“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation”
Dean Kamen
The era of voice recognition tools
The fascination of mankind with speech recognition is not a new thing. The first digital speech recognition tool was launched way back in 1961 by IBM and it was called ‘IBM shoebox’. It had the ability to recognise digits and a vocabulary of mere 16 words. At that time, it was nothing short of splendid. Over the years Google and IBM have launched various speech recognition software, but the whole game changed when Apple introduced Siri in April 2011. With time, other industry giants also entered the market and released their own versions. This included Google (Google Assistant), Microsoft (Cortana), Amazon (Alexa), Chinese giants Baidu (DuerOS), and Alibaba (AliGenie).
This innovation of ‘voice recognition’ has changed the dynamics of business that we currently know. And the field of SEO is also getting influenced by the advent of such software. With today’s consumers beginning to rely increasingly on these voice recognition tools, it is extremely important that your website is equipped for voice search optimisation.
Don’t believe us?
Studies have shown that around 10% of UK households already own a smart speaker. Though the number seems less, it is projected to grow at an unprecedented rate and reach 50% of UK households by 2022. comScore predicts that voice search will account for 50% of all search activity by 2020. And the time isn’t far when voice dominated shopping will be a common phenomenon. Voice recognition tools are major game changers. The voice search allows users to search for anything by simply saying instead of having to type the whole query.
How will it affect your business?
Well, the time has gone when a user entered a query in the search box and a page popped up with various websites ranked. To rank in voice search, you will need to be the topmost result which requires exceptional SEO. There is only one result, and this is a “winner-takes-all” market. The level of competition has now become extreme, and you need to improve your SEO exceptionally if you want to survive.
Some important tips to keep in mind:
- With voice search, the emphasis is more on conversational, long-tail search terms and the meaning behind a query, instead of a specific keyword.
- SEO needs to be revamped to keep up with the voice search components to continue to net the consumers who are now switching over to mostly voice assisted search queries.
- Content needs to be altered to a more direct and conversational manner so as to correspond to the type of search queries that result from voice assisted search results.
- FAQ strategy needs to be adopted. Queries will include words like “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” and “why.” Prepare your blog posts, social media posts, and website’s copy to be centred around these queries.
- Incorporate natural language in both content and SEO. The marketing team should be aware of the differences between the typed search language and voice search language.
The SEO dynamics are constantly changing. In the current scenario, traffic can only be boosted by adapting to the changing landscape of SEO i.e. optimizing your site and content for voice search queries ahead of competitors. It’s time to elevate your business’ SEO strategy to encompass this new era of technological advancement. There are several search engine optimisation (SEO) agencies in London that can help you to stay ahead of your competitors.
