Voice search and SEO

When you research into who is using voice search, why they’re using it and where they’re using it, it is clear that there is an impact on B2B SEO – there is sure to be a surge in optimising for voice search.

So who is using voice search?

From 2014, voice search rose in popularity, especially amongst teens, 55% of whom were using it. Adults also got on board, 41% to be precise. The difference in usage was as follows…

• Adults use it to dictate texts  – it was concluded that the preference to typing perhaps originated from a desire to avoid typing on small devices.
• Teens – teens were found to be using it for help with homework which showed an early example of voice technology for organic search.

Personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Window’s Cortana are already becoming increasingly popular – the main reasons that people use voice search is to facilitate searches and as the world continues to become more fast-paced this will only attract more users. A second reason voice search is growing in popularity is because users can avoid any confusing site menus. Did you know that humans can speak more than 3 times as many words per minute as they can type? This surely will inform the future of voice search.

In terms of optimising for voice search, you should begin optimising for featured snippets. You should aim to find the keywords you currently rank for and analyse search results for user intent, then update the content to gain a more definitive answer. In doing this you will leverage your brand recognition if a digital marketing assistant reads your business’s name as the source of an answer in response to a voice search query.

• Mobile orientate – Voice searches are most likely to be conducted on mobiles, which makes mobile optimisation very important. Rather than simply offering simple responsive design you will need to look at page load speeds and your navigation menus and at how your videos are formatted.
• Targeting long-tail keywords – One of the main differences between typed search and voice search is that the former will generally be longer and use a more colloquial style of language. Target these long-tail keywords to cater for this.

If you would like more information about the services we offer here at Hooked On, please do not hesitate to contact us.