How voice search is changing SEO
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Using your voice to search for things on the internet through things like voice and virtual assistants has grown in popularity over the years. Devices like Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa are in most people’s homes, and even though they are widely popular among consumers, these smart devices have not fully taken over the market as people may have anticipated.
Despite all of this, people also talk into their smartphones and accompanying devices to search the web, particularly since the introduction of Siri and Apple Watches. When you think about voice search the majority of the activity is on your smartphone for this reason, even though there is some evidence that shows voice adoption may not be as popular when first introduced.
Meanwhile, companies like Google continue to spend copious amounts of money on understanding the way we humans interact and speak to each other as well as our language. Google’s BERT algorithm is a leading but not sole example of the California-based company trying to understand search intent in a more profound way, using natural language understanding.
There have been accuracy improvements when it comes to voice search, but not when it comes to Alexa. Accuracy improvements seem to be paying off. A recent data study from SEMrush compared the performance of Siri, Alexa and the Google Assistant on four different devices. In that study it shows that only 6.3 percent of questions were not answered in the sum as opposed to 35 percent a year ago, SEMrush says citing Forrester data.
Even though previous virtual assistant studies have placed accuracy among the competitors differently, data shows Google Assistant on Android smartphones and Siri had two percent of unanswered questions compared to Alexa, which couldn’t answer 23 percent of questions. That shows a notable advancement for Siri and a potential lessening in quality for Alexa.
That study also emphasizes local search and identifies voice search ranking factors. It also looks at the underlying data sources utilized by the three assistants, as well as the associated SEO implications for marketers.
Google Home and Siri responded to the same questions and overlapped only 10 percent of the time. However, there was only a one percent answer overlap across Google, Siri and Alexa in the study.
SEMrush recommends standard optimizations for Google. If you want to focus on Google My Business, use structured data as well as create conversational content that responds to common user questions about your products and services. In contrast, Siri’s local search ranking factors included things like distance, review volume, star ratings and price.
The study also compared Siri results for “restaurants near me” and “best restaurant near me” and found insignificant differences in the SERP. In the previous example, distance and number of reviews were the key variables factored into those search results. When the modifier “best” was used, however, Siri seems to downplay vicinity and maintain the average star rating.
Optimizing for local search on Apple Maps or Siri means optimizing for Yelp, which in turn involves things like developing and improving Yelp business profiles, determining the right business categories, adding tons of images, which is important for GMB, as well as using related keywords in Yelp profile content and keeping a constant stream of reviews flowing and responding to those reviews.
Executing SEO best practices, like SEO Hobart, should mean that marketers do relatively well in voice search results. The study shows that there are also particular optimizations for each of the platforms based on their local data sources. And while there are some specific voice or conversational optimizations, generating the right content for clients and potential clients — while paying attention to listings and review management best practices — will be a great thing to improving your SEO.
Conclusion
Voice search is changing many aspects of SEO in ways that we could not have prepared for. Artificial intelligence technology is advancing. We are using virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Home Hub, Google Home Mini, Siri and Android. The next time you are considering optimizing your SEO for your business, do not forget about voice search results as they also play a role in your SEO.
In a nutshell, make sure that you have a business profile online either through Yelp or Google. When you create a business profile, make sure that you are using the correct business category. Adding images to your profile will make your company look more relatable and trusting. All of these things are how voice search is changing SEO.
