The Impact Of Voice Search On Business Websites In 2019
Since Apple introduced Siri to iPhone users in 2011, voice technology has grown to become a staple feature not only on smartphones but across an array of internet-enabled devices in the home. Most notable of these is the smart speaker, which has quickly found itself in more than one out of ten Wi-Fi connected homes, with Amazon, Google and Apple all competing in the space. (Susan Engelson 2017, Comscore)
Statistics indicate that at least 50 percent of searches will be conducted via voice search by 2020 which indicates that business owners should start preparing for this shift in search engine optimisation (SEO).
With the primary objective of every website or business owner to assist potential customers to find and purchase their products or services hence if most customers are using voice search to find products or services they are looking for, then voice search optimisation makes a lot of sense.
Implementing the latest voice search marketing strategies means that you are in a better position to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business in the process. In this article, we look at the growth of voice search SEO and its impact on business websites in 2019.
What Is Voice Search?
Voice search is a technology that uses speech recognition to understand a user’s verbal query as opposed to the traditional way of typing the query into a search box.
The search engine or digital assistant then tries to answer the query by matching it with answers available online. Over the past few years, voice search optimisation has grown exponentially as more and more users are opting to perform online searches verbally through their smartphones, smart devices or computers. Voice search is specifically becoming popular among the younger generation.
Voice search is moving beyond accomplishing tasks such as questions and answers or navigation to more complex activities like email management, shopping, calendar management and many more meaning that it is no longer something to be ignored. In fact latest voice search trends seem to suggest that it is here to stay.
Traditional Search Vs Voice Search
When users perform a voice search, they use different terms for their search hence the traditional keyword strategies are not going to do the trick.
Voice search SEO is a unique technique used to optimise a website to be able to respond to voice commands. Voice searches allow for longer and more specific queries to be made compared to text-based searches but they should be very brief and to-the-point.
If you are optimising your website for voice search, ensure that your content is easy to read and comprehend as this will make it perform well in voice search.
The Impact of Voice Search On Business Websites
Most people use voice search when they want quick answers since it requires less effort and is marginally faster. Mobile search has gone up while the use of digital assistants and smart speakers is also on the rise. These technological changes are affecting SEO practices hence business owners need to be ready and prepared to adopt the future of search engine optimisation.
All businesses should ensure that their content is natural and conversational in order to achieve the Q & A pattern of voice search. The increased adoption of smartphone assistants and smart speakers such as Google Home or Siri has a significant effect on search trends.
Consumers are now changing the way they seek out information or search for products and services thus websites must be built to accommodate this latest trend. Voice search has ideally made it significantly harder to reach the target audience which requires online marketers to make changes to their content. This involves finding out exactly what users are looking for and how they are looking for it. Proper voice search optimisation should consider the difference between a spoken search and a typed search. Business websites should use more natural language to rank well for voice search.
People tend to use longer sentences and more words when speaking than they do when typing.The list of keywords should therefore include full sentences instead of focusing on shorter phrases or keywords. Most typed searches contain sentence fragments which is not the case for voice search. Voice searches occur in the form of longer questions and not few word requests which means that your content must adapt to this.
Experts predict that by 2020 at least 50 percent of internet users will be using voice. This presents numerous opportunities for marketers in the coming years especially due to the growth of mobile technology and the use of smart devices. If you are a digital marketer looking to stay ahead of the competition, get in touch with us today for the best digital services that include website design and development, digital marketing, digital strategy and so much more.
