How is voice search going to effect SEO?

Do you have a smart speaker in your home? Amazon Alexa and Google Home are conquering the world. One in three Australians already use voice search tools such as Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana and Alexa. 

Users are more than happy to ask directions to their destination via voice. Enquiring about the weather, when the next blockbuster movie is screening and other, general burning questions! All these questions are contextual and incredibly relevant to the user. 

If you decide to search “Pizza near me,” you want the response to be the closest pizza shop to where you are. These searches are becoming possible because AI (Artificial Intelligence) is becoming increasingly more clever. 

The voice search systems use the search information they have to deliver us the most relevant information. If Google knows we recently searched for a pizza near us and we ended up visiting our local pizza shop’s website, the voice search will use this information when we make a voice search. 

All this information that Google has on search information makes it more customisable to whatever you are searching for. This means that every time you search, Google and other voice assistants know what you are most likely interested in. This is what makes voice search so powerful. 

But how will this affect SEO?

The idea of voice search becoming more popular is as scary as it is exciting. The elusive #1 spot in Search Engines doesn’t matter if users aren’t looking at a screen. 

How to prepare your business for voice search

Voice search is here to stay. The AI revolution happened faster than anticipated and this means that it’s now time to start preparing yourself for voice search. Be ahead of the curve and check out these basic tips about how to rank for voice search: 

• Make sure your content is factual, accurate and conversational. This is a bit difficult to explain in detail. But there is a good guideline here. This is the document that Google uses for its Quality Raters. These are users who double-check that answers that are given by Google are accurate and relevant. 
• Use long-tail conversational keywords. These long-tail keywords need to be natural in speech. A voice searcher isn’t going to search for “Pizza” but will look for “The best-rated pizza place near me”. Speaking to a search engine is very different from typing a question into a search engine. This is why HubSpot’s cluster content is so helpful. This helps you own broad, relevant content related to a specific topic. 
• Answer questions in blog posts and on your website, answer lots of them! By answering as many questions as possible, you will be more likely to become the answer to voice searches. This will get your brand in front of more people and means that more people will rely on you for answers to their questions. Which is step one in the Inbound Marketing methodology. 
• Currently, don’t build apps to sell, build experiences. Marketers are still figuring out how best to use voice search. Currently, building great brand experiences like the Westworld app build customer loyalty. Food Network created a recipe instruction app which works with their website.

Building customer experiences with voice

According to an article published by New York  Times in December 2018, which can be read here, there is a big sprint for voice activated marketing experiences. Businesses are currently not using voice assistant to sell products. They are using the voice assistant to create experiences with customers. 

A famous example is Westworld releasing the “The Maze” app before the launch of Season 2 of the infamous TV series. It allows users to play in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game. Even though it was a very niche product, it received a lot of good reviews on Amazon. 

This concept shows the way that businesses now tend to use voice assistants. Rather than using them to really sell products, making experiences like Westworld “The Maze” is a great way for users to engage with your brand. 

Get involved!

Are you interested in voice search, have you thought about ways your business can use voice search already? Know of any great voice search apps we should add to this blog?  Let us know on our social channels!