Page 6 - AeM_August_2017

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The rise of voice assistants

changes the SEO world

Voice assistant technology isn’t really something new, regarding search requests has significant effects and
but with advancements in artificial intelligence and ma- an impact on the search engine optimization (SEO),
chine learning, it got tremendous attention and adoption too.
has grown fast in recent years. The reasons for the suc-
cess are clear, since voice-enabled devices and digital Google Answers - Direct responses to
assistants allow consumers to engage through one of search queries
the most natural forms of communication, besides being
convenient, fast, and easy to put into practice. To no Google is striving to provide users with direct answers
surprise, Gartner expects 20% of user interactions to to their search queries. The Google search results
take place via voice assistant technologies on show sections of web pages that directly show the user
smartphones by 2019.
the response without having to click a link or accessing
a web page. Even when using mobile devices, Google
By introducing Google Voice Search mid of 2011, aims to provide always answers to a user’s questions,
Google heralded in a new era of search queries, at the which could be carried out via voice output. Hence, the
latest when it introduced the voice control in its Chrome times when web pages have been optimized for the
browser two years later. After that, more and more us- Google robots by means of keyword stuffing are over.
ers started to make use of voice search instead of typ- Operators of websites rather must ask themselves how
ing requests in and this trend continues to grow till to- they can deliver direct answers to voice-controlled
day. All is driven by the increasing spread of voice- search queries, how they transmit their previously writ-
driven assistants such as Siri, Cortana or Google Now ten texts, and which tone and sound they want to lend
and the associated behavioral change of users. to their company or brand.

Direct and fast answers to search queries are More individual search results
preferred
Voice search systems are constantly getting further
Undeniably, more and more people are using mobile developed to understand the search requests of the
devices such as smartphones and tablets to browse the users correctly in the context. To deliver responses tai-
Internet and tend to enter their search requests quickly, lored to the user, factors like previous search queries
comfortably and securely via voice input. In fact, today’s and the location of the user are included in the search
voice recognition software is already so good that dictat- algorithms of Google Voice Search by using artificial
ed queries have fewer errors than the typed ones.
intelligence. This means for website operators to focus
more than before on content design to meet the individ-
According to Google, 20% of all search queries with ual needs of their visitors. A stronger differentiation of
mobile devices have already been made via voice input the own target groups can help to create and provide
last year. Certainly, the behavioral change of the users appropriate diversified content. Besides that, the con-
6 August 2017 - Search Engine Marketing & Optimization