Voice search is a growing trend for smartphone users these days. Voice search is convenient and quick. Voice search has quickly become an essential part of SEO and is definitely here to stay for long. We can assume what the future scenario will look like, as people are already used to Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google assistant, or smart helpers in their everyday lives.

 Voice Search - The Next Frontier of Search?

According to a study, there are going to be more than 53% voice searches in 2020. Current statistics show that 41% of adults use voice search at least once per day. Studies also show that in 2020, more than half of all smartphone users will engage with voice technology on their devices. 

Google's Voice recognition technology has an accuracy of 95%, and Google is not the only tech company working on the perfection of voice recognition to capitalize on voice search. Local businesses and marketers should turn their focus on capturing voice searches and improving the voice search conversion rate.

 

Since voice search is often used for local searches, businesses need to keep their Google My Business listing and eCommerce stores in proper order with up-to-date operating information. Voice searches will have a significant impact on the browsing pattern.

It has dramatically changed over the years, and the effect will only grow steadily in the coming years. People can search for any information with spoken instructions. Voice commands are going to last long, and it will derive businesses to plan new marketing strategies for voice searches.

 

Even when voice searches look natural, they scroll the whole web to gather all the data about your business. If you look at SEO, voice searches are the future, and they are expanding very quickly. Local companies and marketers should turn their focus on capturing the voice searches and improving the voice search conversion rate.

Why Optimize for Voice Search?

 

How to optimize for voice search?

Businesses haven't taken voice apps seriously yet, but there exist a number of opportunities if you optimize for voice search. Optimizing may land you in "position-zero" in search engine results, i.e., the featured snippets. The use of voice search is on the rise, and it's only gaining momentum, especially with millennials.

 

There's a lot of opportunity for optimizing for featured snippets considering that 40% of spoken responses come from featured snippets. You can see a serious boost in your organic traffic if you make it to featured snippets even for just one keyword.

 

According to Microsoft's 2019 report on Consumer Adoption of Voice Technology and Digital Assistants reveals

·         69% of respondents have used a digital assistant.

·         75% of the household will have at least one smart speaker by 2020.

·         41% of users reported concerns around trust, privacy, and passive listening.

·         Consumers will not divulge PII (personally identifiable information) without a substantial reward.

·         Voice search for eCommerce: Over half of consumers expect their digital assistants to help make retail purchases within the next 5 years.

 

And, with the technological advancements, it’s going to increase over the years. Following are some more stats that explain various other ways how people are engaging with voice search

 ·         31% are using voice in their car.

·         36% are using it on TV/smart home devices.

·         72% are using personal assistants.

·         35% use smart speakers.

·         52% of those smart speaker users are using voice actions on a regular basis.

From the above statistics, we understand that if you optimize for voice search and leverage it as quickly as you can, and there are plethora of emerging opportunities to tap.

 

Optimizing voice search should be a part of your local search marketing strategy. It is the best way to tap nearby customers who are looking for your products and services on their smart devices.

 

How Voice Search is Changing SEO?

 

Voice search is emerging as a popular SEO trend in 2020 and is changing the future of SEO for businesses.

According to Behshad Behzadi (Principal Engineer at Google Zurich) at SMX West, 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search daily, and this number will steadily grow month by month, year by year. One of the reasons for it to gain popularity is that – it is fast, it is hand’s free, and it lets you multitask, and it’s a fad amongst millennials.

 

Behshad further added that “Google aims to transform voice search into ‘an ultimate mobile assistant that helps you with your daily life so that you can focus on the things that matter.”

Voice technology has brought an increased emphasis on the use of local search. Consumers are three times more likely to search locally when searching by voice.

 

Typing a keyword or a search query is the standard version of Search Engine Optimisation that we are all used to, and the modern versions are the voice search. This change is due to smartphones, smart devices, smart appliances, and many other voice assistances enabled devices.

 

How voice searches are done differs drastically from a text search query, and it means all SEO strategies will need to adapt.

 

Google keeps updating and advancing its search algorithm to produce more relevant and better search results. And one significant change that we see this year is its ability to answer questions. With Featured Snippet and Knowledge Graphs, a user doesn’t have to visit a website to get an answer anymore.

 

How to Optimize for Voice Search?

 

With all that’s said, you must be wondering how to optimize your website for voice search? If you are doing good in the search rankings and following all SEO best practices, then there isn’t much work left to be done. However, if it’s otherwise, then there’s a lot of work to do.

 

Most of the primary voice searches are very specific, such as the address of a store, operating hours, customer care number, price of a product, etc. And, the other searches are question-based queries. Think of questions your customers can ask and answer them preemptively. And if you are thinking from your customer’s point will make it much easier, particularly for owners of larger websites.

 

You know your target audience well, and keep this fact in mind, consider what type of questions they’ll mostly ask, or can ask when looking for the products and services you offer. Your focus here should not be just the keyword they speak but also how the question will be framed including extra words like how, why, who, etc. Build your content around these queries.

 

Update your Google My Business listings with the correct information. The more current the information in your Google My Business listing is, the more useful it is for your customers. It is crucial for your local searches and all the necessary “near-me” and “nearby” searches. So, make sure that your Google My Business listing is as complete and comprehensive as possible.

 

Voice searches are usually longer than typical searches, so create a longtail keyword strategy to support this. As per the statistics, “The average Google voice search result contains only 29 words” (Source: Backlinko.com), and “20% of voice searches contain a combination of 25 keywords” (Source: seoClarity.net). 

Relevance and quality of the content is the most important factor we should be optimizing for. Aim for all relevant longtail keywords because voice search queries are simple questions about a product or a service. Whether it’s a product or a service, voice search will require more actionable keywords and searches.

 

Voice search needs quick results. 4.6 seconds is needed to load a voice search result page (Source: Backlinko.com). Voice search result pages load much faster, as opposed to the average page that takes about 8.8 seconds to load. That means that voice search result pages load 52% faster. If you aren’t ranking well on mobile search because of speed issues, then it might affect your voice search opportunities.

 

The best way to see where you stand when someone voices search for the products & services you offer, is to try it yourself. Like the trial and error method, play around with voice search and see what your competitors are doing in SERPs and where do you stand. You’ll also get an idea about long-tail keywords and how you can use them to boost your rankings.

 
Why Voice Search is Important?

Voice search has evolved over the years and will keep evolving in the coming years too. As per Google, Voice is the fastest growing form of search, and they are continually advancing the technology to perform better.

More importantly, as more and more devices and appliances are using the technology, website owners are gearing up for voice search, creating content, and SEO strategies to grab the opportunity.

As a digital marketer, you need to adapt and appreciate the new SEO trend, voice search, to avoid falling out of the competition. If you profoundly believe in the importance & benefits of SEO, it is time to incorporate voice search as an essential aspect to capitalize on the increasing number of people who are using these tools for web search.

 

58% of consumers in the US have searched for local businesses using voice technology (Source: Brightlocal.com). Adopting a voice search strategy is all about creating a unique experience for your customers, which is highly optimized and relevant. It builds trust, brand loyalty, and customer relationship. If you want to boost your traffic and website rankings, it is best to leverage voice search, as it is the future of SEO.

 

So? Are you ready for voice search in 2020?

Voice search is still a fad in its early phases and yet to hit proper adoption. Have you started optimizing your content for voice search? 

Voice Search isn't going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. More and more smart devices and appliances will keep hitting the market, which means that more people are going to leverage this useful feature and further influence the global market growth. So, gear up to make your website voice search-friendly. 

The time to do it is now! The sooner you begin to sow voice search optimization into your SEO strategy, the sooner you can reap the benefits.

Also Read:

Best Link Building Strategy 2021.

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