The Undeniable Power of Voice Technology
You want to turn down the temperature of the thermostat. What do you do? Pick up your phone, open the app, swipe up and down until you reach the desired settings? Or, you can ask your thermostat to turn the temperature down 😎
The above scenario is just a hint of what voice technology has to offer and how it can be used to improve our daily lives. So the obvious question that comes to mind is, why voice technology?
Why Voice Technology?
Voice technology combines flexibility and convenience with efficiency. It can also be used for entertainment. It helps the devices to learn user personality(using artificial intelligence and machine learning) and create a user-friendly environment based on that. This helps in developing a strong relationship between the user and their device. With advancements in Natural Language Processing, speech recognition efficiency has now reached up to 99%. For comparison, the rate at which humans understand each other’s words which is 92%. This advancement has created a boom in voice technology and more people have started using voice technology for improving their daily lives. Businesses are now leveraging voice technologies more than ever, thanks to the recent advancements in machine learning and AI.
The growth of Voice Search
Voice searches are unquestionably a quicker way to search for information over the internet while performing other tasks like cooking, driving etc. The ability to multi-task is a compelling reason in itself for using voice searches. According to recent surveys, 50% of smartphone users preferred searching for information using voice-based searches. Another 72% agreed that a smart device had now become an integral part of their daily lifestyle. This is another reason why more and more manufacturers are now launching devices with voice support built in.
Voice Search Optimization
With the growth of voice search, smart marketers want to get hold of this new market to get the most out of this platform. This is where Voice Search Optimization comes into the picture which helps businesses to optimize the voice search queries for their business. It encompasses the content, brand information & location of the businesses to increase their likelihood in voice search.
Let’s take an example to understand this in a better way. Say the user is travelling alone and started having a severe headache. Instead of spending precious time combing through thousands of search results for “Best doctors near me”, he can just ask their smart device, “Where should I go to treat my headache?” This will provide a search result based on the symptoms & location of the user, saving him from the tedious task of scrolling through a massive list of options.
Why VSO for Voice Search?
To work effectively with voice search, VSO is preferred rather than the traditional SEO mechanisms in order to adapt to the new customer trends. The reasons why VSO is preferred over SEO for voice searches are —
1. Question-based searches
The voice-based search queries are more likely to be in a question-based format. A normal typed search will look more like “restaurants near me”. On the other hand, a voice-activated search will look more like “What are the best places to eat near me that are open right now”? Hence in the voice search, it’s important to look for keywords in the question for the best result.
2. Length of the queries
Usually, the length of the queries in a text search is completely different from a voice-based search. The length of a text-based search is normally 2–3 words, while a voice-activated search can sometimes be more than 10 words long. This is evident in the example above. VSO must be used to extract keywords from longer queries.
3. Queries with clear intent
The question-based nature of a voice-based search reveals the clear intent of the user. Hence, it is important for marketers to identify these questions and optimize their content accordingly. Hence to rank higher in voice searches it is important to match more keywords with consumer searches.
Voice Technology to transform IOT
Voice technology has a larger potential to transform the way we are using the Internet of Things(IoT) today. With the addition of voice to IoT, most of the devices can be controlled through speech. We already have started to control our appliances, lights, lock, thermostats etc. with the voice. With the launch of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, it is now easier to get more things done using our voice.
As IoT has always promised to serve the data on the basis of customer needs, the integration of voice technology with IoT devices will help businesses to understand the customers’ needs in a better way. It will improve the understanding of users’ desires, goals, and intentions and help businesses to serve them better.
Bringing it all together
There is no doubt that the emergence of voice technologies has opened up vast opportunities for businesses to serve their customers. The opportunities are immense, and businesses will need to get on board with voice search optimization as soon as possible. Because when you are only a query away from your customers, you better serve them the content that they need! 😃
Voiceano is a conversation design studio that crafts voice strategies and designs conversational interfaces for brands. If you feel that your brand needs a voice, then you should definitely grab a drink with us! 🍻😄
