66.4 million adults in the U.S. own a smart speaker like an Amazon Echo or Google Home, TechCrunch reports. 31% of all smartphone users use voice-activated search, like Siri, at least once a week. And by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches, per ComScore. That makes voice search one of the biggest digital transformations in online marketing.
However, voice search rankings are highly competitive — mobile voice searches command only three results, while smart speakers give just one result. Businesses must, therefore, optimize for voice search to beat the competition.
Table of Contents
How Voice Search Will Impact Digital Marketing
Voice search: Improving The Customer Experience
Voice search has unprecedented power to foster personalized relationships with each individual customer and build brand loyalty. In particular, voice assistants can differentiate between user voices, which allows them to personalize content and tailor answers to better match each user.
Voice searches also facilitate smoother and more natural customer interactions with brands, which ultimately aids retention and loyalty. They’re also quicker and more convenient than text searches.
Mobile Optimization
Today as much as 20% of mobile queries are conducted by voice search — a number only set to increase. This statistic highlights the need for businesses to optimize their SEO for both mobile searches and mobile voice searches to boost rankings.
The quickest and easiest way to do this? Speed up your website. Page loading time has a big influence on mobile search rankings. The average mobile site takes 15 seconds to load, but 53% of users will leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds, Google statistics reveal. An impressive website is essential for winning customers, Joshua Baker explains.
The Importance of Location
The rise of voice search also raises the importance of local intent. 22% of people use voice search when looking for localized information (such as business hours or specific local amenities). According to Google, “near me” searches grow by 146% each year.
This encourages voice assistants to conduct searches for businesses near the user based strictly on location (rather than simply repeating a basic web search). By joining platforms like Yelp and Google My Business, businesses can optimize for local search.
Voice search promises to transform the world of digital marketing. Whether your business is big or small, integrating voice search into your digital marketing efforts can help you rank highly, stand out, and win customers.