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Hey Siri, will voice search change content marketing?

Published Mar 01, 2018 – By Gareth Francis

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It’s becoming increasingly common to hear: “Alexa, play The Rolling Stones” or “Siri, what’s the weather like tomorrow?” already and by 2020, ComScore predicts half of all internet searches will be made through speech recognition systems. So how can you make the most of voice search in your content marketing? Here are four tips to get you started.

Question everything

Search engine optimisation of content has been already been affecting headline writing for years, but voice search systems add a new layer of complexity to this. While finding the perfect pun is still often appropriate for print, it will become more important than ever to consider what people will be searching for using speech and, specifically, what questions they might ask. Expect to see more question and answer articles.

The end of key words?

Where once you would have focused on head key words, you’ll need to include more complete phrasing known as long tail key words. For example, where once we may have written “content marketing trends”, voice search might change that to “what are the most important content marketing trends this year?”

Be specific

Creating more content relating specifically to each area of your business will be key. Think about it, if you were talking to a friend and needed advice on your pension, you would say “I need advice on my pension” not “I need advice from a financial planner”.

Be conversational

Businesses will also have to revisit their tone of voice, potentially ditching formality. People are talking to their operating systems using the same phrases they would if they were talking to a person. Expect to see a rise in conversational writing styles, particularly as the systems become more advanced and better cater for accents and dialects.

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