Why Voice Search In 2019 Is Going To Be A Major Force?
The ability to send commands by voice through our smartphones and voice search enabled devices has grown in popularity. By 2020, it’s been estimated as many as 50 percent of all searches will be by sent by voice. Voice search apps, software, and devices like Alexa, Google Home, Cortana, Siri, and Amazon Echo continue to sell in record numbers to people everywhere. In 2019, this is motivating some massive changes in search engine optimization (SEO) and how websites are optimized for voice-enabled interactions.
Increasing Use In Voice Searches
As voice search grows in popularity, it’s beginning to surpass the hype surrounding mobile responsiveness and the importance of mobile websites. For years, a lot of us in web design and digital marketing have continually pointed towards mobile usage and mobile website search surpassing desktops. It’s been a few years since that has happened and as many websites continue to adapt to a mobile smartphone-led web environment, voice search has quickly risen to supplant it as a guiding influence. How voice search came to become such a heavy factor so fast has everything to do with the proliferation of voice search devices, apps, and software. As a more convenient way to interact with technology, consumers have really taken to voice search and thereby, their behaviour has changed.
As marketers and designers, what we do always has to change with the times, change with the trends, and change with consumer behaviours. As voice search continues to take over how people use search engines like Google, the approach to website promotion and SEO remains similar however different. Strategies should now focus on mobile and voice-based devices, ensuring a website is responsive to these formats. Content should be optimized accordingly with available meta-descriptions filled and all SEO written with the knowledge that it could be read with voice. Another key difference between non-voice and voice-enabled SEO is in how voice search has impacted keyword search. Using voice search, a user is more likely to ask a question rather than to state a long-tail keyword. Therefore, when building content, using questions instead of traditional keywords is a strong approach.