Voice Search: Stats. Trends. Future

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Are You Ready For Voice Search? 75 Vital Statistics And Trends For SEO And Future Marketing

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Voice search allows users to perform a search by verbally asking a question in a natural language on a smartphone, smart device or a computer rather than using the traditional search. Expected to fetch 50% of the global search market, we need to get to work now. Facts, trends and statistics can help you formalise a good SEO and marketing strategy for voice-based search.

Voice search is a technology that allows users to perform a search on the internet by verbally asking a question on a smartphone, smart device or a computer rather than using the traditional approach of typing the query into a search box. A query is answered by a search engine or a digital assistant.

Voice search is growing exponentially, year on year bases and is becoming popular with all age groups, especially the younger generation.

The domains, voice search is serving at present are not limited to basic tasks like navigation, questions and answers, playlist management or placing a phone call but activities like shopping, email management, calendar management and many others are being supported as well with more added every day.

Voice search is not only a thing of the future but the present and statistics prove it is becoming a part of everyday life.

“It’s not good enough to create something just because it doesn’t exist yet. You have to be answering a real human insight.” And you have to consider why and how a person might turn to voice technology to meet specific needs."

Abbey Klaassen | 360i

Top 7 Voice Search Devices

  • Google Home
  • Amazon Echo/Alexa
  • Google Assistant
  • Siri/iPhone
  • Android Phones And Devices
  • Microsoft Cortana

More than 20% of voice search queries are triggered by a combination of only 25 keywords.

Market Growth Statistics for Voice Search Devices

  • The global market for voice search devices grew 187% in the Q2 of 2018. Canalys

  • Apple, Google, Xiaomi, Amazon, and other manufacturers collectively shipped 16.8 million units in Q1 of 2018. Canalys

  • Google has sold 5.4 Million Google Home models so far in 2018. Canalys

  • Amazon had sold 4.1 Million Echo devices by Q2, 2018. Canalys

  • The Chinese market for voice search devices accounted for 52% of Global smart speaker growth in 2018. Canalys

  • Alibaba maintained a 50% share of the Chinese market by shipping 3.0 Million Tmall Genie speakers in Q2, 2018. Canalys

  • Xiaomi’s Mini AI speaker sales were up 228% in 2018. Canalys

  • The number of voice-based smart speakers in use, globally, could reach 100 million by the end of 2018. Gmisnsight

  • By 2024, the global voice-based smart speaker market could be worth $30 billion.

  • Apple’s HomePod is lagging behind in the current market share, mainly because of its high price.

  • The Echo Dot was crowned as the best-selling product on Amazon in the 2018 holiday season. Techcrunch

  • US market penetration: Amazon's Echo has 10% penetration of US homes, with Google's Home at 4% and Microsoft's Cortana at 2%.

 

Performance Statistics for Voice Search Devices

  • Voice search accounts for 25% of searches conducted on Windows 10 taskbar. Purna Virji, Microsoft

  • Google Home is the winner so far by answering 81% of the queries correctly.

  • Amazon Echo managed to get 64% queries answered correctly.

  • Harman Kardon Invoke, got a right answer around 57% of the time.

  • Apple HomePod managed to answer 52.3% queries correctly.

  • Siri falls on the same scale with 52.3% queries answered correctly.

  • For Apple, on the plus side, HomePod/Siri was able to understand 99.4% of queries correctly which proves their superior listening skills to other smart speakers, mainly due to its noise cancellation feature.

source | Loup Ventures Key Takeaways:

HomePod has superior listening skills to other smart speakers but lacks in answering more question correctly due to less supported domains.

Google Home, on the other hand, is supported by far more data and information, in its cabinets and was able to successfully answer more queries correctly.

If Google improves on hardware, it has a better chance than Amazon to win the future market.

General Voice Search Statistics

  • By 2020, 50% of all searches across the internet will be voice-based.

  • By 2020, 30% of all searches will be done using a device without a screen. Gartner

  • In the US, house penetration for smart speakers was 13% in 2018. OC&C Strategy Consultants

  • In the US, house penetration for smart speakers is predicted to rise to 55% by 2022. OC&C Strategy Consultants

  • Voice search queries are longer than as compared with regular text-based searches.Campaignlive

  • Voice search queries tend to be three-to-five keywords in length. Campaignlive

  • 240% of the adults now use mobile voice search at least once daily. LocationWorld

  • 20% of the adults use mobile voice search at least once monthly. Global Web Index

  • Surprisingly, 9% of 55-64 surprisingly also use mobile voice search. Global Web Index

  • 20% of the searches on a mobile device are voice-based.

  • 25% of the queries on Android devices are voice-based.

  • 60% of smartphone users had tried voice search at least once in the past 12 months.

  • 55% of teenagers are using voice search daily basis. Citrusbits

  • Voice-based searches using a mobile phone are 3 times more likely to be location specific. SearchEngineWatch

Consumer Behaviour And Voice-Activated Devices

  • 72% of parents who own voice-activated speakers have considered shopping using those devices.

  • 44% of voice-activated speaker owners, with weekly usage, order products using their devices.

  • Living rooms is the place of choice for voice-activated speeakers for more than half of the owners.

  • 25% of the owners keep their voice-activated speeakers in their bedrooms.

  • 22% of the owners keep their voice-activated speeakers in their kitchens.

  • People communicate with voice-activated speakers like if they were talking to a human, using courtesy words like “please,” and “thank you,” and even “sorry.”

  • 62% of those who regularly use their voice-activated speakers are likely to buy something through device .

  • 58% of regular users, manage shopping lists on weekly basis, using their voice-activated speakers.

  • 44% of regular users order groceries and other items using their voice-activated speaker on weekly basis.

  • 52% of voice-activated speaker owners are open to the information about about promotions and deals.

  • 48% of voice-activated speaker owners are open to personalized tips and information.

  • 42% of voice-activated speaker owners are open to upcoming events or activities.

  • Google Assistant can now handle 70% of requested in natural language.

  • 53% of people who own a voice-activated speaker had a natural feeling while speaking with it.

  • More than half of people 55+ using a voice-activated speaker think it empowers them.

Source | Think with Google

  • Google assistant now supports eight languages — French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

  • By the end of 2018, Google Assistant will be able to support 30 languages.

  • By the end of 2018, 95% of Android users.

  • Google Assistant will soon be smart enough to detect what language is spoken to, just like Google translate.

Source | TheVerge

Voice Commerce Statistics

  • Grocery shopping accounted for 20% of voice-based orders. Prnewswire

  • Entertainment shopping accounted for 19% of voice-based orders. Prnewswire

  • Electronics shopping accounted for 17% of voice-based orders. Prnewswire

  • Shopping for clothing accounted for 8% of voice-based orders. Prnewswire

  • So far, Voice-based orders, tend to be for lower value items. Source: Prnewswire

  • Voice-based shopping is expected to jump to $40 billion in 2022. Prnewswire

  • Voice-based orders comprised of 1.8 Billion of the retail segment in the US. Searchengineland

  • 85% of consumers end up selecting the products that Amazon suggests.

  • There are currently only 39 apps which support voice-based shopping.

  • Voice assistant users are currently spending 3% of their spendable income via voice assistants. Martech

  • Consumer spending via voice assistants is expected to reach 18% by 2022. Martech

  • 20% of the consumers have made at least voice purchase via a digital home assistant. Walkersands

  • 33% voice assistant users plan to order using a voice assistant in one year. Walkersands

How To Optimize For Voice Search?

  • Write content in a natural, conversational voice

  • Focus less on keywords

  • Focus more on semantic search

  • Try to work more on user intent

  • Provide an answer in a context

  • Include longer tail keyword phrases to reach users

  • Try to be concise where possible

  • Integrate Structured Data in your web pages to help search engines

  • Start working with SPEAKABLE property in schema.org to provide identification for sections that are suited for audio playback using text-to-speech (TTS)

Voice Search | Key Takeaways

Voice search is a technology in its infancy just like the internet was in the 90's.

Technology, both in terms of hardware and software has come a long way in the last three decades.

In 2013, the amount of data generated worldwide was estimated to be 4 zettabytes, which will grow to grow to 163 zettabyte by 2025.

Internet, coupled with faster and reliable hardware, zettabytes of data and Artificial Intelligence and further improvement in machine learning and natural language processing will make voice search will bring voice-based search to centre stage.

The strategy required for voice search will be very different from traditional SEO.

Early adopters will benefit the most along with those who will optimize their content for voice search

Only constant thing is the EVOLUTION!

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