Do you remember the good old days, when smartphones were just a pipe-dream and people searched the internet by typing seemingly related words into a search engine on their desktop computer? Thats how keywords were born! Sometimes we long for the return of such simplicity, then snap back into the reality we now occupy, where SEO has become so heavily influenced by a whole range of different factors, not limited to but including voice search.
With the ever growing use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, it is to be expected that user behaviours will change. New technology brings about new possibilities.
Just like Star Trek predicted, people are now using their voice to ask a hand held computer questions. But it doesn’t stop there, people use voice search on a whole range of different things, their Amazon Echos, Smart TVs, Home Pods, Cars… Pretty soon your toaster will be able to give you the weather forecast at your command!
But what impact does this have on your website’s search engine ranking? Understanding how to optimise your website’s content for voice search can really help you generate more organic traffic. Your content needs to be conversational, and flow with the way that users are asking their questions. This should be part of any modern SEO strategy.
Voice search results are ranked so that the user will not only get the information they are asking about, but also so that the results that give the user a more natural, conversational style answer are given preference.
Voice search results can be even more unforgiving than conventional results, as often the device that gives you the answer will only ever read the top ranked result!
It has however made the job a bit more difficult for the search engines themselves. There is a lot more work to be done to find the relevant information, presented in the right way. This makes the old style, short, choppy, keyword driven sentences not so important any longer.
You might think you can avoid the wave of voice search for a little while longer, but you’d be wrong. Over 50% of all internet searches as of 2020, are initiated through voice search. The COVID-19 pandemic hugely increased the amount of people using voice search in their homes throughout the day. This trend was already coming however, COVID just tipped it over the edge.
In summary, you really need to consider adapting your SEO strategy to include voice search. This isn’t something that’s coming, its here already and your competitors know it!
If all this is a bit over your head, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to talk to you about how we can improve your search engine ranking!
