Voice search is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to engage with technology, with over 25% of individuals from Western countries using digital voice assistants several times a day.
The Increase of Voice Search
It’s not just the use of Alexa or Google Assistants, people are choosing to speak to their smartwatches, browsers, phones and more with increasing frequency. This way of searching and interacting with technology is particularly popular with younger generations, as they tend to choose this quicker option, whilst also expecting immediate more accurate results than ever before.
Aside from using voice to find answers, it has been recorded that Gen Alpha are using it to navigate the internet, play interactive games, create playlists, aid social interactions and more. This adoption and innovative use of the technology will drive change in how content is delivered, leading to more natural voice interactions.
Improvements in natural voice processing means people will be able to use voice search with more conversational tones and ask more long-form complex questions, rather than just short commands. As voice assistants learn an individual’s tone, words and phrases it will enable more accurate and personal results. Voice search has also positively impacted accessibility for people with visual impairments and other disabilities, allowing them to access information more easily.
Voice Search Marketing Optimisation
A shift to more natural interactions encourages more regular use, meaning that search engines must adapt to interpret and deliver results. Content will also need to be created and optimised with this in mind, to provide users with the seamless experience they are expecting.
These changes are expected to have an impact on SEO, with keywords becoming more conversational with longer long tail keywords becoming more regular. As marketers, it is important to provide the most relevant content that provides the best results for clients.
Traditionally, typed searches tend to be minimalist with very few words, whereas with voice search it is much more conversational and will likely be more grammatically correct. Therefore, more natural sounding responses need to be crafted in order to rank for voice search. Put simply, it is all about providing the best answer to the questions. Around 70% of voice search results are pulled from featured snippets, so the same best practices that apply to ranking top in featured snippets apply to voice search – craft your content around commonly asked questions and use headers to organise the text.
For more help with SEO and voice search optimisation, contact the team at WillCreate today.