The Impact of Voice Search on SEO and Content Strategy

Additionally, the growing use of voice assistants has led to an increase in the number of "zero-click" searches, where users receive answers to their queries directly from the search engine or virtual assistant, without ever clicking through to a website. As a result, businesses and content creators must adapt their SEO and content strategies to better target and rank for voice search queries, and to create content that is optimised for voice assistants and other voice-enabled devices.

Here are some of the impacts of voice search on SEO and content strategy:

Increased use of natural language

With voice search, users tend to use more natural language and longer, more conversational queries. Rather than the shorter, more specific keywords that are typically used in typed search queries. This means that businesses and content creators must optimise their content for these natural language queries in order to rank well in voice search results.

Growing popularity of voice search

The use of voice search is on the rise. According to a study by Telsyte, the smart speaker market in Australia reached 2.8 million units in 2018 and is expected to continue growing. This indicates a significant growth in the popularity of voice search in Australia. This means that businesses must consider the growing number of voice search users and adapt their SEO and content strategies accordingly.

The rise of “zero-click” searches

With the increased use of voice assistants, more and more search queries are resulting in "zero-click" searches, where users receive answers to their queries directly from the search engine or virtual assistant, without ever clicking through to a website. This means that businesses must optimise their content for these "zero-click" searches to be visible to users. A survey by Microsoft showed that 72% of its respondents had used a digital assistant in the past six months.

The importance of local SEO

Voice search is often used for local queries, such as "where is the nearest pizza restaurant?" This means that local SEO is becoming increasingly important for businesses, so they must make sure that their location and contact information is up-to-date and easily accessible to voice search users. A study by BrightLocal found that 46% of all voice search queries are related to local information, such as business addresses and phone numbers.

The importance of structured data

With voice search, the search engine or virtual assistant must be able to understand the intent of the query to provide a relevant answer. This means that structured data, such as schema markup, is becoming increasingly important for businesses, as it helps search engines to understand the content on a website.

The importance of featured snippets

Featured snippets, which are the short answers that often appear at the top of search results, are becoming increasingly important for voice search. This is because they are often used by virtual assistants to provide quick answers to users' queries. A study by Backlinko found that featured snippets, also known as "position zero" results, appear in the voice search results for about 30% of all voice queries.

The importance of optimising for mobile devices

As more and more people are using voice search on their mobile devices, it’s important for businesses to optimise their content for mobile devices to ensure that it’s easily accessible to voice search users. Businesses should make sure their website is mobile-friendly, has a fast-load speed, and can be easily navigated on a smaller screen to provide a good user experience.

The impact of voice search on SEO and content strategy is significant and cannot be ignored. As the use of virtual assistants and other voice-enabled devices continues to grow, it is important for businesses and content creators to adapt their strategies to better target and rank for voice search queries. By implementing these strategies, businesses and content creators can ensure that their content is easily discoverable through voice search and that they are providing a seamless experience for users.