp the overall marketing strategy.
SEO strategies will now have to include long-tail keywords or direct answers to most common questions instead of a bunch of keywords. A lot of attention will need to be directed towards how your consumers talk. Your business will have to consider the tone, choice of words, and phrasing in voice search.
This will most definitely have to be in the context of the location the search is being made from. This adaptation to voice search will help your website rank higher in search engine results or even get you a spot on the featured snippets page.
Voice Search Will Grow the Mobile-Friendly Environment
As mentioned earlier, people nowadays are heavily dependent on mobile devices. With Bluetooth handsfree capabilities, voice search is an apparent search preference. People are even searching on the internet. Searching the web while doing other tasks like cooking or driving is easy now with voice search. With this on-the-go voice search capability, the practice of using the keyboard to search the web will only die, and voice search is going to dominate mobile-based search.
A mobile-first mindset will go a long way in ensuring that your business websites are optimized for voice search. The numbers indicate that around 70% of consumers are more likely to transact on a mobile-friendly site. This is where digital marketing comes in. The digital marketing team working for you should ensure that all digital interfaces of your business, including websites, are optimized for mobile.
Here are some considerations to turn your website into a mobile-friendly website.
- Pop-ups should be redesigned for mobile devices
- Vertical content should be incorporated
- Make pages light to allow quick loading times
- Resize CTAs and buttons for mobile
- Ensure information is presented in a simple, concise manner, suitable for mobile.
Local SEO will take precedence in Google Voice search.
Mobile device search is usually location-dependent. They are more interested in searching for or shopping for items that can be quickly reached or delivered. A query like “where is the closest petrol pump” or “nearest north Indian restaurant near me” are good examples of this. The research found that over 22% of the voice searches were for location-based content. This brings into focus some of the local businesses like local retailers, grocers, boutique stores. If you represent one of such businesses, you should try taking advantage of this by tweaking your SEO strategy to include local voice search preferences. An SEO based on local voice search might help drive more traffic to your website.
Here is how you can improve your SEO strategy to get more local
- Update, optimize the Google My Business Account
- Look for positive reviews from customers
- Your content should be location-specific
- An About US page that is location-specific or a product catalog that is location-specific will go a long way.
Conclusion
Voice-based search is here to stay, and businesses have already adopted SEO strategies to take advantage of the new search preferences. If you are interested to learn Digital Marketing trends, take up the best digital marketing courses.
