Voice Search: Is it really the next big thing and what does that mean for SEO?

Voice Search lets you talk to your smart devices rather than having you type search queries manually and is an emerging trend that has threatened to turn the marketing world on its head. But are we seeing the great strides predicted as we’ve moved through the first part of 2019? It would appear not.

People are certainly getting more comfortable with the concept of using voice assistants to perform various tasks. In fact, a report published by National Public Media found that there are more than 40 million smart speaker users in the U.S. alone. That being said, we haven’t necessarily seen an overwhelming move towards voice search in the last 12 months.

For the third year in a row, a study from Stone Temple surveyed more than 1,500 people to better understand mobile voice usage trends. Here are some of their findings:

infographic showing some results of a study on the use of voice search

Even though we’ve seen less progression in the use of voice search this year than many predicted, don’t count out this technology quite yet. Across the board, the industry is predicting 2020 as the year that voice search truly flourishes. So, what does that mean for businesses?

As technologies like those used in voice search become more sophisticated, they will be better able to understand the nuances and semantics of what people are looking for. This will result in better accuracy in finding what searchers want. Voice searches are over 75% longer than text searches. Because of the differences between the way people type and speak their searches, keyword length will increase which means companies will need to adjust their approach to SEO.

Brands need to change their content strategy to include long-tail keywords or keyword phrases made up of three or more individual words. This practice will help businesses better match the voice search language of their target audience. These longer phrases are essential for a winning SEO strategy because they are specific and communicate clear search intent. They also typically have a higher conversion rate than less specific phrases.

 

The experts at Strategy Driven Marketing can’t wait to see how new technology impacts digital marketing trends as it improves and reshapes the world of marketing. We’d love to deep dive into your business to better understand how SDM can help you reevaluate your SEO strategy and utilize the latest marketing techniques to offer a user experience your customers will love. We’ll listen, ask a lot of questions, and create a marketing plan uniquely tailored to your brand. Contact us today to get started!


Cover photo by Caio Resende from Pexels