As we come to the end of 2017, the power of the voice has never been more important or prevalent in society. Because of this, voice-enabled systems, in particular, have become a major player in the world of technology. No longer is it unimaginable to able to talk to a machine and have it answer back with suggestions to the best Mexican restaurant in town, or which groomers to take your dog to. According to a VentureBeat article by John Francis Hawthorne, today’s voice applications are no doubt infiltrating our daily lives and making their way toward mainstream adoption. As voice search is growing more common SEO could become a thing of the past.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (also known as SEO) is basically a way to optimize a website so that it is more recognizable by a search engine. For example, if a person wants their web design company to be one of the top few listings when someone searches for “Web designs” they would use SEO as a tool to help accomplish this. According to TechTerms “SEO involves a number of adjustments to the HTML of individual Web pages to achieve a high search engine ranking.”
Why Voice?
People like making their lives easier in any way that they can and voice-enabled systems are a way to do just that. Hawthorne said, that voice search has become a convenient, user-friendly experience, and consumers are embracing it so much so that it is becoming one of the most important technology/computing trends of this year and next. Why type it, when you can simply say it and get a more personalized, convenient response?
SEO is Simply Not Enough
In order for brands and marketers to grow and improve they need to move past Search Engine Optimization and take advantage of the growing voice search trends. Because of the growing importance of voice search in technology, Search Engine Optimization does not have all the capabilities to reassure a top listings web page. Hawthorne said “the rules around SEO were built on a user typing a query into a browser-based search engine. Voice search is a different animal.”
“The most helpful response is one that knows the location of the request, recommends a service provider rated highly by a neighbor, then goes even further by automatically offering to call the business and even set up an appointment” (Venturebeat). Voice search allows for users to have this specialized and personalized message or response based on long tail search terms of five words or more, instead of just a few keywords. In order to optimize search results, Search Engine Optimization needs to adapt to understand the nature of a conversational voice and base keywords around what is anticipated to be a sentence people might say when searching for a topic.
According to Search Engine People, 20 percent of mobile searches on Google are made via voice. This is important because Google is one of the top search engines people use. Therefore, if marketers are relying solely on Search Engine Optimization to optimize their website, they could miss out on being a top listing for 20 percent of mobile searches done on Google. The article said “finding a way to take advantage of the growing voice search trend is definitely a no-brainer for marketers and advertisers.”
Key Takeaways
Search Engine Optimization is a helpful tool for the digital world and marketers but it is not enough. Voice-enabled systems are not only becoming more common but also providing people with better more personalized responses. Marketers should take advantage of this growing trend and these exciting new opportunities and adapt to meet better voice search capabilities. Hawthorne said, “this will ultimately allow them to reach a wider audience and be able to engage in a more meaningful dialogue.”
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