Mobile Search Vs Voice Search
The rise of mobile commerce has opened an array of possibilities for E-commerce managers, with a plethora of challenges on its tail. Consumers in 2015 search much differently than they did only a few years ago, which can mainly be explained by the evolution of mobile technology at their disposal, and the ever-developing diversity of offerings online. Mobile search was not a marketing trend to watch as closely in 2011, when Blackberry led the mobile market with 39 million users, but it cannot be ignored by marketers in 2015. With the iPhone and Android revolutionising the mobile market in most countries, combined with high-speed 4G, users are now able to perform online searches from their phones at all times and places, the second they need access to this information, slowly making desktops and laptops obsolete.
Advancements in Technology
The voice recognition tool, introduced as Siri on iPhones 4S in 2011, Cortana on Windows phones in 2015 and Google Now on Android 4.1 in 2012, is the ultimate proof that wearable computers are indeed simplifying the user’s journey and modifying the way they search, and want to search. With mobile use surpassing desktop in 2015, phone search technologies are naturally adapting with more sophisticated ways for online merchants to make conversions on their customers’ phones. While teenagers and early adopters have already made voice search an inherent part of their daily searches (55% of teenagers owning smart phones use voice search several times daily), most users are still slowly adapting to the technology in their hands. In 2015 however, 40% of adults use voice search at least once a day, developing the market for local search on mobile (“Where can I find a local plumber?”).
Effects on Local SEO
Voice search with local SEO will come together hand in hand. With location services on modern phones, many searches made end up as part of local SEO. Anyone walking through the high street searching for ‘find cosmetics store in chelsea’ will be provided with a variety of cosmetic shops including Google maps for convenience. Since the voice recognition tool is designed to be more personal for each user, phone manufacturers want consumers to treat their mobile phones as personal assistants. Users of Siri, Google Now and Cortana ask local types of questions such as ‘find me the best restaurants near me’. This uses local search terms to find the best restaurants in a short distance. In essence, local business owners will need to take in consideration local SEO. Adding long tail keywords and their local area as part of their keyword strategy is the most beneficial.
Pros and Cons for E-Commerce
E-commerce has been on a continual increase since 2014 especially on mobile and tablet devices which now accounts for 50% of E-commerce traffic. As mobile devices get better equipped with the voice search function, voice searches are becoming the search system of the future, not just a trend. The pros for E-commerce voice search are mainly for local businesses who have taken in consideration either long tail keywords or a local SEO strategy. Asking Siri, Google Now or Cortina, has consequences when users ask Siri to make an online search. Apple has now switched its default search engine to use Microsoft’s Bing search engine, since a fall out with Google. One of the biggest cons of voice search for E-commerce is this can lead to mistakes on the exact match-keywords and phrase match. Only the broad search terms will mostly be used and unless these broad search terms are a part of your ad copy, may trigger your competitor’s ads instead. This is the same for SEO; unless your page content reflects the type of search terms entered through voice search, your online store could be left behind.
Bing has recently acquired a bigger share of the search market with more search engine activity, and whether this is due to Siri using Bing is unconfirmed. With millions of users with an iPhone, Bing should really be considered within any SEO plan whether it is local or national. The downside may be an extra cost for an external E-Commerce SEO agency to cater for the rise of another search engine to focus on, although this represents a huge potential for growth for E-commerce marketers in the upcoming months.
How to Optimise your E-Commerce for Voice Search
A few years ago, companies looking for SEO would just ask to appear on the first page of Google’s SERPs. A separate SEO strategy must be made for various search engines, with Bing becoming such a strong competition for Google, with Siri’s help.
To fully optimise your E-commerce for voice search, marketing managers must investigate very thoroughly the psychology of the average searcher, and the different options of enquiries coming from the several types of their target customer. The type of questions target customers will ask Siri, Google Now or Cortana will need to be integrated within any keyword planning and ensuring local SEO was taken into consideration. Only by asking “does my online store’s content answer my target user’s question on the voice search?” will E-commerce managers find the grounds to basis for their E-commerce content.
By Nick Haggis, E-Commerce SEO specialist at Polaris SEO Agency.
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