Voice Search in the Google Search Console
As each day passes, the strategies used for Google Search becomes even more complex. With the second episode of #AskGoogleWebmasters, Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Muller has made an astonishing reveal on snippets read-out by Google Assistant.
According to him, Google Search Console doesn’t show data for featured snippets read by Google Assistant. Simply put, impressions of search results for queries made by a user through Google Assistant aren’t recorded on the Google Search Console.
When a search is made through Google Assistant, the featured snippet result is usually read-out by it. This customarily eliminates a need for further research as the answer is already provided by the assistant, although a URL is sent to the user’s mobile. This read-out is not counted as an impression, unlike a voice search.
It might sound simple, but with more and more people conducting searches through Google Assistant for search, most of your impressions are lost thereby.
The voice search isn’t affected by this revelation. It will still result in an impression as voice search is used as a mean for typing in your query, just like a keyboard. But by asking Google Assistant, only the featured snippets are read-out and that too, without any record on impressions.
Google always give a run for website owners, ensuring there will never be an ultimate rule book for SEO practises. With this new insight, Google will surely find a way to work around it.
What is your experience about this? Let us know in the comments below.