Do you know 68% of the worldwide searches are covered by the voice search users? It is about the time when voice search will become an important element of the local ranking. SEMrush published a study on voice search last year this time putting the local business searches at the centre of the subject.
The aim behind publishing this study is to provide valuable insight into the algorithms behind famous voice assistants including-Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google assistance.
While it can be challenging to cover them all in the same blog post, let’s focus on the most famous- Amazon Alexa for now. However, before we move further, it is important to know-
What is Amazon Alexa? Short definition-
You obviously know what Amazon Alexa is- but there is no harm in refreshing your knowledge, is there? Well, Amazon Alexa is the global ranking system that ranks millions of websites on the basis of their popularity. The ranking is calculated by analyzing a total number of unique visitors and the number of page views for a particular website. The polar opposite of Google, on Alexa, the lower is the rank, the more popular the website is.
Local search: what you need to know?
Right before you prepare your websites to rank on the voice search, it is important to go through the major findings with a detailed insight in the next section.
- The length of the average answer is 23 words
- Google Assistant offers the longest answer at 41 words
- Alexa struggles the most when it comes to answering questions
- Businesses can use the regular local SEO tactics while optimizing for amazon assistant
- Siri rank website on the basis of yelp rating
How can you use this information for local search?
Google assistant
Being the assistant of the majority of popularity, all versions of Google assistance return different results despite having the same algorithms. Isn’t it amazing? NO, it actually makes it more difficult to rank on the different devices including- Google Home, Google Home Hub, Google Home Mini, and android phone number.
In a study where devices are tested for voice search, it was found that average answers match between all devices is 22% while comparing separately, Google home and hub and android phone matches 66%.
Related Post: Video Marketing Or Voice Searches: Which One Is More Popular?
They have also found that answers are said to be similar across all the devices with only wording being different. Google Assistant was able to answer all but 6.3% of the questions.
So, why was Google’s result different on all devices despite having the same algorithm? And if acquiring Search engine optimization services was enough to rank on these devices? Well, the reason why the result differed is that devices showed what appears in the local pack in regular SERP.
That means Google gives more preference to local sites on the local voice searches. On top of these results offered by Google, the assistant does not seem to be personalized. Therefore, if you want to rank higher on the Google assistant, then, it would be recommended to:
- Work on your Google My Business page
- Utilized the structured data
- Go with content that is simple and easy to understand
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa has become a new hype among the SEO professionals as all of them want to rank on this voice search platform to get direct conversions in the form of online orders. Yet, the platform has the highest rate of failure when it comes to answering questions.
Alexa takes all of the information from Bing and employs both Yelp and Yext data to come up with suitable answers to satisfy the user query. Almost 1 out of 4 questions were unable to be answered by Alexa. Quite disappointed, right? Yet Alexa is popular because of the design and price of its home assistant device. There are many experts who claim that Alexa was only designed as an assistant, not a search engine, so you cannot follow certain tactics to optimize your website for it.
Apple’s Siri
If you compare all three AI assistants, you may find that Siri answers the most questions and only 2% of questions will go answered. The assistance also relies on the yelp to answer questions, so improving your ranking and reviews on yelp is the key to rank on the Siri.
Along with yelp there are four different factors that affect the local ranking on Siri.
- Distance
- Star rating in yelp
- Prices
Similar to Google, Siri doesn’t pay attention to the total number of reviews and considers the overall star rating. It means a business with a few reviews, and overall, 5 ratings can beat the business with hundreds of reviews and an overall rating of 4.5. So, how can you rank on it? Well, it is suggested to:
Work on generating new-star ratings on yelp
Take a step further and optimize your Yelp listing with;
- Detailed information
- Reliable photos
- Choose a relevant category
- Update your listing regularly
- Respond to reviews
For further information on the local search engine optimization services connect with professionals at ProICT LLP. Explore the website to learn more!