The holidays are coming! We have reached that time of year where the world around us becomes a bit more fast paced. Did you know that a majority of people use voice search technology to do their holiday shopping? Voice search technology has been big in 2018, and as we move towards the close of this year you’ll want to stay involved with these updates.
What is Voice Search?
Directly defined, it is speech recognition technology, allowing users to search by speaking terms aloud, instead of typing them.
Speech recognition can be implemented in several everyday uses:
- Conducting informational searches.
- Requesting specific information about something (sports scores, time zone information, prices of items, etc.)
- Scheduling important events.
- Taking important notes.
- Opening different applications or programs.
Ultimately, the possibilities are endless. It isn’t necessarily limited to those functions. Speech recognition, or voice recognition, can actually present several benefits when it comes to search engine optimization.
Why is Voice Search Important to SEO?
Did you know that in January of 2018, there were an estimated one billion voice searches per month? When it comes to voice search technology in SEO, there is plenty of opportunity for websites of all kinds to rank better. You may think voice search technology may not affect your site, however, it reaches all types of businesses.
Lets just say you are the owner of a travel site. You have the opportunity to be listed for direct travel queries. Someone may ask, “where is the best place to stay in New York?”, and your site may be the one to answer that question.
The most frequently used areas of voice search are definition sites. Tons of people will search what a chosen word means. They may also look up synonyms, or even words to be used in a sentence. Seems silly, but this is a great way to build traffic.
As a cooking website, you may have an upper-hand. Whether users are searching conversion questions, ingredient information, or even instructions on how to prepare the meal, you have a good chance of being noticed.
Keep in mind, these are just a few of the different kinds of websites that benefit from voice search technology. You’ll find that sites with direct information, may have a better chance of survival on search engines.
Benefits of Voice Search
Don’t forget, there are several benefits when strategizing with this technology. Regardless of your type of business, here is what you can expect.
- Featured snippets become more visible.
- Entirely new categories begin to emerge.
- Direct answers from your website to the consumer.
- Long-tail keyword phrases become more noticeable.
- Increased authority from ranking higher.
(P.S. – There are some great keyword tools available to you, to help you pinpoint what you would like to get noticed for.)
Voice Search and Your SEO Journey
It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out, or an SEO professional. Voice search technology is constantly changing, and being updated. We want to help you out. What else do you want to know about voice search technology? Leave a comment, and let us know! If you’ve already found success implementing this strategy, we want to hear about that, too!
Sources:
https://seopressor.com/blog/websites-should-optimize-for-voice-search-benefits/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/04/10/voice-search-statistics-2018
Steve Scott is the CEO & Director of Training at the New York SEO Training Academy. He has taught SEO skills to people from around the world and currently offers his hands-on search engine optimization training workshops in New York to individuals and businesses of all sizes. Corporate SEO training classes and consulting are also available.
