How to Boost your SEO with Voice Search
Voice search is one of the new marketing tools used to boost the SEO of websites. The use of voice search is gaining much ground worldwide. After the arrival of Siri on Apple media, Ok Google or Cortana on Microsoft, the phenomenon now extends to the direct environment of individuals with Amazon’s “Echo” smart wizards and Google’s “Home” to answer their queries.
Voice search has become a practice anchored in the daily life of the users with a vocation of utility.
Linked to search both in mobility (looking for addresses of places), but also related to home activities (cooking, DIY), the nature of voice requests diversifies and generalizes its use.
HOW CAN VOICE SEARCH REVOLUTIONIZE SEO’s TRENDS AND IMPACTS?
The jump in voice search
A recent Google UK study * gives us figures that confirm the scale of the phenomenon:
- 42% of respondents use voice search daily, compared to 25% four years ago.
- 75% of respondents agree that they are still looking for more, as they can use mobile voice search.
- 67% use mobile text search multiple times a day and 51% use voice and text search interchangeably.
- Those who started using the voice over the last six months have more frequent use of the voice search feature.
- 57% think text search is a highly functional traditional feature, but 45% of respondents perceive voice as the search tool of the future.
- 83% agree that voice search will make it easier to find things that people want at any time.
- 89% of respondents believe that voice search will allow people to conduct searches faster than they do now and also expect Google to be smart enough to recognize voices and respond accordingly.
Consumers need more speed, commitment, and response to their needs
Two factors impact the respondent’s feedback and the user experience with voice search:
- Age of consumers: Google UK’s study found that 50% of millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) feel frustrated by the slow speed of page loading, compared to only 28% of seniors from 35 to 44. Thus, the youngest generations have a higher demand for instantaneity, thus requiring the progress of the mobile supports on this aspect. So: optimization of the loading speed would drastically reduce the frustration related to the vocal experience.
- The knowledge and extent of the capabilities of the tool: 57% of respondents said they would use the search tool more if it offered more complex orders, as well as if they benefited from more detailed search results. Finally, 42% also pointed out that their use would increase if they knew of a better way to use voice search. So: more pedagogy and results.
As a follow-up to both, Matt Bush, Google UK agency manager, said:
“Our survey shows the potential of voice and research more broadly as a way for brands to authentically communicate with the public. By taking the time to learn how consumers use it, given the impact of external factors on consumer perceptions, as well as the recognition of search capabilities that can be improved through voice, text and mobile platforms, it will become a very successful channel of communication that will lead to personal and engaging relationships with those who take consumers more into account.”
* 3,000 people responded for 15 minutes to an online survey, as part of this Google UK study.
Consumer behavior: a new habit is born!
A prerequisite for the development of mobile search includes that machine learning and natural language processing must be able to optimize speech recognition technology to interpret better and understand consumer demands and orders.
On this subject, the voice search has already made significant progress regarding context, because if you ask, for example, “How long to go to Paris,” you can then ask “Where can I stop to do gasoline? “, Without needing to re-specify the destination.
What about this upheaval in the brand-consumer relationship?
Here we are! The growing adoption of voice is timely for brands and agencies. Reinventing the relationship with the public, in search of a stronger, faster, more efficient experience, but also more personalized, at least that is the promise that lies behind the boom in voice search.
As an expert in the digital visibility of companies, how can we position ourselves to bring more value-added? Specifically, on the issue of SEO that is directly impacted by this new practice?
The answer is simple: Create meeting points between the brand and its audiences.
Then What is Voice Search?
Instead of typing one (or more) keyword (s) on the web search bar, voice search allows you to spell out a complete sentence, often in the form of a question. The results are then refined and allowed to respond more quickly and more succinctly to the requests made by users.
Experts believe that within two years, Web searches will now be done by voice command.
As more and more e-consumers use their Smartphone to surf the Web, the use of this kind of marketing tool will improve the user experience.
Indeed, the interaction will be more natural, and searches will be simplified.
What impact does voice search have on SEO and site content?
Many things since it pushes our practices to get even closer to the consumer’s needs.
From unidirectional and top-down communications, the approach tends to evolve towards more interactions and exchanges. Now is the time for the delivery of answers, a user-centric tour approach, from the era of the search engine to that of the search engine. How does it translate now?
The conversational query, long and rich
During SEO CAMP 2017, voice search was ranked as one of the top 5 SEO in 2017. And for a good reason, it redefines maps and strategies. Why? Because it generates a new form of research closer to the conversation than the simple keyword. It creates unique searches and therefore very different from one or two keywords on which SEOs used to position themselves.
So we can easily understand that textual queries on keyboard and voice searches will be completely different. Some notable differences between the two are:
- The questions will be lengthened: like the phenomenon observed on the search with the average number of keywords which is extended in the requests (we push irreparably towards the strategy of a long train):
Back in 2016 the distribution of questions according to the number of keywords **
- One keyword: 2.4% of searches
- Two keywords: 22.9% of searches
- Three keywords: 34.1% of searches
- Four keywords: 22% of searches
- Five keywords: 10.8% of searches
- Six keywords: 4,6% of searches
- Seven keywords: 1,9% of searches
- More than seven keywords: 1.2% of searches
- The average is 5 or even three keywords per request
** Source:YOODA Insight, which extracted search data from Google.com on a volume of 100 million queries
- Besides, queries will tend to use question words such as “where,” “how,” “how much,” “who,” “what” or action words like “order” … As shown by elsewhere the chart related to the search “Paris” (“how to go to Paris cheap,” “how to go to Paris Plage,” “where to eat in Paris” …)
- Real sentences will replace a succession of keywords. To go fast, and finally match the wait engines, users tend to write several keywords without binding (without determinants, preposition, etc.). Voice search should facilitate sentence-based queries with the correct syntax. For example, a question like “SEO voice search” will become “how to improve SEO for voice search.” A perfect example: A grandmother once asked Google to “please translate this Roman number thank you”… We are entirely oriented towards this type of service, able to provide answers. So she had already understood everything from conversational research before the hour: so we must have a conversation with the search engine!
- Still, in this wave of interrogative sentences, the advantage of the assistants is that they can recognize spelling errors. The only downside on which the research is not yet developed: the assistants are not however able to interpret the intonations, hesitations. However, they are nevertheless able to manage the accents (especially google assistant)
The era of questions and answers
- Voice requests often take the form of questions, so we can think that forums or question-answer sites can be promoted in results.It is also often in these sites that the natural language is used to exchange: “how to go” “what type of product used” what hotel to choose.”
- In the results of the Sunnyreport – USA survey – dating back to 2015, which shows the main reasons for using voice search according to age. With a constant, however, the demand for the route and the calls remain in the front line.
Mobility at the heart of local SEO
- This study also shows us a space of visibility not to be neglected for companies: work on local queries and position on Google My Business remain essential to local SEO: when we know that 38% of teenagers and 40% of adults use mobile voice search, it is necessary to multiply the chances of acquiring this traffic by optimizing its Google My Business profile!
How then do I integrate voice search with its SEO strategy?
For SEO agencies & SEO experts, the goal now is to integrate voice search with Web SEO strategies.
To do this, we start by aiming for the zero position in the search engine results.
To reach the top of the ranking is essential to develop your Web strategy from the demand of Internet users. Allowing to improve the Web positioning and also to respond more effectively to requests made by potential customers.
How to boost your web strategy through voice search?
To optimize the referencing of the Web page and thus simplify the concordance with voice requests, it is vital to opt for content marketing and to offer clear answers to the requests most frequently made by Internet users.
Since we know that voice search is close to conversational research, we must favor the use of natural language in the creation of content and use so-called long tail keywords.
It goes without saying that for the content strategy to be effective, the site must be accessible via smartphones since more than 90% of Internet users have been regularly searching mobile devices for the last few years, whether on a tablet or Smartphone.
Mobile users also associate their voice requests with the geolocation function to quickly and easily find a restaurant, a shop or a service provider, allowing them to locate this or that sign easily.
Also, to position themselves in the search engine results, companies have every interest to work on their SEO and give good visibility to their brand especially on the mobile Web.
The advent of voice search can optimize web pages and offer specific content, responding to the demand of Internet users.
Remember that to ensure the acquisition of traffic on its site, is necessary to adopt a good content and digital marketing strategy. Including using a natural tone and creating high value-added content that will be suitable for both voice search and SEO Best Practices.
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