Voice Search Has Quadrupled In Active Users

 

Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, announced that Google’s smart Assistant has quadrupled in active users’ year-on-year.

According to Google, the rise was partly due to the popularity of voice-operated Google Home devices which supposedly sold “millions” between October and December 2018.

Sundar Pichai also stated that "People used Google to cook over 16 million recipes [during the quarter], including a million on Christmas Day alone".

Now you may be wondering if voice command will have any impact on your business. For anyone who owns a website, voice search is soon going to change the way you are discovered online.

And while it may not have a noticeable impact on you now, voice command technology is growing at a rapid rate which will soon turn voice search into a standard form of searching online.

So, what do you need to know about Voice SEO?

A study from Backlinko attempted to identify which SEO factors really matter when it comes to Voice Search. Here are the 8 most important findings from the study:

1) Page Speed Matters

Page load speed appears to play a role in voice search with the average voice search results page loading in 4.6 seconds.

2) Be Secure

Websites that use HTTPS seem to dominate, with over 70% of results secured with HTTPS.

3) Authoritative Domains Matter

Authoritative domains just like in organic SEO tend to rank significantly better in voice search. Voice search queries produced significantly more authoritative domains than non-authoritative ones.

4) Short Answers

Google appears to prefer short, concise answer for voice search queries. The average answer to voice search was only 29 words in length.

5) Lots of Content

Voice search may like short answers but tends to source the answers from long form content. The average word count for a voice search results page was 2,312 words.

6) Simple Content

The study showed that web pages with simple, easy to read content potentially helped within Voice Search SEO.  

7) High Social Engagement

Web pages with high levels of social engagement appeared to perform very well within voice search. The study showed that the average voice search result had 1,199 Facebook shares and 44 tweets.

8) Organic Search Result

Having high ranking pages within the organic search will make it more likely for your content to appear as a voice search answer. The study showed around 75% of voice search results ranked in the top 3 for the searched query.