How Voice Search Could Impact Digital Marketing Campaign
“Technology evolves, and with it, customer preferences.”
In this sense, search engines like Google give more importance to voice search as many users prefer to pronounce their queries instead of writing them.
This will impact the digital marketing strategy of any online business, so optimizing content to reach a better ranking in voice search results has become a key factor.
Do you have an online business in Malaysia?
You need to know where to keep up with this technological trend.
Table of Contents
What Is Voice Search?
Voice search is a technology that uses the speech recognition feature available in modern devices, such as computers, smartphones, and even home appliances, to look for information on the Internet.
This allows users to do their searches speaking directly to their devices to obtain answers much quicker and more comfortably.
What Stats Say About Voice Search?
A few years ago, voice search represented only a significant number of the global percentage of searches on the Internet. Today, voice search represents about 30% of that total.
Experts estimate that by 2024, the number of digital voice assistants will exceed 8 billion units, an increase of 100% compared to 2020. These figures are primarily related to the growing use of smartphones worldwide.
In this sense, the Malaysian market is still catching up: according to statistics, by 2021, the number of smartphone users will be around 30 million, and this figure is estimated to increase to at least 1.74 million by 2025.
On the other hand, the percentage of use of voice assistants in the APAC region remains around 46%, with 1 in 3 Malaysians using voice search. A slow but sustained growth that can boom as more content is optimized for voice search.
The Impact of Voice Search on Digital Marketing
There is no doubt that voice search improves user experience, so search engines are placing more and more emphasis on this factor.
This directly impacts digital marketing as, using voice, users can search for longer keywords using a natural language. The results that users expect are also different.
Due to this, the digital marketer must optimize content to match user queries and gain an advantage over the competition. This means optimizing the content strategy for voice search on a website, Chrome voice search, and Google voice search in general.
That also means changing how a website is designed and its content is created to offer the best user experience.
New Rules, New Strategies
You can apply many SEO tips to your online business to generate more traffic and clicks, but traditional SEO and voice search SEO have some substantial differences you need to grab well to get better results.
Why do people use voice search?
According to Google, the features of this technology translate into the following benefits:
- Users can multitask more easily
- Searches can be done faster
- People get the information instantly
- People’s daily routines become easier
Based on this, you should optimize your online business’ SEO using the following tactics:
Offer a better user experience.
User experience is one of the key factors that search engines like Google use to rank a website.
Indeed, websites or mobile apps that offer a good user experience have a higher conversion rate since users are much more likely to take a desired action on a website or app that is easy to use.
First, you should use simple and direct language to present your content, as people using Google Voice search expect short and direct answers. This increases the chances that your website or application will appear in the first search results.
On the other hand, include a generous portion of images and videos in your content, making it more attractive and accessible to users. Also, remember to optimize your website so that it loads and responds quickly and smoothly to decrease your site’s bounce rate.
Use more natural language.
Now, you need to understand the difference between doing a text search and a voice search, as well as the search intent and context.
The main difference between the two search methods is that when we speak, we tend to use phrases made up of a more significant number of words.
For example:
“Meditation” for a text search and “What is meditation?” for a voice search.
This also means that the 2nd search yields more specific results than text searches.
The best tactic is to use long-tail keywords in question format to match the keyword format of voice searches better.
Remember to create variations of the exact phrase to broaden your keyword range and add entire sentences to headlines and FAQ sections as a voice search on website optimization tactic.
Become an expert in content snippets.
Typically, the goal of digital marketers has been to optimize websites to appear in the top three positions on the search engine results page (SERP) because that’s what users are looking for. Gradually, users also learned they could get answers by scrolling down further.
But due to its precise nature, this has changed. The user performing a search doesn’t expect to see multiple options; the user expects to get the answer to their question in the first result that appears.
The content snippet format has become very popular because it can provide quick, accurate, and direct responses to user queries without further action.
Remember to include long-tail questions in your featured content snippets for the best results.
Go for local searches.
According to numbers from Google, searches of the type “near me” have increased significantly in recent years. This relates to the fact that search tends to be more locally oriented than text search.
This means that besides translating some of your content (or all of your content) into local languages, you should also be concerned with optimizing the information in local listings for better ranking results.
This involves optimizing information such as the location of your business, the type of service you offer, and your hours of operation.
Whether you have a small business or you’re just starting, putting more effort into optimizing your local SEO will increase the chances of your business appearing in local search results and building more visibility, trust, and reputation among your prospects.
Final Words
Voice search is an upcoming digital marketing trend that will gain more relevance over the years, mainly due to the predominant use of portable devices and the advancement of Internet of Things (IoT) technology.
Remember:
When a new technology appears, it takes time for people to get used to it.
If you act early, you could gain a significant competitive advantage that will inevitably translate into more sales.
Numbers don’t lie: In Malaysia, this is yet to explode.
If you’re determined to embrace voice search and need help knowing where to start, remember that at Kredence Creative Solutions, we are always ready to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us.
