Did you know? According to a study conducted by PWC, approximately 71% of respondents would prefer using voice assistant to search for something online.
With voice assistants getting better and better at recognising and responding to human voices, it’s only a matter of time before using voice for everything becomes the norm.
In fact, some would argue we’re already well on the way!
As a digital agency that offers premium online marketing services – in particular, search engine optimisation. And with voice search growing in popularity, we’re increasingly getting a lot of people asking whether or not they should start targeting voice searches.
And that brings us to today’s question: is voice optimisation key to successful online marketing?
With the way the industry is going and the rapid growth in the use of voice assistants, the answer from us is a strong “yes!”!
How often do people use a voice assistant?
There’s no doubt that people got excited about Siri when Apple released the technology in 2014.
Of course, you’ll also probably remember how the implementation was patchy, the countless jokes online about garbled messages sent via voice recognition, and how often times one would have to put on an American accent to get any sort of result!If that was the last time you used voice search, you might be surprised to see just how far the technology has come since then.
For starters, Siri isn’t alone anymore – all the major tech companies have followed in Apple’s footsteps.
Google released Google Assistant.
Microsoft releases Cortana.
Amazon released Alexa.
Samsung launched Bixby.
And more importantly, these new voice assistants are starting to see serious usage – in particular, for performing web searches!
How many people use virtual assistants anyway?
A study completed by News and Trends showed that 45% of people have never used a voice assistant before.
That leaves 52% who have used a voice assistant before – going back to the PWC study we cited at the very beginning, we discover that:
- 59% of 18-24-year olds use their voice assistant at least once a day
- 65% of 25-49-year olds use their voice assistant at least once a day
- 57% of 50+ year olds use their voice assistant at least once a day
That’s a lot of uses – but what are they using them for?
According to both studies, routine tasks still rule the roost – people are too worried about privacy or aren’t familiar enough with the tech to use it for more advanced uses like banking.
So for the time being, it looks like voice assistants will continue to be used primarily for:
- Checking the weather
- Listening to music
- Checking the traffic
- Getting the news
- Listening to Podcasts
And of course, you can’t forget using it to perform web searches!
Is incorporating voice optimisation into your online marketing worth it?
Whether these statistics bode well or poorly for your company is something that you need to determine for yourself – if you ask us however, there are certain online marketing strategies almost any business can benefit from.
Case in point: search engine optimisation.
SEO is a powerful online marketing strategy that can bring new, more relevant leads into your business by optimising your website to appear in Google’s search pages.
And you can bet that with more and more searches being performed using voice, voice optimisation is going to become increasingly important!
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you’ll want to optimise your site for voice search now, before the competition catches on – soon enough, it may be the dominant way that anyone searches for anything.
In fact, there are even hints that Google is considering putting more weight on voice search than ever before!
How do I include voice optimisation in my online marketing?
Optimising your site for voice search sounds like a tricky task.
That’s what this Melbourne digital agency is here to help with. Let us talk you through the intricacies of online marketing, and how you can improve your site with an eye towards voice search optimisation.
Write the way you speak
When you optimise your site for text searches – you generally use keywords that are two to three words long – people don’t like typing out long, unbroken sentences when they want quick answers.
However, people talk a lot differently than they write.
Instead of searching for something nice and brief like “digital marketing agency”, they might instead search for something like “what’s the best digital marketing agency in Melbourne?”
If you want to pop up for voice searches, you’ll need to start including these search phrases in your keyword strategy.
Optimise for other search engines
Poor, neglected Bing – always overshadowed by the juggernaut that is Google.
Yes, when people think of search engines and search engine optimisation, odds are their thoughts automatically drift to Google.
We’ll admit, we’re guilty of this too!
Here’s the problem however: when it comes to voice search, Google is not the king of the hill.
Take Amazon’s Alexa or Microsoft’s Cortana, for example: rather than use Google, both employ Bing as their search engine of choice.
Assuming both are able to hold on (or even grow) their share of the voice assistant market, you might have to start putting some thought into optimising for other search engines.
Obviously, you don’t want to shift wholesale from Google to other search engines – what ranks on Google will typically also rank equally as well on Bing.
That said, it’s something you’ll want to think about!
Focus on local search
Not only do people talk differently from how they type – the sort of information they look for also differs between voice and text search.
In fact, according to Search Engine Land, a whopping 22% of voice searches deal exclusively with local information like restaurants, directions, weather, reviews and traffic, just to name a few.
Just another reason to shift your focus to local search!
For more information about local SEO, click here to learn more about local SEO, why it matters and how you can optimise for it.
Update your Google My Business Listing
Your Business Listing is crucial for good SEO – it’s especially important for voice search.
There are two reasons for this:
- Local SEO. As we mentioned before, voice searches tend to be dominated by local search – hence, anything that improves local SEO is a must-have if you want your site to be well-optimised for voice search. That means a good Google My Business Listing is a must!
- People are increasingly impatient. Why do you think voice search is taking off the way it is? Most people who use voice search are looking for information, fast – information that a business listing can provide.
Let the online marketing experts take care of your website
The digital sphere moves fast – what works today might be completely useless in a week’s time.
And with the advent of voice search, it’s becoming apparent there might be another seismic shift in the online marketing landscape very, very soon.
Or this might be completely overblown – there’s just no way to tell sometimes!
Whatever happens, you’ll want somebody who knows what they’re doing on your side.
Luckily for you, iformat’s online marketing experts make it their mission to keep on top of all the latest innovations in the world of online marketing and search engine optimisation Melbourne– we have to if we want to stay competitive!
We frequently take the time to read up on the latest announcements, experiment with new digital strategies and update clients’ (read: your) websites to ensure that it continues to generate new leads and business.
And that includes voice search.
Is voice search the way of the future? Or do you reckon it’s a fad? Get in touch with our online marketing team, or hit us up on our socials – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
And if you’re interested in turning your website into a 24/7 salesperson,call us on 1300 88 64 50.