SEO: Voice Search Statistics 2019, You Must Know

Love it, hate it or rarely use it, there is no denying the fact that voice search is the future. “Alexa, play my favourite song”, “Siri, find the best restaurant near me” and the command list for a voice assistant goes on and on, even for the smallest of tasks.

But Siri never disappoints us. Interestingly, we trust Siri/Alexa to be accurate. It’s like our best friend is telling us something and we have to believe it. We do go to that restaurant Siri finds for us and we do croon with the song that it plays. And that my friend, is the power of a voice assistant.

It has become quite imperative for marketers to learn SEO-voice search techniques to excel in their businesses. Here are some statistics (trust me, there are a lot more!) you should know, to keep yourself updated, in this competitive world.

• Smart speaker ownership has nearly doubled over the past year
• The ownership of smart speaker In the U.S. households grew from 66.7 million to 118.5 million, as reported, over a period of one year, from December 2017 to December 2018

People are eyeing on the latest smart speakers. They are looking for new models, checking for colour options and inquiring about their usage at retail outlets. A smart speaker is like a personal assistant and who doesn’t like to have an assistant? Duh!

(Source- Edison report)

• Smart speaker usage in U.S. is expected to rise by leaps and bounds with over 70 million household having at least one smart speaker by 2022.
• Amazon speakers are expected to penetrate the households over 55% from 13% , in the coming four years starting from 2019.
• Smartphones is the winner in the race and around 5 billion assistants will be installed on smartphones, over the world, by 2022

One thing to keep in mind is that advertisers will have to build a great strategy for voice search which provides relevant information as well as has sales provisions.

 (Source- Juniper Research)

According to a report on PWC, out of the surveyed population

• 44% consumers have started using voice assistants to control other smart devices at home
• 89% looked for smart home devices which were compatible with their voice assistants
• 58% of them looked for the compatibility of their television with their voice assistant
• 36% of them looked for the compatibility of their voice assistants with their home light.

(Source- PWC)

Marketers can use this information not only for advertising, but also for creating a positive sentiment among consumers.

This data provides an opportunity for strategic synergies too. Maybe we will get to witness some great mergers/ acquisitions soon, you never know! But one thing is sure, you heard this first from us, you’re welcome!

• In a survey of 1002 millennials in the U.S., 45% of the millennials agreed to using voice assistants for shopping
• Google assistant was the most popular tool for shopping-related searches (24%) followed by Apple’s Siri (19%)

• Millennials used voice assistants for searching for products as well as for accessing product reviews
• Food is the preferred choice for millennials followed by groceries

 Gourmet businesses are you listening?

(Source- PWC)

• Consumer sentiment about the usage of smart speakers is very positive
• Maximum Consumers see their voice assistants as accurate

• Out of the total surveyed population, PWC claims –

1. 72% agreed that they considered the information given by voice assistants as correct.
2. 59% agreed that using voice assistants saved their time
3. 57% thanked voice assistants for making their lives easier

(Source- PWC)

The questions asked by consumers show their intent to make a purchase. The maximum queries start with ‘what’ which shows that consumers are interested in knowing about the products. Their questions could range from ‘ what is the price ‘ to ‘what are the benefits’ this insight can be well utilized by companies. 

They can do analysis of their searches and based on that provide information on their websites.

• According to a survey, As many as 43% teenagers agreed to using voice searches for calling someone followed by 38% using it for asking directions.
• They also use it for playing a song, finding a movie or checking the time.

Teen behavior is always under the lens of marketers. Their changing mood, emotions and preferences send most of the companies into a tizzy. But one thing is for sure, they like ample options !

• By 2020 , 50% of all the searches will be voice-based
• Voice search queries are longer than as compared with text based queries
• Voice searches are more likely to be location specific
• For almost half of the owners of smart speakers, most likely behavior is to keep the speakers in their living room

• Google assistant helps in real life translation in 27 languages and it is expected to increase its language knowledge by 2020.
• Local searches are very popular among searchers
• These searches are powered by terms like ‘near me’
• How to utilize voice search to drive business?

Last we have listed a few tips for you to master your way to voice search

• Use conversational language
• Try to focus more on semantic research
• Less focus on keywords
• Figure out the user intention and provide keywords regarding same
• Make use of longer tail keyword phrases so as to reach users
• Provide contextual answers
• To help search engines, integrate structured data in your web pages
• Wherever possible, be concise.

SEO- Voice searches are a very important tool and one can learn it at any stage. We just have to open our senses and be more observant of the environment around us. Listen to people talking, Record how people enquire at outlets, compare their text searches with voices searches. And if nothing helps go to an outlet yourself , start giving command and make note of your own command language.