AI units such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa have become so pervasive that they ceased to be more than digital voice assistants. People even think that they have a distinct personality that reflects their respective voices. According to Statista, by 2023, there would have been eight billion voice assistants to be used all over the globe. The number is higher than the total world population. The increase is also more than double compared to the 3.25 billion units of digital voice assistants across devices in 2019.
People have been using voice search to control other devices, ask questions, or inquire about recipes and the weather. But more and more consumers are using AI units for shopping. The US Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2019, for instance, revealed that more than 66 million owners used their AI units to purchase an item online in 2018. At that time, more than a quarter of Americans owned a smart speaker at home.
On the global scale, the number of users is expected to balloon to 843 million by 2021 from 155 million in 2015, said the report by Tractica. In terms of revenues, the amount is projected to grow 10x from $1.6 billion in 2015 to $15.8 billion in 2021.
SEO for Voice Search
Those who have tried Google search during its early beginnings know well that the results were mostly a hit-and-miss operation. However, the search giant has fine-tuned its algorithms that you can hardly make any complaints right now. In fact, it is almost scary how Google seems to read your mind, suggesting content that you seem to be thinking at that moment.
In the same vein, voice search has also become more accurate in terms of providing the results, thanks to big data.
Marketing managers will now have to shift their SEO campaigns to voice. It is the future of search, after all. Consumers use voice when they are driving, working, cooking, doing the laundry, and multi-tasking. They will ask about when the store will close or open, the address of the store, or pull out data when they are preparing for a meeting.
The more information and patterns it will gather based on your search history, the more accurate the results would be. These smart assistants also use algorithms that are triggered by a particular “wake command.” So, when you say, “Hey Google,” the speaker will pay particular attention to what you say afterward.
Optimizing for Voice Search
However, there is a difference between voice and writing SEO. When you optimize for the Google search, you focus on some keywords they might use. They tend to be short and not even a full sentence. With voice, people tend to ask the question like they would ask somebody else.
For example, if you are hungry, you would write “best restaurants near me.” However, with the voice assistant, people will likely ask, “Hey, Google, where could I find a restaurant with the juiciest steaks here?”
As you might expect, it changes the way you will optimize your content to make sure you will be high up in the list of recommendations for voice search. Fortunately, some SEO consultants specialize in voice search by utilizing analytics and insights to understand consumer behavior, brand habits, and shopping trends.
