It’s no secret that search engine optimization is a constantly evolving field that requires new strategies and tweaks to old ones to stay ahead. While the tried and true strategies like premium link building are still as important as ever, adapting to voice search is imperative for any successful SEO strategy moving forward.
While it’s still difficult to estimate the full impact of voice search on the future, it’s clear that marketers need to think about its relevance to their campaigns, and SEO agencies need to start optimizing for it.
Voice search boasts unrivaled convenience
AI assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Bixby, and Google Assistant have made things more convenient than ever. Voice search allows users to search the internet by simply speaking their inquiry aloud, and the assistant reports result orally to the user. While the concept of “talking to our computers” was the stuff of science fiction not so long ago, voice search is now relatively standard.
Voice search is starting to dominate simply due to how convenient it is for the end-user. Instead of taking the time to go to a search engine and type out their inquiry, users can simply speak into their smartphone or smart speaker to get nearly instantaneous results. While it’s true that this is most useful for simple questions and fact-finding, further advancements in voice search could easily make it the preferred method for the majority of internet users.
Oral delivery of information is also more convenient for the user, as audio content can be consumed passively. You can listen to audio content while cooking a meal, cleaning your home, or while finishing up a paper. It’s a simple, hands-free option that’s minimally distracting.
More content is built for voice search
In the early days, search engines acted much like librarians. They helped you find answers to your questions in written form and then absorbed more information to narrow the results. This was exactly what was needed back when most web contents was in written form.
Today, however, with cheaper storage, more powerful devices, and faster internet options, video, and audio content is more plentiful than ever. With new forms of content comes different ways of searching for it. Thanks to social media, video streaming platforms, and other factors, video content now drives a huge percentage of internet traffic.
In fact, viral videos generate roughly 12 times the shares of images and text. The majority of consumers also say that video content about products is more helpful than anything else. The internet is revolving around video content, and voice search and assistants are made to seek this content out.
Voice search is the simplest solution
In addition to being convenient to use, voice search also gives the simplest results. When a user asks about the weather outside, they aren’t looking to be directed to their local weather station’s site or to pull up the Weather Channel app. They just want to be told the exact information they asked for, and voice search delivers. Voice search is about getting facts, and the source of the facts is less important.
This has some obvious downsides, of course. Can the “facts” being given by voice search results be trusted if it’s not clear where they’re coming from? This means that high ranking content providers will need to strive to provide the most accurate content possible, and for those looking to increase their rankings, it will be more important than ever before to create relevant, original, and high-quality content.