The constant changes occurring during our digital age do not bypass online marketing by any means. Innovations such as speakers or voice assistants play an important role, serving as tools for the so-called “voice search”. So, what is this anyway? And how can you make use of it?
Voice Search is a technology that allows users to perform internet searches via voice commands. The answers to their questions can even be read back out loud. Software to support this can be found on most computers, smartphones, and smart devices these days.
One useful upgrade: many of these devices can be connected to your smart home system and thus can be used to turn off lights or play music.
As has become quite obvious in the past few years, the more technology develops, the more popular it becomes. Estimates say that up to 75% of US households will have smart speakers by the year 2025. Voice search experts claim this could be even more.
So how does searching change with voice assistants? And do websites need to be re-optimized to account for this?
The most well-known voice search devices are Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana.
In general, it can be said that any time a new technological advancement enters the market and becomes more popular, it definitely has an impact on human life and search engine optimization.
For one, the flow of natural speech must be factored in more now. On your smartphone, you may type in “weekend weather New York City”, but using your voice assistant you would more likely to ask “what will the weather be like this weekend in New York City?” This should be kept in mind when creating new content for websites.
Even more important to remember is the fact that voice search results only show the best result, which is often then read aloud. Users don’t scroll through the results on their own anymore, looking for what they feel is the most relevant search result. This creates more and more pressure to be listed with a top ranking in search engine rankings.
In addition, local searches are also becoming more relevant. The most common search queries via voice search are short, simple questions, such as what time it is. Studies show that many voice searches are done at a local level, such as “where is a coffee shop near me?” This means that Google algorithms will be focusing more and more on local searches.
Here are some tips for voice SEO:
- Page speed optimization: Websites that are read by voice search load on average in 4.6 seconds, or about 52% quicker than the average website.
- HTTPS: HTTPS websites dominate in voice search results on Google (70.4% of websites on the first page of Google results are secured as HTTPS sites).
- Short and sweet: Most search results are 29 words long.
- Authoritative domain: Websites with lots of strong links are listed more often as answers to queries via voice search.
- Social engagement: On average, a voice search result will be tweeted 44x and is shared 1,199x on Facebook. Officially, however, Google has said that its algorithm does not use these social signals.
- Clarity: Content that is easy to read and understand is at the top of its class in voice SEO. Top search results are written at the average reading level of a ninth-grader.
- Quality over quantity: The average word count for voice search results that are read aloud is 2,312 words, of which only 1% is read out loud. We can still assume that the entire text is still read and interpreted by AI sources.
- Ranking: Websites that have good rankings on SERPs for desktops generally also have good chances to be displayed with the corresponding voice search keyword. About 75% of voice search results are found in the top 3 for that term.
- Featured snippet: There is a high possibility a position zero in the search results would also lead to a voice search result ranking. Over 40% of the answers to voice search keywords came from featured snippets.
