Why Small Business Owners Should Pay Attention To Voice Search, Pt. 1 [Audio]

Today, begins a 5-part mini-series on  voice search and why small businesses should pay attention now. It should become part of your marketing strategy.

Some say it’s the next organic search tsunami.

Others say it will be the death of search engine optimization (SEO) as we know it.

Is it the next big thing in digital?

 

The potential for voice search to become a major search medium is indicated by the growing statistics and small business owners should pay attention.

So, what is voice search?

Simply, it’s a speech recognition technology powered by natural language processing (NLP).

It allows you to speak into a computer, smartphone, or other voice-enabled device to search for a topic.  So instead of typing in keywords or phrases into a computer you ask the questions and your voice enabled device finds the best answer to your question.

If you are listening to this episode on your voice enabled device like A-L-E-X-A or G-O-O-G-L-E Home, you used voice search to find this skill.

If you recently uttered these words:

“Hey Siri, find me the nearest restaurant?”

 

You’ve used voice search.

I believe it’s going to be the next big thing in digital – the next organic search tsunami.

Internet trend watchers suggest the explosive growth of voice technology growth is the improved rate at which voice commands are accurately captured.

Voice Searches Are More Conversational

Voice searches are more conversational – shorter and tend to sound like how we speak.

Voice search is quicker than typing on one’s mobile phone which is what makes it more attractive to users.

And since our human tendency is to be lazy, why type in a phrase when you can speak into a device?

Humans type an average of 30-40 words per minutes (this excludes the pros, of course) while we speak an average of 110-150 words a minute.

It’s clear that we talk faster than we type.  In an era of instant, quicker and faster backed by solid statistical trends, the argument that voice search is here to stay is valid.

Voice Search Data

Recent survey data from Moffett Nathanson Research, a US boutique research firm, suggests that in two years, voice shopping, or v-commerce, could be as popular as mobile shopping today.

Although less than 5% of consumers use voice shopping today, it could reach 50% by 2022, the report also found.

The data is astounding and the implication for search far reaching.

If you are a small business serving a local market it’s important that you revisit your search engine optimization strategy.

You should be considering voice search optimization; if you don’t, chances are you won’t be around for very long.

After all, 22% of voice search is for local content and mobile voice search queries contain 3 times more local intent than text-based searches. (SearchEngineLand.com)

As more and more consumers embrace the technology, the number will continue to rise.