How Voice Search and AI Assistants Are Changing SEO and What Your Business Should Do About It

Did you know that over 51% of smartphone users discover a new product or company while conducting searches on their devices? That goes to show how powerful our phones have become — and how reliant on this technology we are. Therefore, any business owner that hasn’t factored in mobile friendliness to their website design will end up doing themselves a disservice.

But keep in mind that it isn’t only about the experience that smartphone users have once they land on your website. In order to attract these consumers to your site in the first place, you need to optimize properly. Search engine optimization has evolved a lot over the years. And now that many of us rely on voice searches, rather than text searches, to find the information we need, you may find that your SEO strategy needs to catch up.

Let’s talk a bit about voice search’s growing popularity and how it’s impacted digital marketing (and SEO, specifically).

What Is Voice Search and Why Has It Become So Popular?

Voice search is a feature that comes standard on many cell phones, computers, tablets, and other smart devices that allows the user to conduct search queries by speaking (instead of manually typing into a search bar). Any time you’ve used voice-to-text or voice dialing to send a message or place a call, you’ve utilized the same technology that allows you to conduct voice searches. This technology has highly advanced speech recognition capabilities that can decipher the words being spoken aloud and then search the internet for answers to that query.

Voice search has become extremely popular due to the convenience and speed it offers. Voice search allows you to find a solution to your problem without having to physically type, making it easier to conduct hands-free searches. You can also conduct voice searches with help from digital assistants, like Alexa or Siri, which can allow you to multitask or find out the quickest answer in a way that closer replicates a conversation. Instead of sifting through pages of SERPs, you can rely on your device to pick the best response and provide it to you in a straightforward way. Not only does this save time, but it can make for a more positive experience overall.

How Has Voice Search Changed Search Engine Optimization?

As you might imagine, voice search has already had substantial impacts on the way we optimize. Estimates showed that half of all internet searches would be made via voice search by this year — which means Google has granted a greater emphasis to voice search and may reward websites for factoring this into their search engine optimization.

As a result, natural language and intended meaning now play a larger part in SEO. While traditional web searches might contain four to six words in an incomplete sentence, voice searches typically involve a full question or organic-sounding phrases. Instead of hitting all of the keywords possible, it’s more about highlighting relevant questions that a user might ask. If you can capture those questions as part of your search engine optimization, you’ll have a better chance of your website showing up in relevant voice searches.

Overall, you should create content that mirrors the way that people speak. If you want to show up in voice search, you should also concentrate more on location-based content, develop content that could easily translate into featured snippets, and ensure that your website is responsive. These SEO tactics can help your site’s rankings and allow those who conduct voice searches to get as most out of your site as possible.

Now that you understand the critical role that voice search might play in how users find and use your website, you can work with an agency that specializes in SEO services in Naples FL to develop a strategy that factors voice search into the equation. For more information on how we can help to optimize your website properly in 2020, please contact us today.