More than one in four people use voice search on their mobile device.
Experts predict that by 2024, the number of digital voice assistants in use will reach 8.4 billion. In other words, there will be more voice assistants being used than there are people in the world.
Moreover, by 2025, the transaction value of purchases made through these devices is expected to reach $164 billion.
No matter who your favorite AI friend is — Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant — you can expect them to stick around. Artificial intelligence (AI) and voice search will continue to permeate our lives through 2023 and beyond.
If you’re a marketer, that means they’ll be a part of your life, too. Here are three trends we’re predicting for AI and voice search in 2023, and what you can do to prepare.
Sections
1. Get conversational
The hallmark of voice search is that it is conversational. When people talk to their voice assistant, they tend to speak conversationally, using long-tail keywords and asking questions.
With voice search, people are not looking to explore search results. They want a comprehensive answer they can walk away with. To make sure your content fits the bill, reformat your headings to be more conversational (when it makes sense). Format them as questions rather than chapter title, e.g. “How Can I Make Cold Brew at Home?” vs. “Making Cold Brew at Home.” Finally, summarize your answer directly beneath the heading so it’s short and sweet for a voice assistant to read aloud.
Pro Tip: For more advice on optimizing your content for voice search, read our blog post on Google’s featured snippets.
Voice search queries tend to be self-referential, like “Where’s a coffee shop near me?” If you manage a local business, optimize your Google My Business listing. Fill it out completely, and update your hours, products, and services whenever something changes. Create local content for your website, as too, optimizing for location-specific keywords and embedding a Google map.
2. Get structured
…Structured data, that is. Structured data is data that gets added to your website code via schema markup. While your site visitors can’t see it, search engines like Google can. They use it to better understand your website, and optimize your search results with special features, when relevant.
For example, adding FAQ schema to your FAQ page can expand your Google search result with your most frequently asked questions. You can add FAQ schema to any page on your website that has FAQs, not just your official FAQ page. To optimize your site for voice search, consider adding quick answers to your top blog pages.
Speakable schema markup is a type of structured data that was made with voice search in mind. It allows you to identify key points of information, such as a summary of a blog or an update about your business, and direct Google to serve up that content via voice search. At the time of writing, speakable structured data is only available as a beta for news publishers, but this is definitely a voice search trend to watch in 2023.
You can also markup your how-to content, product pages, Q&A, and more. See all the structured data Google currently supports here.
3. Get creative
One of the big trends this year was the proliferation of generative AI. People are using AI tools to create original art, avatars, images, media, memes, and content — both fiction or nonfiction. In 2023, we can expect this trend to continue, as the AI powering these tools improves.
ChatGPT-4 will likely be released in early 2023, which will change the game in AI-generated content. While the internet is already going wild showing the impressive capabilities of ChatGPT, it’s smart to be cautious about using this for SEO. Google has publicly said it views automatically generated content created using these tools as “spam.” For now, it’s best to use these tools to brainstorm and create article outlines.
Similarly, text-to-image tools, like DALL-E from OpenAI and Midjourney, can be great for brainstorming or creating more casual content like memes. However, they can spit out offensive, copyrighted, or otherwise problematic imagery, so you’ll want to be careful with these as well.
Regardless of these caveats, it’s exciting to see the developments in generative AI, and imagine what breakthroughs will come in 2023.
Get excited about 2023
AI and voice search will continue to evolve in 2023. Stay ahead of the trends by partnering with Your Marketing People. Our digital marketing experts are here to help you take advantage of all that voice search has to offer, so you can reach more customers and bring in more sales.
