How Voice Search Will Change The Future Of SEO
Voice search is undeniably growing at a rapid pace, and for good reason — it’s fast, convenient, allows you to search on the go, and it’s just cool. Even better, as the technology behind voice search services like Siri and Cortana improves, it’s becoming increasingly reliable. Because of this, smart marketers are developing ways to tailor their SEO strategies for voice search. As typed-out search terms become less popular, it’s going to get more and more important to start making those adjustments.
Here are some ways that the rise of voice search will shape the future of SEO, and some tips on how to prepare.
1. Use Of Natural Speech Patterns
Most people don’t type the way they speak, especially when it comes to searching for something online. Think about it, when you’re searching for something through typing, you tend to use shorthand (like typing in “weather Santa Cruz” if you’re looking for the forecast in Santa Cruz). When you speak, it’s more likely that you’ll use the complete question (“What’s the weather like in Santa Cruz tomorrow?”). Because of this, it’s growing more important for voice search and SEO to pick up on users’ natural speech patterns.
As the programming behind voice search gets more refined — in 2012 the word error rate was over 20%, but now it’s as low as 8% — it’s getting much better at picking up our speech quirks. This means that marketers interested in voice search SEO will need to reflect this in their strategies.
One great way to do this is using voice query research tools like Rank Tracker. This tool lets you type in keywords with wildcards to help you develop language that better reflects the natural speech patterns of voice search users.
You should also consider your online content in the context of voice search. To boost your search rankings, it’s important that you incorporate natural speech in your content. Consider using a more conversational tone to pick up on the nuances of everyday language.
