Voice Search: the Death of Search Engine
In light of the E-Commerce One to One event held in Monaco at the end of March, Guillaume Bacuvier (Vice-President Advertising Solutions at Google EMEA) announced the “death of search engines” and introduced the “age of assistance” meant to revolutionize search. What does it mean for SEO and how can you prepare for it to be ahead of the game?
The era of assistance summarized in 3 points:
- Mobile search domination: according to official Google statement, nearly more than 50% of all searches now happen on mobile
- Web semantic: Google has become smart enough to answer directly when a question is asked and is also capable of anticipating questions with an adaptive system that learns from search habits
- Vocal search: 20% of queries on Google are vocal. This number is expected to rise at 50% by 2020. A study by Google also showed that 55% of teens and 41% of adults were already using voice search daily in 2014!
Technology, AI, virtual reality: Google is rapidly adopting new technologies and is shifting his focus on being a personal and individual assistant which is much more action orientated (voice queries are 30x more likely to be action-oriented than typed queries). This assistance take multiple form: text, image, videos, and voice recognition delivering personalized answer for every individuals. A presentation of Google Home from Mountain View showcase how Google can slot into our life:
Potential negative effect on SEO:
- Another death of keywords: classic use of (short tail) keywords and keywords optimization have slowly been side-lined when Google introduced Panda in 2011 but this will be even the case in the era of assistance
- Behaviors less predictable: when users had to type a keywords in the search box it was easy to predict the terms they were using but with the ease of voice search, users are searching more and in a less predictable way
- Less screen interaction: SEO is all about ranking in the SERP and today a higher ranking still provide great results but now users are searching for answers they can get without looking at the screen
- Vocal and direct answers are becoming more and more popular and could reduce CTR, especially if those answers are given by voice instead of text on screen. Rankings would lose impact
There will very likely be changes and potential disruptions in the SEO world and how we optimise websites because for 20 years we’ve been relying on text queries and focusing on rankings and Google is going to kill it. A few things to consider to stay ahead of the game in the era of assistance:
- Focus on long-tail keywords: use longer keywords and more conversational phrases to imitate the types of queries that users might voice. Also worth carrying keyword research on conversational queries
- Answer the users: create unique pages (on a blog) that deal with common questions that your typical user might have (why, how, what, where, who). Use these and you will be more relevant as these queries are on the rise. Or add FAQs page to appeal to voice search
- Provide fast results: users are more and more impatient and expect instant answer (53% bounce rate if pages take more than 3 sec to load on mobile)
- Use structured data with schema.org to give Google the answers to the questions users might have which will directly impact visibility.
- Optimise your local business for voice search: voice search is three times more likely to be local in nature. Many people use voice search to get information about local businesses so it’s crucial to keep profiles up to date and optimise for keywords like “near me” and “nearby”
- Incorporate voice search strategy as part of your wider SEO and content strategy
We’ve been hearing about voice search for only a few years but we can no longer ignore the fact that voice search is now becoming major just like how mobile search became major a few years ago (today they go hand in hand). We can go as far as saying that voice search is the future of search. That’s why it’s critical to start thinking about it sooner rather than later to stay ahead of the competition.
Further reading:
- I, Search: How AI Will Transform the Landscape of SEO
- Type No More: How Voice Search is Going to Impact the SEO Landscape
