“Hey Siri, where’s the closest Biryani restaurant?” Did Siri show you a bunch of options? If it did, voice search is really going places (literally) and how! Move over SEO, because VSO or Voice Search Optimization is here to become a part of your life.
Voice Search Interfaces
For starters, Voice Search is a tool that you can use to search for things by speaking to your smartphone at the tap of the microphone icon. In other words, you have a digital assistant who’ll search things for you with a simple ask, quite literally. Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and Windows Cortana are voice search interfaces that are much used today. Research has revealed that by 2020, close to 50% of all searches on the web will turn voice-enabled.
The Emergence of Voice Search
VSO (Voice Search Optimization) is all set to give way to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). We can call this the sunrise of a new platform for marketing, as it enables users to look for what they want at the prompt of a voice command and accordingly show them the brand choices. On the other hand, for marketers it opens up a new avenue to market their product. But as exciting as it sounds, voice-based search is in its nascent stage and will take time to reach its maximum potential. This calls for new SEO / VSO strategies for marketers.
Also Read: India’s Ride from Traditional to Digital Advertising Setups!
Ease, enabled by Voice Search
One reason why VSO is being adopted massively is AI-based technology has been evolving steadily, turning more efficient and accurate. So here more reasons why smartphone users have been adopting voice-based search so actively.
- Makes life easy by enabling things to do faster
- Enables in efficient multi-tasking
- Helps to get answers and information without delay
- Makes performing everyday tasks in an efficient manner
- It’s convenient as it is hands-free
- It’s easy to speak out than type in something
Opportunities for Voice Search in Digital Marketing
Talking about opportunities in this segment, there are a few key topics that top the category searches, aside location-related information. A Google survey has revealed that people use voice-based search primarily for knowing about offers and deals, sales and stores, tips on personality and grooming, movie shows, events and customer care contact numbers. If you too are planning to use or suggest voice-based search for your client as a try-this strategy, few things to be kept in mind are keywords (mainly native language adaptations); content with respect to product or service; data optimization; technology customization to platform (Alexa, Siri or another); improving the speed of your site, and optimizing for local searches.
So, do start looking at voice-based search as your next big marketing gateway.
