Voice search is a contemporary example of this matter. Technology has progressed significantly in the last decade and more people are adopting it in their lives every day. It’s a topic that companies and marketers should take very seriously since it’ll have a huge impact on how search engines work.
Stay with us at Xino Digital to the end of this article to find out how voice search is changing SEO. We’re also going to talk about how businesses can turn this situation into an opportunity for growth.

The vocal wave

Voice recognition systems have been around for quite a while now. But since the introduction of IBM’s Watson in 2011, The technology took a significant turn towards consumer purposes. Highly advanced machines with the ability to understand and textualize human speech began to emerge.
Two particular products had a huge role in popularizing speech recognition systems: Google Voice Search and Apple’s Siri as the first personal voice assistant which both came out shortly after Watson. Today, almost every tech giant has its own voice assistant. Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, Google has Assistant, and the list goes on.

Many factors contribute to the rapid rise of voice search. The technology itself has become so advanced that it can accurately recognize different languages and accents. Voice search experience is much more convenient and fun. And most importantly, It’s extremely accessible. Voice Assistants are available on every mobile OS, smart speaker, and even on home appliances.
All these factors have resulted in a massive surge in usage in the last few years. An Oberlo forecast predicted that over 120 million internet users in the US will be using voice search by the end of 2021. The day voice search becomes as common as traditional text search is not very far.

The impact on search engines

Although both come up with the same results, voice search is inherently different than text search. The fundamental differences between vocal language and written words lead to notable impacts on how queries are made, processed, and answered.

Language, tone, and context

Voice recognition systems are highly optimized to understand everyday language and casual tone. The whole voice search experience is built around convenience, so users should feel comfortable talking to their assistants as if they’re humans. Therefore, the majority of voice queries have a conversational tone. This is why SEO specialists must take contexts and user intent into account.
Brands should focus on bringing more value to their content. Ranking algorithms like Google RankBrain and Hummingbird give better scores to websites that provide relevant and useful content to answer user needs. The more structured and well-organized your site is, the higher rank you get.
Try using keywords in headings and formatting your pages as FAQs (or put an additional, relevant FAQ at the end of each article). Optimizing pages for Google’s featured snippets can incredibly increase your traffic. This can be done by using bullet lists frequently and utilizing schema markup to take the top spot on SERPs.

Keyword length

Voice queries are much longer than text queries. According to a Backlinko study, voice searches contain an average of 29 words. Since there’s no need for the labor of typing words, people feel free to include more details on their spoken queries. This highlights the importance of targeting and utilizing long-tail keywords.
If you run a website, you should optimize your content to cover the lengthy keywords that mirror the popular voice queries. Expanding your current core keywords and bringing them closer to natural language will lead to higher spots on search results.

Local search

Voice recognition has boosted the use of local search. Users are much more likely to use voice search for local businesses near their residence or discover new places when traveling or hanging out.
To get the most out of this powerful trend, businesses should put themselves on the radar by providing search engines with important details. Google My Business can help with this. Make sure your business profile is updated with sufficient info so that your target audience could easily find you.

Final thoughts

Adapting to the influence of voice search technology has gone far beyond just beneficial. It is now essential. With every year passing by, more and more internet users are adopting it for their search needs. Tech giants are hugely investing in better smart assistants and the technology is growing at a rapid pace. Along with it comes impactful waves of changes in search optimization and page ranking systems. That’s why businesses of any scale must take appropriate measures and adapt to these changes if they don’t want to fall behind the competition.

Along with all these advantages come great concerns that you shouldn’t ignore. Proper knowledge of how social media could hurt your business helps find your way around them and be well-prepared in case you get caught up in a mishap. Stick with us at Xino Digital to learn more about the negative impact of social media on your business.

Your reputation on social platforms is a house of cards

The hard-earned reputation of your brand could easily vanish if you don’t pay attention to negative user reviews. Social media has extremely empowered customers. The slightest complaint from them (justified or not) could go viral and badly damage your image. Remember that people care about what others say about a brand, product, or service, just as much as they care about a friend’s opinion. 
You don’t want to leave those negative reviews unattended. Aim to improve your products or service as much as possible, but be wary that no matter how hard you try; there’s always at least one angry customer that publicly expresses dissatisfaction.
You have to contain the negative publicity by identifying and reacting properly to complaints on social media. It may cost a lot of resources, but it helps maintain a positive, trustworthy image of your brand. Be open to criticisms and respond with a polite and friendly tone.

You don’t have to reply to every negative feedback though. Simply responding to complaints without an actual intent and solution to rectify the situation could make things worse. Complainers will know if you try to get rid of them by giving meaningless responses.

The big dilemma of employees’ social activities

What would you do if an employee expresses a questionable opinion on his or her social account that could damage your reputation? This matter is a seriously tricky one and many companies struggle to handle it the proper way.
Whether they like it or not, your employees represent your company. Many people take their word as your word. Any sort of insensitive social posts from them could generate public rage against your brand. There’s also the problem of speaking on your behalf.
Nevertheless, employees are free citizens. You can’t deprive them of their right to express their opinion. It’s crucial to find the middle ground here. Standing at each end of the “subjugation-liberty” spectrum would be wrong. You need to have a strict and clear social media policy for employees that protects the company while not violating their essential rights.

Make it clear for employees that any kind of post, tweet, etc. that concerns your company in one way or another should have a disclaimer. You can require them to make their account private which is actually for their own benefit. Irresponsible remarks about race, gender, religion, and other sensitive subjects must be strictly prohibited. So does any inaccurate and unauthorized claim on the company’s behalf.

Those leaks… those damn leaks

If there’s one sure thing about social media, it’s that you can never stop information from spreading. Without a doubt that’s a serious negative impact of social media.
Once something is out, it’s out for good. You don’t want it to be your confidential competitive advantage. Private corporate information could easily leak by a careless post of an employee or lack of coordination between departments. By the time you try to stop it, it’s already been viewed by countless users.

Prohibiting personal social media activity during work hours is one way to stop this kind of scenario. Regularly remind your employees of how leaked information could harm the company and their own hard work. To prevent any sort of sabotage or cyber threat, train your employees on how to secure their accounts and pay much attention and resources for robust corporate privacy and security measures.

Social Media

The word “media” can give us a glimpse of the true nature of what we’re trying to define. Media is means of communication through broadcasting and publishing. There’s a sender of information and a receiver. Think about traditional outlets like TV stations, newspapers, or magazines. The connection between the publisher and the audience is one-way.

When you add “social”, you add a whole other aspect to this concept: Interaction. The same connection exists here, but the audience has powerful options available that could change the way they consume the content. People at the other end of the line don’t just see or hear content. They can interact with it.

This interaction is possible thanks to technology. Internet-based platforms bring the opportunity to find, share, and comment on content with great flexibility. You can find what you want on almost any device and there are tons of social platforms to try out. The important thing is, although readers now have the option to engage with the content, the publisher still uses these platforms as podiums.

It’s about how you use it

Social platforms provide different levels of interaction. Some are full-fledged social networks, like Facebook. And some are online publications that let users interact with the content to some extent. In this type, there’s not much room to have conversations with the content maker. Whichever it is, brands only use them to talk, not listen.

Companies use platforms as social media to maintain a steady flow of helpful, informative content that users can engage with. They could have different goals for this usage like increasing brand perception, generating leads, directing readers to other channels, or encouraging them to take an action. Regardless of the objective, they don’t actively engage in conversations with them.

What about networking?

Social networking is all about using social platforms to the fullest to establish close, two-way­ relationships with people. The more options the platform gives you to engage with your audience, the better. The goal is to expand your network, so the communications are bidirectional or even multidirectional.

When using social platforms for networking, it’s important to talk and listen. You’ll build a strong network of fans by constantly engaging with them. You ask questions, take feedback, start heated discussions, and create an open, trustworthy image of your brand.

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are the perfect platforms for this. They provide both businesses and users with multiple options to establish meaningful relationships.

Is it really that different?

It’s easy to mistake social media with social networking since they could overlap. Specifically, brands could use social apps for both of them. From a marketing point of view, it’s important to distinguish the two. Adopting each one in your strategies means choosing a different tone, content type, and marketing objectives.

For social media, you need to keep the audience engaged. You should grab their attention with interesting and helpful content. Informative articles, exciting photos, videos, and infographics can be of great help.
On the other hand, social networking requires active engagement with people. You have to drive them into conversations. Giving followers a hot topic to talk about, asking questions, and running polls are the way to go for social networking. Remember that you need to participate in conversations as well.

Xino team appreciates your attention!