How Voice Search Has Gone From Gimmick To Game-Changer

Not so long ago, voice search – that is, the kind of search performed by voice, rather than by entering text into a search engine – might’ve seemed like something out of The Jetsons. By this, we mean that it may have come across as vaguely futuristic, but also, in some ways, slightly unnecessary and gimmicky. After all, was there really that much wrong with good old-fashioned text search?

In the space of just a few years, though, this picture has changed somewhat. Voice assistants like Siri, Amazon Echo and Google Assistant are now everywhere, and the statistics tell a clear story.

Did you know, for example, that it has been predicted that 30% of web browsing will be screenless by next year? Or that half of all searches will be voice searches by around the same time? Sure, some of these predictions may seem a little bullish – but what truly matters is that voice search is now part of the conversation, in a way it wasn’t just five years ago.

A truly transformative effect on SEO

Now, you might expect anSEO services company like ours to ‘big up’ developments in the search engine optimisation world that are actually a bit niche in terms of their relevance to the average person on the street. After all, how many offices are there where people are sat in front of their computers, speaking their Google searches out loud rather than typing them?

The answer might well be ‘very few’. However, simply leaving the matter there would be to misunderstand the increasingly pressing relevance of voice search in today’s world, in which mobile SEO is coming to reign supreme.

It’s a world in which Google is already defaulting to mobile-first indexing for new sites, and in which many people think nothing of asking their voice assistant on their smartphone or smart speaker at home to play their favourite song or order food.

All of this is encroaching on an SEO territory once dominated by text-based search on desktop computers, showing just how much opportunity there is for voice search to become a more prominent part of the SEO picture in years to come.

So, what can you do to tap into the revolution?

If you’ve thus far barely acknowledged voice search in the design, optimisation and marketing of your own site and brand online, don’t worry – it’s not too late.

By taking such steps as...

• Adding more conversational text to your website to mirror the typical nature of voice search queries
• Targeting question phrases with long-tail keywords
• Focusing on local SEO to capitalise on smartphone users using voice search to find nearby businesses

...you can position your brand advantageously for this new and exciting search era.

One other wise step, of course, might be to partner with the right SEO services company to help to get your site truly ‘voice-search-ready’ as we look to the 2020s – and you could scarcely make a finer choice in that regard than PENNInk Productions.

Simply email or call our team today, and you’ll soon be able to appreciate how our SEO services company could help to put your brand ahead in the ever-evolving worlds of search, website design and digital marketing.