Voice recognition software has proliferated over the past few years. With Apple’s Siri, Google’s Voice Search and Microsoft’s Cortana, speaking commands directly into your phone is no longer just for self-important Utah businessmen with Bluetooth headsets. According to a 2014 Google poll, 41 percent of adults and 55 percent of teens utilize their phone’s voice-search feature more than once a day—a figure we can only assume has since risen.
With the proliferation of voice search, the way that consumers search for content is fundamentally changing. Rather than searching through broad categories or a mix of relevant keywords, consumers in Utah and elsewhere are looking for specific answers to their questions. For content marketing, this means changing the way content is structured to better fit consumer inquiries.
A general query is often the first stage of interaction between a potential consumer and a business or institution. If companies can structure their content marketing strategies to better capitalize on consumers in the query stage, marketers will be posed to better take advantage of the growing voice recognition market in Utah.
Voice recognition software also changes how search engines rank results. For example, if one were to pose the question “what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow” using a Google Web search, the top response is a large box proclaiming the correct answer to be precisely 11 meters per second (or 24 mph, for us Americans), according to a website called Armory.
However, if one poses the same query using Google’s Voice Search, the answer changes. Rather than a definitive numerical reply, Voice Search instead gives you a rather long, pandering response from style.org. The Armory response doesn’t even make the front page.
While the results from Voice Search and traditional Web search are clearly different, it should be noted that both top results are direct attempts to answer the question posed. While one posing this particular query is almost certainly searching for Monty Python, you’ll find a link to the relevant clip from the British sketch comedy show actually ranks further down the list.
Thus, even if your content is inherently relevant to the question at hand, it will inevitably rank lower than content that directly answers the question. Content marketing strategies will need to change to better provide information to the curious consumer or risk losing out on potential conversions. If content marketing campaigns are structured along the lines of natural human speech and intent, voice search will bring together consumers and businesses in Utah like never before.
