VoiceSummit.AI: Marketers! Prepare Now for the Voice Search Present & Future

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Marketers! Prepare Now for the Voice Search Present & Future Katherine Watier Ong @kwatier

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Katherine Watier Ong • Owner of WO Strategies LLC • 24 years of communications experience • 14 years of online marketing experience (SEO, SEM, social media, web analytics) • Built first website in 1994 • Once crashed a website for 4 days and still received almost 1.3 million visitors/mo. (up from 300K) • Wrote master’s thesis on consumer adoption of wearable computers (2003)

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Inputs Have Gotten Better... ● 2003 Xybernaut ● First consumer wearable computer ● No cell data networks ● Joystick input ● Windows OS

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Brands Katherine Watier Ong has worked with

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Adoption Data - Voice Action or Search?

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1 in 5 US Searches May 2016: Google I/O keynote https://mklnd.com/2NeBRD3 on the Android App Are Voice

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Last Year... Source: 2017 http://bit.ly/2L2vUvl 1 in 2 use voice technology on a smartphone (search + actions) 1 in 3 of those use it daily

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We ARE Adopting Technology Faster (2018) http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends ● Smart speaker ownership is at 18% of the U.S. population in just 3 years ● Outpacing the adoption rates of smartphones and tablets.

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By 2020… 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen 2016: https://gtnr.it/2KOSBnC

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By 2020… 75% of U.S. households will have smart speakers 2017: http://bit.ly/2unAo5y

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By 2020… 50% of all searches will be voice search AND image (Mary Meeker) (It was really Baidu...) 2014 http://bit.ly/2L7CltO

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How many are marketing moments?

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Voice search data is almost impossible to find...

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Top Voice Smart Speaker Use Cases 2017: http://bit.ly/smartspeakerusecases

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Google Home Sample 23% was an SEO opportunity A year of in-home use. 3,188 queries. Source: https://selnd.com/2uz597k

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Voice Assistant Survey 17% was an SEO opportunity 2017: http://bit.ly/2KNkPPs

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Weekly Voice Tech Users (Includes smartphone) 60% was an SEO opportunity 2017:http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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How Fast Do You Need to Shift?

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US or Global?

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Germany Voice Search Use 23% 63% 64% Use it Weekly Online Search Asking Questions Source: http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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China Chinese characters are hard to type, it’s easier to talk. Voice Search Use 31% #1 4% Use it weekly of Chinese respondents saying they will never use it. Voice activity in China is investigating products online and search on a search engine. Source: http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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Thailand Voice Search Use 55% 70% 64% Use it Weekly Online Search Product Info Search Source: http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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USA /Global Top Voice Uses (Smartphone) 65%/50% Asking Questions 70%/60% Doing Online Searches 60%/35% Finding Local Business 55%/35% Finding Info About Local Business 53%/58% Finding Info on a Product Source: http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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Younger Demo

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2016: http://bit.ly/GWIvoice

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Product Search

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2015: http://bit.ly/visualsearchdata 74% of consumers say text based keyword searches are inefficient in helping to find products online.

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5% of consumers use voice shopping. Could reach 50% by 2022. April 2018 http://bit.ly/2NGYjWl

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“The growth curve of voice shopping looks a lot like the trajectory of mobile commerce seven years ago” - Moffett Nathanson’s Greg Melich Source: http://bit.ly/2uc5XQu

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Online Groceries

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56% of online grocery shoppers use or plan to use voice controlled smart assistant/speaker 2018: http://bit.ly/voicegrocery

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Local Searches

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58% of consumers used voice search to find local business info in the last 12 months Source: http://bit.ly/2KQS2cL

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Voice Search Mechanics

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Voice Search Queries Are Different Desktop: “weather paris” Voice: “What’s the weather like in Paris?” Source: http://bit.ly/2MzDIlo

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Where Does Google Read the Answer From? ● 70% cited a website source ● 41% came from featured snippets ● Now “speakable” markup 2018: http://bit.ly/backlinkovoice and http://bit.ly/weareroast

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Featured Snippets Jan 2018: http://bit.ly/Googlefeaturedsnippets

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Paid Search Won’t Help

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How Do You “Optimize” for Voice Search?

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Voice Search Optimization 1. Follow SEO best practices 2. Be mobile friendly and fast 3. Help Google understand your content (structured data) 4. Know your audience context and intent 5. Develop a brand voice 6. Answer their questions (featured snippets) 7. Be found locally (if relevant) 8. Leverage your audio assets

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1. Tech SEO Must Haves

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Get Your Tech House in Order ● Load fast ● No crawl or indexing issues ● Use structured data ● Be on HTTPs ● Have low bounce rate and high engagement

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2. Be Mobile Friendly and Fast

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https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/

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2018: https://backlinko.com/voice-search-seo-study

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Diagnosing and Fixing Page Speed Issues ● GTMetrix.com ● Google’s Lighthouse tool in Chrome ● WebPageTest.org

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3. Structured Data

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Structured Data ● Helps with entity extraction ● Now enables Google Actions in Assistant and in Search ● Can help with getting a Knowledge Box (along with other signals) ● Quick Check: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results http://bit.ly/Googlestructureddataguide http://bit.ly/GooglesupportSD

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Google Assistant Actions Directory Users can play media via Search and the Google Assistant. If you have: ● Structured data markup (or AMP) for recipes or news ● or RSS for podcasts You will get an email to claim your directory page.

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Speakable Markup ● News publishers can markup content that can be read out loud ● Markup documentation ● Need to be a verified news org ● Submit for inclusion http://bit.ly/Googlespeak https://wostrategies.com/take-to-get-into-google-news/

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4. Know the Context

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Does your content work in that context? https://www.stonetemple.com/voice-usage-trends/

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5. Develop a Brand Voice

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Users Want to Hear Your Voice 72% of regular UK voice users think brands should have unique voices and personalities for their apps Source: http://bit.ly/JWIreport

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How would your brand “sound” if your search snippet “spoke” to your searchers?

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Developing Your Brand Voice ● Consistent customer’s experience of your brand ● Helps to develop a brand that everyone understands, can articulate, and effectively share with others. ● Keeps marketing and sales on the same page of who is “behind the brand” on the handle. ● Lets you surface “your voice” via social, paid, voice, AND SEO.

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Brand Voice Documentation How to develop your brand voice: http://bit.ly/2unv7uM

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Brand Voice with SEO

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6. Be Found Locally

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Local User Context ● Claim & optimize Google My Business ● Local geo landing pages ● Consistent NAPs (Name, Address, Phone) ● Claim local citations ● Get geo local links ● Get reviews ● Full checklist here: http://bit.ly/2Lqfr0Z moz.com/local - BrightLocal.com

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7. Answer Their Questions

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What Works to Get Featured Snippets? ● Rank in the top 5 ● Most are questions ● Mobile usable and fast loading ● HTTPs ● Easy reading level ● Scannable ● Use images ● Citations May 2018: http://bit.ly/2ucDGJp

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Brainstorming Keyword Topics - Your Data Currently seeing voice queries? 1. Google Search Console 2. Filter by “how, what, when” queries on mobile Credit Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

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Keyword Topics https://answerthepublic.com https://keywordseverywhere.com

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Does It Meet Google’s Human Rater Guidelines? Source: http://bit.ly/2KyRyUo

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8. Leverage Your Audio Assets

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Optimize Your Audio Content ● Optimize your meta data and episode descriptions & markup for entities (guest names, etc). ● Provide show notes ● RSS feed requirements, Submit your RSS feed url ● Plan for Google to surface internal parts of your podcast as an answer https://search.google.com/devtools/podcast/preview

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Let’s Talk ROI

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Measuring Voice Search Google Analytics Google Search Console Can’t be explicitly tracked

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Other Ways to Measure ● Filtered organic impressions ● Mobile keyword rankings ● Rich result rankings ● Google Actions https://developers.google.com/actions/tools/analytics

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Where Do We Go From Here?

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Takeaways ● Follow SEO best practices ● Leverage structured data ● Develop a plan based on your data and your target audience. ● Think about the context of their search ● Develop brand voice documentation ● Watch the trends (audio SEO, Google actions directory)

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Questions?

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KATHERINE WATIER ONG 202-930-1744 katherine@wostrategies.com www.linkedin.com/in/katherinewatier www.WOStrategies.com