IT’S TIME TO FIND YOUR VOICE
Research suggests that voice search will surpass typed requests as the consumer’s method of choice for finding products and services in 2020. Experts explain why you may need to rethink your firm’s online strategy to ensure that it’s heard in this space
Words Dan Matthews Illustrations Alberto Antoniazzi H
ey, Alexa. Is talking the new typing? Because it’s certainly beginning to look that
way. The latest fi gures from media analysis giant ComScore suggest that, when it comes to searches for products and services on the internet over the coming year, more than half will be made without using a screen. While it has become second nature for us to type search requests into Google on our smartphones, tablets and PCs, a fast-growing number of consumers are using voice-activated devices such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant to give orders and fi nd information. With one in fi ve UK households now owning a so-called smart speaker, according to tech insights fi rm Strategy Analytics – and 65 per cent of people in the 25-49 age range regularly speaking to their devices according to PwC – businesses are having to adapt quickly to ensure that they are equipped to reach their customers through this technology. The shift is giving tech-savvy fi rms an opportunity to shape the
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‘VOICE IS GOING TO BECOME AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE “USER JOURNEY”, MAINLY BECAUSE IT WILL PROVIDE SPEED AND CONVENIENCE’
future of e-commerce. In September, for instance, easyJet became the latest company to launch voice-activated tech to make its booking process more accessible. Customers using the “Speak now” feature on its app can search for fl ights using their voice, rather than the 12-tap process that would otherwise be required. “Traditional search appears to be dying,” easyJet’s head of digital experience, Dan Young, told City AM. “We’ve been seeing search-engine optimisation [SEO] on the decline
and in 2020 we can expect to see a sizable shift to how people start to discover their journeys. The driving factor is clear: what’s the easiest and most engaging way to fi nd and display information? Let the technology do the hard work to get you the information you need.” As SEO techniques to make websites rank more highly are overtaken by those of voice-search optimisation, even Google has restyled itself as a “discovery engine” rather than a search engine.
EASY DOES IT
For the customer, convenience is king. With searchers wanting to reduce the time between thinking of a question and fi nding the answer, voice search enables consumers to fi nd what they are looking for without manual input. It’s quicker and less fi ddly, letting you get on with other tasks while the tech takes the strain.
To illustrate this, Amazon recently began trialling its new Echo Frames, which are Alexa-enabled smart glasses. Unlike the initially abortive
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