It is the age of iPhones and very sophisticated Android phones. Some variation of the Smartphone is probably more in everyone’s daily conversation than anything else. This extends to tablets and with the new updates in 2017 also laptops. Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Now on Tap and Windows Phone’s Cortana are being used on searches much more than anything ever did. The added bonus of voice search options with all of them have revolutionized the ways of searching on the internet for countless users. Users can easily ask their phone’s assistant to set alarms, how is the weather going to be or even complex tasks like save notes by recording what they say. The way people used to text or call other people have change from typing all the information in to just saving the words and say send at the end. The Middle East is a progressive place that is technologically up-to-date. Here are a few suggestions from us to the businesses in the Middle East explaining why voice search is good for SEO in the coming years.

1: Mobile Search Becoming the Mother of All searches

With the smartphone popularity reaching one of the highest in human history, it is only obvious that the most number of searches are done on mobile phones. Nearly half the population on the planet has a Smartphone in their pockets or bags. It is very convenient for them to just take the devices out and search whatever they might need. Currently more than half the search queries around the world originate from mobile phones. This is a really high number and going more in depth, it is obvious that a very high number of that percentage belongs to voice search. With Google’s Google assistant and Apple’s Siri also incorporating various languages in voice searches, this has gained popularity globally. It is a generally accepted fact that talking is easier than typing, it only makes sense for all those people to go hands free and say what they want to search for to their respective Smartphone assistants rather than having to type all that information in.

2: New Nature of Keywords

When searching through voice, people generally use natural-sound phrases and questions instead of the traditional query language. Typing searches used to be short and generally between 2 to 6 words, but when doing voice searches people tend to ask lengthy conversation like questions from mobile assistants.

Typing:

• Why SEO
• How to SEO
• How SEO Works Better

Voice:

• Why will choosing SEO be better for my business?
• How can a business incorporate SEO successfully in order to maximize business?
• How does SEO work to get more traffic towards the business’s website?

This shift in the nature of keyword search has prompted SEO experts to include long tail keyword in their list of keywords. This new nature of keywords has also made asking questions from mobile assistants much easier and people can engage assistants in conversations, assistants have also grown much more sophisticated, Siri and Google Assistant now keep the conversation going until the required purpose is met, this might include 3 to 5 separate questions by the assistant to complete one search action.

3: Conversational Content

As discussed earlier, the mobile assistants have grown much more sophisticated. They are now able to engage in virtual discussions with the users and process all the information towards the achievement of the searchable content. Some even more sophisticated assistant like the Google Assistant are even able to complete actions based on search results. For example the voice search goes like this:

• Where is the most nearest travel agent?
• Voice search will process results and show you the nearest travel agents, next it will analyze if anyone of them has automated booking systems built in, if yes, then:
• Would you like to book some tickets with them?
• If you say ‘YES’, the assistant will prompt:
• Where would you like to fly and when, and then finally book the tickets through the online automated systems of the agents?

This is very quick and helpful for a lot of people. A lot of up-to-date people and even businesses are diverting towards voice searches because of this added benefit. The other thing to worry about with conversational content is that the voice processing engines should be able to process everyday out of context language used by a great number of people, such as, “Okay Google! I’m looking for – what d’ya call it – some app that can help me get things done with reminders and stuff”. Here the user is asking for a reminder app and the voice engines should be able to process that.

4: Location is King

Out of all the internet searchers, location plays a part in 80 percent of them. Voice searches additionally are even more location centric. A great many people doing voice searches are generally asking about nearest place to eat, patrol stations, golf clubs, night clubs etc. This means for businesses to register their websites with their location address on search engines, so when their relevant business is searched through voice, their particular name gets popped up. Some factors that are of great importance while optimizing voice searches for locational data are:

• Reviews – The number of reviews a business has plays a significant part in Google’s local pack. Encourage your clients or users to leave reviews and respond to all of them even the negative ones.
• Google My Business Page – Google also refers to the data stored on my business page, make sure to register with it and fill out all relevant details. Write a unique business description, highlight the relevant categories and upload at the bare minimum five photos.
• Photos – The more pictures you have on your page, higher it will be ranked by Google. Ensure to take and upload as many pictures as you can.
• Schema Markup – To boost your local ranking use microdata for non-branded keywords. Include address, working hours and phone numbers.

5: Get Ready to Embrace Change

Having looked at all the possibilities, it should be clear by now that voice assistants on mobile phones like Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant are here to stay and have made a fairly drastic impression on the way people search for information over the internet. Be ready to incorporate voice recognition in your business website and boost your business in the years to come. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google highlights, “Because of voice recognition and natural language processing” the Google assistant comprehends context. “Imagine going a step further over time”. The next steps according to him will be asking really pointed questions from Google assistant like you might ask “is Batman vs Superman – Dawn of Justice a good movie”, and the assistant will speak out the results based on reviews and rankings using its complex algorithms.

This article was aimed to help you make the decision to optimize your business in the Middle East with respect to voice searching. In case you have any further questions, feel free to visit our website www.seo.ae, there you can contact us and we will be happy to oblige.