Wait! before knowing “how voice search affecting ?”, get aware with voice searches. So voice search describes searches you perform using your voice. These searches are conducted with a voice assistant like Siri, Cortana, Google Home, Alexa, etc instead of manually typing your search into the browser on your phone or computer. Voice searches is a specific technology that is based on speech recognition. It allows its users to search by saying terms out loud instead of typing them into a search bar. After a thorough analysis of its expansive database, the technology will return the matching answer in the form of a direct result rather than a search result page.

How is voice search changing SEO?

The rise of mobile search

As voice search represents a much easier process than typing a request, its number of users has been consistently on the rise for the past few years. This effect is coupled with the increasing number of people owning a smartphone hence an increase in mobile search. Indeed, people are now more likely to use their mobile device instead of their laptop or desktop when requesting information. A study from Northstar Research revealed that 55 percent of teenagers are using voice searches every day and that 56% of adults use voice search because it makes them “feel tech-savvy”. These same adults tend to use voice search to mainly ask for directions.

The appearance of conversational queries

This phenomenon is not that surprising knowing that voice search is clearly easier than text input. Indeed, the search becomes more natural when it is spoken out loud. It is compatible and essential to our pursuit of an efficient multi-tasking life. Most of us are looking for quick ways to fix and know things. And digital assistants and voice search, in general, are the perfect tools to do so.

The opportunities for local SEO

Moreover, mobile voice searches are three times more likely to be local than text as mobile users are regularly looking for information with location enabled. There is thus a huge opportunity for businesses and site owners in terms of ranking for local voice searches. Some quick SEO mobile optimizations can be performed by local businesses in order to stay competitive.

How to adapt your SEO strategy to voice search?

Adjust your content for natural language

As voice search queries are more conversational than typed ones, it is important to find ways to adapt to it. Mobile devices users will now not simply ask for a ‘classy green dress’ for example but ‘find an affordable green dress suitable for a wedding’. Queries are thus longer but also more informal than usual. Try to create content that can match this informal and conversational tone.

Use voice search yourself

A simple yet very efficient way to understand the impact of voice search on your strategy is to use it yourself. There is no better way to see the kind of results it delivers for your website. If you look for the different questions that might bring users towards your website, you will see where it ranks compared to the top and decide eventually on a specific strategy for voice search.