With all of the search engines focusing on mobile phones and mobile users getting used to using their phones in all sorts of ways, including voice assistants, voice search is slowly becoming one of the most used features.
Voice search is also becoming a vital part of how people find information online. The rise of digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, and others, is having a great impact on how people use the internet and how they search for things. One of the biggest things that got released recently is ChatGPT 4o with its incredible voice assistant, search, and answering. Making voice search more important now than ever.
Affiliate marketers need to understand how voice search works and how to optimize their strategies for this growing trend. If they do this properly, they can expect a significant boost in organic traffic from mobile phones and a better overall SEO ranking for their content, as mobile and voice search is becoming the key metric for ranking things online in 2024.
But don’t worry, we are here to help you understand voice search, how to utilize it properly, and what you can do to get the most out of it!
Understanding Voice Search
Voice search allows users to speak their queries instead of typing them. This technology relies on voice recognition systems that understand and process spoken language. Devices like smartphones, smart speakers, and even some cars now come equipped with voice search capabilities. People can ask questions, get directions, or search for products using simple voice commands.
This got popular with various voice assistants and it seems to only grow with how AI is growing and getting better at understanding voice queries.
For example, instead of typing "best running shoes" into a search engine, a user might ask, "What are the best running shoes for beginners?". Or with some further advancement in AI, you could point your phone camera at your shoes and ask it to find the best shoes for running that match your foot shape and size. The possibilities are huge, but there are some things you need to do to make sure that you show up in these queries.
The Growth of Voice Search
Voice search is growing rapidly. According to recent studies, over half of all online searches will be voice-based in the near future. There are several reasons for this increase:
- Convenience
Voice search is hands-free and fast, making it easy for users to multitask. It's built-in in your phone, home assistant, TV, smart speaker, watch, and most other devices. So people tend to use it a lot in a hands-free way of interacting with their devices.
- Accessibility
It helps people with disabilities or those who find typing difficult. For people who can't type, this is a great way to interact with the web. It's also a great way to browse and ask questions while in a car or any other situation where a keyboard is not at hand.
- Natural Interaction
Speaking is more natural than typing, and digital assistants are getting better at understanding natural language. This is best evident with Google Assistant with its great natural language processing and the newly developed ChatGPT 4o assistant, that mimics human-like interaction with your device.
- New Devices
The growth of voice-enabled devices, like smart speakers, also contributes to this trend. More people are buying devices like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, which further increases the use of voice search. There is also a rise in AI-enabled tech, like smart pins, rings, watches, and whatnot, so voice search is about to get a lot more popular in the future!
Importance of Voice Search in Affiliate Marketing
As voice search becomes more common, it changes how people find and buy products. For affiliate marketers, this presents both challenges and opportunities.
Usually, voice searches just present the result of the first result, or the smarter ones try and group a few similar results into one, more comprehensive answer. But the result is the same. Organic reach is limited if you are not ranking extremely high in that specific query. It's all or nothing with voice search, unlike other types of search, where users can scroll, and visit multiple pages.
When users perform a voice search, they often use normal conversational language and ask specific questions. This also means that good voice assistants will try and match the questions to natural answers inside blog posts and websites. This directly influences the content you should be hosting as well. By understanding the types of queries people use in voice search, marketers can better target their audience and improve their chances of earning commissions.
Optimizing for Voice Search in Affiliate Marketing
If you want to make the most out of voice search, there are a couple of things you need to pay attention to and things you have to optimize for! Here are some of the important points you should know about!
- Keyword Optimization
Focus on natural language and long-tail keywords that match how people speak. Instead of targeting "running shoes," consider phrases like "best running shoes for beginners."
People tend to talk more than they write, as most think that assistants are bad at understanding, so they give them longer queries. Use this to your advantage, as most people don’t optimize for long-tail keywords at all!
- Answer Questions
Create content that directly answers common questions related to your niche. For example, a blog post titled "How to Choose the Best Running Shoes" could address common inquiries.
Search engines also love these, especially if they exactly match the question that someone asked. This is a guaranteed way to get your content out to the people first.
- Improve Website Speed
Fast-loading websites are important for any sort of search, but with voice, this is even more important, as search engines are trying to give the best answer in the shortest time.
Optimize your website for mobile first, so you cover most of your audience and SEO and then work on summaries and optimization for speed and loading.
- Natural Language
This is something that doesn't seem natural from an affiliate point of view as we are all obsessed with SEO, short optimizations, and everything being available at a glance. But as mentioned before, people tend to speak more than they write, so longer queries, natural language, and a different query are very common.
Try using natural, simple words, don't be afraid of longer keywords, don't use jargon or technical terms, and try optimizing for how people speak, rather than type.
- Local SEO
Many voice searches are location-based. Optimizing for local search terms can help get traffic from users looking for nearby products or services.
- Schema Markup
This is something a lot of affiliates are missing when optimizing for voice, but it's an important part. It is code that you add to your website that helps search engines understand your content and page better.
This in turn gives the engine a chance to find your content better when the search query fits with what you have to offer. Maybe we will show more about this in the future, but for now, you can find some guides online to help you out!
Challenges and Considerations
Optimizing for voice search does come with challenges. The technology is still evolving, and search engines continuously update how they handle voice queries. This of course means that you always have to stay in attention to find what works the best and how to make the most out of your content and get ranked better.
Additionally, it's important to balance voice search optimization with traditional SEO. While voice search is growing, text-based searches remain the majority of searches, and it's likely to stay that way for a long time. So don't just focus on one, try a balanced approach that can give you the best out of both worlds!
Conclusion
Voice search is transforming how people interact with the internet and make purchasing decisions. Affiliates who want to stay on top will have to leverage this and optimize their content for voice as well.
This is something that is getting easier as tech evolves, and it is starting to make more decisions itself, without you having to explain everything and optimize for every small detail. But some things remain, and affiliates who best adapt to both text and voice search will have better results for sure!
As voice search technology continues to advance, it will likely become an even more significant part of optimizations, so it is better to start now and slowly learn and improve as things go than catch up later!
Have you optimized for voice search before? What was your experience with it and how did it impact your results? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!