OK Google: How Voice Search will affect SEO and businesses

Voice assistants, artificial intelligence and the ever-increasing interaction between humans and technological devices are constantly evolving in the digital landscape.

Voice search has grown tremendously in recent years. It may be because it is easier and faster to communicate verbally than in writing or for the pleasure of saying “Ok Google”, but this technology catching on and becoming more appreciated.

How does search engine optimization change from this point of view? Do you have to adapt your SEO strategy to voice commands?

The role of SEO and an SEO specialist is to optimize a websites, a web pages or digital content so that they can be easily indexed by search engines and above all to best satisfy user searches. If users change their search methods, the SEO strategy also needs to adapt.

Research today shows that today 20% of Google searches are done by voice command. It is estimated that within a couple of years voice search will constitute half of total research.

How does SEO strategy change? Can we still talk about keywords?

From the birth of the term SEO in 1997, keywords have always been a fundamental element of SEO strategy. The difference between voice searches and written research, however, lies in the fact that the searched words are no longer single rigid and robotic words, but have become closer and closer to the natural spoken language.

It’s not only about keywords, but an evolution of semantically more complex long tail keywords that we could define queries.

For example, if a user now searches for “SEO Malta“, in voice search it will evolve into “Search for an SEO Agency in Malta” or “Search for an SEO services company in Malta”.

What does the advent of vocal search mean for companies?

The voice assistants will return search results to the user in an increasingly immediate and precise way, thereby negating the necessity to scroll down page by page results or even having to scroll down the first page.

Taking these crucial changes into consideration can give a business a substantial competitive advantage.

In general, today the market is all over the place due to the disruptive effect of mobile devices, it is unthinkable for a company that wants to be competitive, not to adapt its marketing strategy to digital.

The demand is online, you just need to be in the right place at the right time with the friendly help of SEO.