Imagine a future where artificial intelligence is an important part of our lives. It’s integrated into everything we do, from the moment we rise until we turn out the lights at night.
Not so difficult to do anymore, is it? Especially when your phone gives you the latest traffic report right before you leave the office for the day. Or you talk to your virtual personal assistant whenever you need to add to your grocery list or place an order through Amazon.
Watch television, and you can get a glimpse into our future world. Black Mirror anyone?
Yes, the thought can be terrifying if we imagine it going the wrong way.
But our reality right now has us integrating new technology into every aspect of our lives. And it isn’t going to stop anytime soon.
And as a business owner, there’s a world of opportunity waiting for you.
It means utilizing every bit of this technology and channeling it into the way you operate your business.
Or get left behind.
Why Voice Search Is The Future
Voice search tends to be more mobile and locally focused because it’s embedded into our mobile apps and devices. We use desktops to do global searches. But when we want a local store or restaurant advice, chances are we’re using mobile on the fly.
And thanks to the Internet of Things, it isn’t just a mobile device anymore. We’re adding applications to just about everything we do. You can add an appointment by telling your virtual personal assistant to access your calendar. Your refrigerator can add to your grocery list when an item is running low. Things are no longer solely tethered to mobile devices and applications, not in the way we’ve become used to.
And this will only continue to grow and change every day. The global IoT market is projected to grow from $2.99 trillion in 2014 to $8.9 trillion in 2020. That’s a 19.92 percent compound annual growth rate.
And it will impact every industry, every niche, everything we do throughout our busy lives.
We’re Changing Our Conversations
A lot has changed over the past few decades. Face to face conversations are different than conversations we have over the phone. No compare it to how we communicate online or through text. All of that is changing the way we think and speak.
When Google became the search engine of choice, we adapted to thinking in short bursts. With very few words, we could search and find things of interest to us. That morphed over the years as we learned how to increase our results by utilizing phrases. Linking together certain words could provide better results.
Now we’re back to voice. Instead of typing a phrase, we can issue a statement instead. And that will again alter the way we think. It provides immediacy, convenience, and intimacy that you could never get by typing in a search term.
Because of this, artificial intelligence is continuing to aid and grow smarter with every interaction. It’s creating a better understanding of user intent to ultimately provide better results. And when AI is working for you, it has to grow and change based on everything you do.
Let’s say you live in Portland. Your devices understand that when you are looking for a pizza place, it will provide one that is a reasonable distance away. Pete’s Pizza in San Francisco would do you no good.
But with AI, it begins to track your movements. It understands how you’re living your life. If you drive up to Seattle for a weekend, check into a hotel and use their transit system, when you search for a pizza place there, it changes and offers you results based in Seattle. Without having to wait for your command to change to Seattle.
As more devices connect and use IoT data to connect to artificial intelligence platforms, it understands who you are, what you are doing, and where you are to put everything into context of what you want, based on your behavior and preferences. And that changes with every single person.
Voice Searches Are Different – Results Should Be Too
While we may have been programmed to type in simple search terms, that communication skill gets lost when we return to voice. Let’s say you need an oil change for your car. From your desktop, you might type in “best oil change Los Angeles.” That would pull up a variety of results to show you places in and around your community.
But let’s compare that to saying your request out loud. You change your behavior and ask a question instead. “Where can I go to get an oil change in Los Angeles?” Or maybe “Where’s the best place to get my oil changed in Los Angeles?”
As a result, voice search queries are longer than their text counterparts. Where text searches tend to be concentrated around 1 to 3 words, speech searches are longer at 3 to 5 words, and almost always are centered around a question. With the terms who, how, when, and where leading the pack.
As a marketer, how are you driving your search engine optimization tactics? If you’re like many business owners, you’ve been focused in on search term results. What are your keywords? How have you been using them in your on-page development?
Now ask yourself how that’s going to change in the future. Are you optimizing for the “who, how, when, and where questions your customers of the future will soon be asking?
What Savvy Marketers Are Doing Right Now
Savvy marketers never shy away from getting the job done. People will continue to do what they’ve done in the past. We still use laptops and desktops. We still type into search engines with a keyboard.
But savvy marketers also realize times are changing. And in addition to the work they are currently doing for search engine optimization, they are also incorporating for voice search in the process.
How?
Write content in natural, conversational voice that answers your customers’ questions. Website content should no longer be just about keywords. It should also contain semantic search content and build on the context that it should answer questions.
Change out your online marketing strategy. Develop content to continue working on your keyword and search terms lists. But don’t forget that we’re changing as a society. Expand your paid search keyword lists to include longer tail keyword phrases. Watch what your customers are using to find you in the online world. Never forget the who, how, when, and where is coming soon.
Make sure the schema markup of your website is structured correctly. This is important because it is used to power the search results. It makes your website more understandable and crawlable to ensure the search engines are getting the information they need to rank you accordingly.
What questions do you have about voice search and how it will change the way you market online?