What is voice search, and what does it mean for SEO, brands and written communications?

by Colm Hebblethwaite

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Colm, our resident technical writer, will explore questions like what is voice search, how does voice search work and what voice search means for SEO, companies and brands.

Introduction by Colm
Alexa, Cortana and Siri have revolutionised the way we find information. However, these helpful virtual women have thrown up new challenges for copywriters and marketers across the world.
If you believe the hype, forget everything you thought you knew about SEO. The rise of voice search is changing copywriting and written communications. And as it’s estimated that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by next year[1], it’s an important thing to get to grips with. But in reality, will this new way of finding information really force us to rip up the SEO rule book? And how can we adapt our writing to keep up with this new way of finding information?
In one of our content meetings earlier this year, I voiced my excitement about the impact of voice search on how we write content. It’s something I’m genuinely interested in, as I think its rise brings exciting new ways to approach digital written communications. So over the coming weeks we are going to explore voice search; the what, why, how, who and so what!

What is voice search?

In this series, I’m going to take you through this new digital landscape. We’ll stop off along the way to explore aspects of this topic, asking questions like ‘why is voice search so important’, and what are the implications to the way we craft our content. I’ll dip into who is most likely to be voice searching and where you can find them. As Stratton Craig’s resident tech-expert, I’m going to break down the technology that makes voice searches possible. Putting my writer hat back on, I’m also going to analyse how we can approach writing for voice search, as well as how we believe you should approach voice search in your content strategy.
Keep an eye out for the first in this series. Or if you would like a summary sent straight to your inbox, just contact us. The full list of posts are:

  1. What is voice search – it’s rise and importance to communications?
  2. The dimensions of voice search – where and who?
  3. How voice search works – the tech?
  4. Writing for voice search – how and what process?
  5. Voice search strategy – where it fits, now and next?

If there are other questions you’d like me to answer, just use the comments box below and I’ll do my best to answer them in the upcoming pieces.
[1] https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/just-say-it-future-search-voice-personal-digital-assistants/1392459
Image credit: Amazon Echo Dot – Image by Jan Antonin Kolar