SUMMARY:
- Voice search vs. Standard search for 1-2 word queries yield quite different results. Much less results on mobile voice search, to say the least.
- Universal search will impact search marketers with no shopping results, for example, yielding from my searches.
- Voice search yielded more location based results showing places closer to me where standard search shows more shopping related pages based on keyword query.
- Content and location based results are the current winners, paid search has long ways to go, for now.
- It’s important to point out that Apple (IOS) currently uses Google for its search results. That may change in the near future as Apple has made public plans for its own search engine.
Voice search has been a hot topic for the last two years, give or take. Features such as Siri from Apple or Alexa from Amazon have started a shift in consumer behavior in using voice for user demands from calling a contact or asking Alexa to play something on your playlist.
Voice search is trending to be something to watch for in 2021, and of course, that affects search marketers and how our websites will be found by consumers. It also tends to shift how to optimize as voice search tends to differ from regular search in the way we ask Siri, for example, to search for something.
I have to be honest. I’m not one to use voice commands at all. Like ever. So, if you are that person, this post may seem obvious from what has existed in the last few years with voice search, if not, it may add some insight and value. I analyzed this from a marketers lens for search marketing.
So, I decided to take two examples to see how the results differ. There are obvious changes that as voice search increases, the beauty of the Google (or SERP) universal results will become less and less relevant and it will not be seen as much, atleast in the IOS systems and others.
LET’S QUICKLY GO OVER UNIVERSAL SEARCH…
It’s important you understand what this meant when Google rolled out universal search.
Universal search is search that allows Google to show images, local businesses, rich snippets, and more right on the SERP. … Now, Google uses universal search. This refers to Google’s ability to take results from a few different verticals and combine them into a single SERP.
The reason this changed the landscape of search is because it allowed for optimization of other elements than just websites to rank. Images, etc. It also allowed Google to add shopping results to search which has been incredible for e-commerce.
UNIVERSAL SEARCH WITH VOICE SEEMS OBSOLETE, FOR NOW…
When promoting Siri for certain search queries, I came across the fact that universal search didn’t yield any results such as shopping results, etc.
These shopping results are key for e-commerce as they drive a wealth of traffic to those top 4-10 shopping results on top bar or right (depending on device being used.)
COMPARING A SEARCH QUERY FOR VOICE & STANDARD SEARCH
I did a search for hair loss shampoo in both Google standard search, via my macbook device and using voice search, siri, on my iPhone.
In Google, the query was, “best hair loss shampoo,” where as in voice search, I asked, “what is the best hair loss shampoo?”
Voice search result…
Google standard search result
As you see, and obviously so, the Google standard search yields a much wider result from its universal search page. It gave me shopping results, top advertisers for that key word, content related to reviews for best hair loss shampoos, and finally the organic search results.
Voice search yielded only content related results that talk about the best shampoos for hair loss.
RESULTS AND WHAT CAN THIS TELL US?
As voice search trends into 2021 and beyond, my guess is that it will evolve to a more universal search type result for mobile devices to monetize results. However, as it stands now, the winners of voice search today are content results and location based businesses.
CONTENT IS KING. This has never been truer as has always been the case for SEO, even more so in the world of voice search.
As voice search continues to trend up, this is something to watch for to optimize your website and web strategy. I will be doing the next few post on voice search as it’s something that really interest me as consumer behavior changes.
This post was made strictly comparing these two when it comes to shopping results from an e-comm lens.
This will continue to evolve over the next few years.
