How Voice Search Impacts the future of SEO

Technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have brought in a certain level of sophistication to the way we search. While voice search was pretty basic in the past couple of years, it has already begun to change how people interact with their devices. Virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc. have become more integral to the way people search on the internet. These include basic activities like finding nearby restaurants or ATMs, setting up appointments, searching for information or even calling/messaging others through Whatsapp, Skype or any other preferred choice of communication.

How voice search impacts SEO in the future?

The answer is – voice search is the future of SEO. Andrew Ng, the Chief Scientist at Baidu says that least 50% of searches by 2020 are going to be through images or speech! That’s a huge opportunity and potential market that needs to be capitalized upon.

Here are the reasons why businesses should be focusing on using voice search:

Increase in productivity:

Why type your queries, when you can simply speak and get them answered? You get to save a considerable amount of time by switching to voice search instead of using a keyboard to type. And that’s how you increase your productivity. Besides anyone can easily access voice recognition systems such as someone is blind or can’t use a screen for some reason.

This is even more relevant today, based on the choice of devices that people use. Most people who are managers and above are increasingly using their mobile devices and tablet PCs to manage their day to day work. Typing on these devices is not easy. A voice search can significantly help matters. it becomes clear how Voice Search Impacts SEO.

Leverage speed:

Voice search is faster than any other search program. Think about how quickly you type in the required questions and compare that speed with speaking out loud. Of course for a majority, voice search will help them get their questions answered sooner than typing.

Save time:

As speech frequency is faster in comparison to words, a lot of time can be saved. It becomes easy for people to opt for voice search wherever possible as it is more convenient compared to other options.

Although there are a few problems that voice search still needs to overcome, such as speaking in silent areas or understanding speech-impaired people. Other than that it can be still a power tool in the future.

How to Optimize Voice Search SEO :–

Increase focus on long tail keywords:

Optimizing your content with long tail keywords is always recommended but it is more important than ever before. Now these long tail keywords have to be in a form that people use in their daily conversations. You should be able to identify what words your target segment uses to find information about you or similar products and services. Be prepared to anticipate queries that machines cannot.Ways to generate leads using SEO

Schema markup

Get detailed information about schema markup so that you are able to provide context to all the existing content. As it happens with SEO, any search engine will be able to comprehend what your site is about and get you a chance of ranking higher than your competitors. As of now only 0.3% of websites are said to be using schema markup today which means you have the potential to capitalize on a huge source of SEO.10 Ways to Improve SEO Rankings

Importance of correct company information:

It is easy to take this part for granted but it is very important to publish accurate information about your office location, opening and closing hours, name of the company as well as other small details on whichever platform your business is published on. These are some of the basic questions that users will ask in their voice search query and if it happens to be incorrect then the search engine i.e. Google in this case, could lower your ranking.

Focus on becoming more mobile-friendly

The use of smartphones has increased dramatically in the past few years. A vast majority now replies on their phones for many tasks and responsibilities so it makes sense that your website is mobile friendly. Suppose it takes too long to load or worse, is not optimized for mobiles then you have lost a major chunk of your target audience. Make sure that your site is optimized for  for all operating systems as well as for smartphones, laptops and computers.

With the ever increasing number of people starting to use voice search, companies simply cannot afford to get left behind.  We hope we were able to do justice to this topic, How Voice Search Impacts SEO. While voice search may not completely replace standard SEO practices, it is going to a major factor in searching. Thus companies need to optimize correctly and efficiently otherwise they could be easily defeated by those who do follow these practices.