Should I devote time to Voice Search?

[TomSnow]

Hearing some buzz around voice search. Stats like "20% of searches come from voice search."

I've looked into this last year and remember learning that featured snippets often end up in voice. So optimize for featured snippets is optimizing for voice. Not sure if this is actually true.

Anyone else out there preparing for an impending voice search take over? If so, what are some strategies?

Thanks!

[goodroi]

Depends on your industry & your specific users. There are many people using Google voice search for the weather & traffic updates but if you are a B2B website, there probably isn't as much voice search potential for you right now.

[topr8]

i agree with goodroi, don't be seduced by generic stats! i personally use voice search for things like weather and news briefings but not to purchase an item, i suspect most people are similar - perhaps purchasing music or suchlike or well known tangible goods, but not much else.

[martinibuster]

Just write clear content and use JSON-LD structured data. Keep an eye on Google's developers pages for Structured Data to see if there are any updates related to your content type. Also keep an eye on the Google Actions developers page to see if there are any updates related to your niche that you can then apply so that you show up in Google's Assistant devices.

If you want to get ahead of the game then use Schema.org's Speakable structured data markup in the JSON-LD format. It's not in use by Google except for the context of News Sites. But putting it in there will put you in there ahead of time IF Google opens that up to a wider variety of sites. But I think this is going too far.

[iamlost]

What the others said.

One needs to be careful when dealing with statistics aka lies, d*mned lies, and statistics. Webdevs tend to default to thinking of search as browser search; these days it also includes in app search and IoT, i.e. Google Home, search. So, for many, probably most, possibly all smaller webdevs voice search is just another access stream for Google search to co-opt or refer on.

One cautionary reminder regarding martinibuster's mention of structured mark-up: Google has an history of using webdevs to train their models and this means that over time what they recommend and what they actually do shifts as their goal is to be able to recognise and retrieve desired data without mark up. That said, in the short, medium term it may be helpful.

Rather than voice search specifically I'd recommend considering a broader ramification of increasing voice interaction: in many situations using mobile devices makes 'normal' visual/touch interaction problematic: where voice is better/best as input it most likely is also better/best for output. How about making podcasts of your webpages?

I've been working on it for a couple of years now (and it'll be years more before it'll be completed) to some success. It's still uncommon and there is an available content tipping point, however it is a fairly low overhead way of leveraging existing content and the continuing shift to voice interaction. And as audio ads are in their infancy it's an opportunity to get one's feet wet in what may (or not) be the next big revenue thing.

[TomSnow]

Thanks all! Very helpful. I'm a B2C site in a sense. We connect people to lawyers in their area.

I'll keep the the content clean and use structured data.

Will also keep an eye on Speakable even though Google only uses it for news sites currently.

Again thanks!

[RedBar]

Hearing some buzz around voice search. Stats like "20% of searches come from voice search."

I think you'll find that 20% is way too low ... according to a forecast I was reading only last week, in 2020 they are predicting 50% will be voice searches.

Especially amongst the younger users voice search is huge, I see them using it all day every day. I don't think it's specifically the older ones avoiding it per se, I think as we get older many of us become more precise with our search query(ies) plus we like to have a selection of answers rather than the one which may, or may not be, adequate or even correct.

Don't get me wrong, voice search is brilliant for some stuff yet totally useless for other ... so far!

[MrSavage]

This is ridiculous. The question is like asking this. How can I make my music/song accessible for a radio station that can play my song and I will not get paid in return. The radio station can use my songs to sell ads and I get nothing in return. Yeah, these are the things worth striving for...

[goodroi]

Most musicians get rich from concert revenue & not radio play. Radio stations can only pay a few cents per song. Radio play is basically advertising to get more people interested in attending a musician's concert where they make much bigger money on tickets, drinks, food, parking & souvenirs.

Using the radio station analogy, this is like asking how can webmasters transform voice search into free advertising to expand their brand awareness and drive users to convert on their big ticket items. There is definite profit potential for certain businesses. Each of us should be smart and think twice before investing in this so we each make the best decision for our own business.

[martinibuster]

It's only ridiculous for those who anchor themselves in the past and refuse to evolve and engage with ever changing reality.
Nobody ever got ahead by standing still.

[MrSavage]

There is no intelligent business plan when you give away your product for free. Note to bank, please give me a loan. My business plan? Give away my content and product away for free with no likely revenue in return. So the business plan is reliant on Google sharing revenue? The boxes aren't YouTube.

It's hilarious to think that this juice is worth the squeeze. Some might invest time and effort in giving their S away for free and then figuring out how to gain from that arrangement. A worthless existence in my books.

Don't overthink the radio/song analogy. A radio station that doesn't have to pay for any other content but can run ads. They don't have to pay for music they don't have to pay for radio hosts they don't have to pay for content creators. if you're one of those people wanting to give away your content for free go ahead. Google (and Amazon) thank you. You go ahead and reap the rewards of giving your content away for free and pursuing every method to make it easier for them to have access.

[nomis5]

Books are still flourishing, the cinema is going from strength to strength. Following the latest trend without a clear purpose is not a way to success.

Many websites will need to evolve for voice search, many are far better advised to ignore it and develop in a different direction more profitable for them. Following the crowd is often a mistake.

[goodroi]

There is no intelligent business plan when you give away your product for free.

Somehow Google is profitable despite giving away products/services for free like free search, free email, free maps, free internet browsers, free document software, free analytics, free cloud storage, etc.

Just because some of us might have not yet imagined a solution does not mean there aren't good solutions to a problem.

[MrSavage]

LOL. When it's free, you are the product. Every freebie from Google is a conduit to advertising. At least they can monetize free unlike all the content their box scrapes and we give away for free. Sure the future might see a royalty for use of content but I'm not devoting time on wishful thinking. I challenge anyone to go to the bank and present this business plan and get the bank to bite on lending you money. Chuckles.

[martinibuster]

There is no intelligent business plan when you give away your product for free.

Giving things away for free has been a constant on the Internet for the last 25 years.

Ad Supported is one. There are alternate free strategies based on investment, whose purpose is to create new business models.

Voice search through a networked home and automobile (in addition to the mobile voice assistant) is the future.

Be there, arrive late or be left behind. Your choice.

It's called change. It's what you breathe and flows through your veins, regardless of how vigorously you may resist or deny it.

[tangor]

Devote time? (responding to op) ... maybe... meanwhile, do not ignore it. Things change, constantly, and while voice search is in evolution at the moment, it is not there, yet.

Seek it out? Not sure it is ready for that either.

Content ... and query per same ... will be the biggie, I think. Not all sites will benefit from voice search. At the moment it is more imprecise than general queries and even then, those do not benefit from boolean as much as they should. Do not underestimate that other common commodity in the universe as noted by Einstein many decades ago. :)

We remain some distance away from Captain Kirk and "Computer:..."

[MrSavage]

I've never thought that something that can garner no appreciable benefit is worth pursuing. Clearly some people are into pursuing nothingness. Most people here will be dead (myself included) by the time the content creators are actually compensated for supplying the boxes with their content. That's a worthwhile pursuit? Many things in life (like virtually anything else) would be a more productive and fruitful use of time.

Regarding "free" and Google proving the model? Everything they do for free is or will be an advertising platform. They are all conduits. Free internet? Got to get those people onto YouTube to watch ads. Their motivation is ads. Now they are the world's biggest affiliate as well, but one thing is a certainty. It's about their bottom line. The boxes aren't a partnership for webmasters. Google are the masters are creating nothing (unless it's a future ad platform) and being able to monetize over top of what everyone else creates. The boxes are no different. We provide the content and they create the ad platform out of it. Go ahead and make it easy for them. They love you for it.

[engine]

Once Google works out how to monetise the speakers, there will be opportunities. In the meantime, there's voice search on mobile.
Think about the answer boxes you see on Google and go for it.

Without participating you're never going to find opportunities, and if you already have the information, all you're doing is restructuring it for consumption.

[MrSavage]

Google has in fact started some advertising through the box. The horse has left the barn. Personally I don't see a situation where Google shares revenue from ads with others. They use website content on the SERPS without paying the site for that content so why would they pay for the content the box uses? Music and news, sure. Matt Cutts spoke about and supported the idea of compensation for websites that provide "answer" content for Google. That was before the boxes. It's far worse! The box cant link to your content which is at least some form of payment/reward. Minimal to be sure, but at least it's a crumb. Box offers nothing but a mention which banks won't cash.

[Selen]

I'm probably confused, but someone could explain - is there going to be something like Adsense but that applies to voice search / voice assistance? If Google sends a user to my site to read the content, will it be possible to monetize it (by reading the ads or something?).

[No5needinput]

@Selen - Maybe in @martinibuster's world..................................

[MrSavage]

The most likely scenario, after much fighting, is that the content that the boxes use will get a cut of the sales of these boxes plus a cut of the ad revenue they generate from your "answers" or "content". Radio station plays a song, artist gets paid. A box reads (scrapes) from your site (aren't you lucky) and the box (Google) has to pay you a royalty. That would be a best case scenario. Most likely? Google gets a few "partners" and they caress each other and provide everything one might need and those "partners" will enjoy the relationship. For now you get a mention. A reference. A shout out. A big 'ol thanks for helping populate the talking box with a brain. Meanwhile Google and others enjoy selling you a box for profit which does nothing on it's own but instead relies on your content to be of any use. What an asinine arrangement. Then you have people trying to find ways to make it easier for Google and the likes to enjoy your content for free to make the boxes even more useful. Go figure. It might take years and years before anyone important enough does something about the current arrangement. You know, the part where everyone supplies the brain (for free) while companies sell the boxes for profit that have no use without having free access to the webs information.

[Robert Charlton]

Just a speculative guess... not a researched opinion... but might it be possible to optimize your own site for internal site search via voice... if not for today, for the very foreseeable future? This assumes that APIs and software are at least in the pipeline.

It seems to me that this would be a natural for a large, ecommerce site.

[JS_Harris]

- Siri, tell me the weather forecast for Bolton tonight, I have tickets to an outdoor event there in 30 minutes.
- Sure, I can do that, but first let me tell you about a bed and breakfast in Bolton, you get free eggs with your morning coffee

Voice won't be easy to monetize and the web is far too profitable to ignore so just work on your content, please your visitors and let Google figure out their end. In fact I don't recommend you even waste your time with 3rd party markup anymore, it's as required as keywords today. You don't even need a description on webpages anymore, Google has moved past that. I know webmasters think they need to control the description but if you ommit it entirely you get the benefit of Google choosing one from the page for visitor A and an entirely different one for visitor B who had a slightly different query.

TL;DR - No, there's no return in it for you at this time.

[engine]

I know webmasters think they need to control the description but if you ommit it entirely you get the benefit of Google choosing one from the page for visitor A and an entirely different one for visitor B who had a slightly different query.

Correct, but there are other places that might need the description.

It's a conundrum over voice, and I'm not sure anyone knows the solution. What we do know is it's here now, and there are opportunities, depending upon the sector. If you use voice search you'll see what i mean.