The Impact of Voice Technology on SEO Marketing
Voice technology is one of the coolest tech innovations that is transforming the way we live our ‘digital’ lives. All of a sudden, we can now see a world where everything we do would be voice-based! Just before we jump into analyzing that world, we need to talk about the basics of this voice technology which we are all enjoying using Virtual Personal Assistants like Alexa and co. Voice technology simply converts human speech to on-screen texts which is then processed to carry out commands that computer software can obey using the process of speech recognition. Voice search is now one of the most popular products of voice technology.
Google claims that many more users will start using and adapting to carrying out all searches through voice search tools. This, however, doesn’t mean that the traditional method of searching for information would be wiped off. It only means that search engine result pages will have to be better optimized for voice search users. The implication of this is that brands with websites will have to start creating or updating content on their website to suit the kind of SEO requirements for voice search query result so that they can rank higher.
Brands now have to ensure that they are the most unique, trusted, helpful, interesting and authoritative source of information for users using voice search tools. If you want to be certain that your online marketing is well-suited to voice searches, it would be a good idea to contact a professional voice technology SEO marketing agency. There is no doubt that voice technology will impact SEO marketing. The obvious question is “How?”. Let us look at 7 ways in which voice technology is impacting SEO marketing today.
1. Content will be more conversational
Traditional search engine optimization methods require short tail keywords, but voice search content is quite the opposite of that. Rather, conversational content with long tail keywords would be used for creating content that would be relevant to voice searches. One easy way to create such content is by starting off with questions that your target audience frequently ask you. Such questions usually have the elements of what, why, when, who, how, where, being the first words that start such voice search queries. Brands can develop all possible questions that their target audience might ask them and use it to create content that will help them rank higher.
2. Brands will need to improve on website speed
For now, most people access their voice search tools with their mobile devices others either use Google Home, Alexa by Amazon or Siri by Apple. For mobile phone users making use of voice search tools, brands have to be very conscious about the speed at which their websites open and who friendly it is to multiple mobile devices and web browsers.
3. More focus would be on user experience
Voice search tools on most mobile devices, before now, were not as efficient as they are today. Google decided to work extra hard on the voice search tool to make it 95% effective – just try it out and see for yourself. Obviously, the need to improve the way people search for information on the move was what led to these improvements. So if big brands like Google are consistently looking out to improve user experience they also expect the same from brands that want to rank high for any voice related searches. Another feature brands will have to consider when trying to improve the user experience of voice search users is the landing page of their website.
4. The need for more specific and accurate content
The SEO terrain is going to be very strong in providing voice search users with very accurate information in a very timely manner. Search Engine algorithms will also be upgraded to be able to quickly detect authentic content and the ones that are not. This also implies that some website will be pushed far down the search engine results page (SERP) of these web crawlers are able to detect over time, several contents that are not authentic. So brands need to tread carefully here to ensure they always provide authentic content.
5. There is going to be an increase in the use of local SEO
Quite a lot of brands are still wrapping their heads around local SEO but with the continuous use of voice searches, we are going to see more location-based content. Voice search users, according to Google, are always on the move and often request for information based on the location that they are heading towards or currently are. The more localized content is, the more specific results voice search users will receive. This improves their user experience as well as build trust and confidence in the website that is able to provide that information.
6. Users will rely more on online reviews
If you have attempted using voice search to talk about a place to buy something, one of the interesting features you will observe on search engine results page is that it also shows the reviews people have given the brand. With this voice search, users can make better-informed decisions about whether they want to go ahead to purchase from best ranking results or scroll down to others that have better reviews online.
7. More personalized adverts
There will increase in more user-based and personalized adverts for voice-based searches. Based on the buying habits of the user, adverts shown to users will be based on what they consistently search for, what they are currently searching for, products or services offering what the user is searching for as well the buying habits of the user.