Voice Technology — Shaping the Future of Website Development
Voice search technology has been trending for quite some time now and more so this year. Now users can verbally search their queries with the advent of smart AI assistants and speakers. By 2024, the global voice-based smart speaker market could be worth $30 billion. Global giants such as Google, Apple, and Amazon have made remarkable progress in the development of voice-search through machine learning algorithms.
Voice recognition has had a profound impact on global online businesses as it improves the experience of everybody and anybody on the internet. Therefore companies should stay one step ahead to ensure that they are ready to seize the opportunity when the time comes.
Voice applications are gaining attention because of the following key reasons:
- The availability of voice search features on almost every smart device
- It is accessible to people all around the world because of its ability to accommodate any language
- Easier for people with reading disabilities or lower reading skills
- Voice search is not bound by any limitations
Having said that, voice-based shopping is expected to jump to $40 billion in 2022, therefore companies need to assure that their website is fully optimized to facilitate the voice search functionality.
Apart from web solutions, voice driven technology is also transforming the enterprise software. Business leaders are also adjusting their strategies to facilitate voice technology. But many are still underestimating the possibilities that voice-tech can bring as a result putting their businesses and products at risk for falling behind the competition.
In this article, I will share a few opinions from industry experts on how Voice recognition technology is shaping the future of website development.
Website Security
In web development, today’s major concern is Cybersecurity and now you have Voice Biometrics technology to provide a unique combination of very high security and a natural user experience that works across all channels. It relies on machine learning technologies that can analyze the human voice fingerprints at a cryptographic level.
- Priyanka Agarwal, Marketing, RCDevs
Personalization
In 2021, people would prefer to spend less time typing words as devices could understand them clearly. That’s why most companies are now puzzling over how to optimize their physical and digital products for voice search and voice commands. In 2021, more than half of all smart and IoT devices will hear users and perform commands given by voice. And even more — they will recognize the voices of different people and provide a personalized AI-based experience for everyone.
The web development future seems to be less text and more voice, and it’s not only about virtual multifunctional home assistants such as Siri, Google Home, or Amazon’s Alexa.
- Daniel Foley, CEO Daniel Foley Marketing Agency
Search Engine Optimization
Voice search is currently not a part of Google’s algorithm; however, it is still delivering current search results. Voice search queries often produce different results than if the user had typed in a text-based search. For web development and SEO, it’s a good idea for businesses to be on their toes with voice search elements for their consumers who are modifying and shifting over to that medium. Now that the algorithms have begun to understand our long-tail keywords or verbal commands, I think there will be a great focus on voice search ad optimization in 2021 for Web-development and SaaS marketing.
- Bram Jansen, Chief Editor of vpnAlert
FAQ schema
Advances in browsers to accept voice is growing.. Developers must keep code up to date to leverage hints and attributes that help drive the experience. This is similar to adding ARIA tags for assistive technologies.
At the same time developers have to work with the content creators to make sure the site content aligns with how voice search and input work. Voice is a new input modality and new input modalities are often overlooked as growth opportunities.
Just adding a valid FAQ schema to content can elevate content against competition because the odds of being an answer to a voice query are increased.
- Chris Love, Owner, Love2Dev
Customer experience
Even though voice search is becoming more popular, the technology is still in its infancy. This means there isn’t enough data to analyze keywords that people use for voice search. Implementing a voice program now is a huge opportunity to gain early adoption and edge out your competition. That’s why website owners are eager to know how to optimize their web resources for voice search.
One thing we see is that in the future, voice technology will incorporate AI in web dev to deliver a better customer experience.
- Chris Von Wilpert, Founder of Content Mavericks
Instant Information
Where voice tech’s having the biggest impact on ecommerce sites is actually on back-of-house operations. The pandemic placed huge strains on fulfillment and supply chain processes. Delayed and unfulfilled orders can ruin a website’s reputation. Surprisingly, a new breed of AI-powered supply chain dashboards can respond to voice commands — a much easier way to interface when you need information quickly. Now a supply chain manager can literally shout, “What are our inventories like at the Des Moines facility right now?” or “What’s the status of our widget order from China?” and get an answer they don’t have to dig into a spreadsheet for.
- Mark Persaud, Head of Emerging Technologies, Moonshotio
Internet of things
The number of voice search queries through smartphones and smart speakers are increasing day by day. With 122.7 million users and a 9.7 percent expected growth rate, voice technologies are thriving and being loved.
With the increase in demand and usage, we can expect more innovations in the voice tech sector and improvement in existing products. More precise voice tech aids will be deployed in smart homes, retail stores. cars, buildings, gaming, and security systems in the year 2021 & beyond.
- Caroline, co-founder of CocoSign
Navigability
There has been a steep rise in the speed at which voice technology is being used and developed. We are now used to voice search, chatbots, and voice assistants. This means that a lot of new web apps will now need to factor in voice-led features that make it easier for users to navigate it. In 2021, web app developers will have to consider customized operability, and provide voice support with virtually any new app they build.
- Eric McGee, Senior Network Engineer, TRGDatacenters
Inclusion
The Voice user interface allows users to interact with websites through voice commands so it adds usability and functionality to your site making it accessible to all users including those with limitations and disabilities. It is not just about complying with the ADA, responsible web design, and corporate social responsibility goals but it is also good for the bottom line by reaching a broader audience. Inclusion is the right thing to do and it is good for business.
- Julien Raby, CEO, Thermogears
Schema Markup
Developing and implementing schema markup for websites has become more important than ever as voice search becomes responsible for a higher percentage of searches. Schema markup allows search engines like Google and Bing to understand what websites and articles are about. There is also currently a new schema markup feature known as speakable schema, which is planned to be used by voice assistants like Google assistant to read article information to the user.
Although it’s in the initial stages of being developed by Google, it will inevitably gain more popularity as people start to use their smart home devices to search the internet. Web developers will want to focus on implementing schema markup to capture this new portion of website traffic.
- Mark Soto, Developer, Cybericus
Time saving
Voice technology has empowered consumers to access websites and mobile applications with ease through voice searches. Our devices can understand the context of commands through local references and phrases, making the web a lot more efficient.
This technology is undoubtedly a major web development as it can better serve people from various parts of the world, saving time and money for businesses. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to be done, and I believe the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and further technological advancements would make it much more impactful as we continue to improve it.
- Rob Stix, CEO, DirectNet
