VOICE ASSISTANTSEO REPORTJULY 2019GIVING VOICE TO A REVOLUTIONFOR BRANDSTable of Contents About Voicebot About Magic + CoVoicebot produces the leading independent research, online publication, newsletter and podcast focused on the voice and AI industries. Thousands of entrepreneurs, developers, investors, analysts and other industry leaders look to Voicebot each week for the latest news, data, analysis and insights defining the trajectory of the next great computing platform. At Voicebot, we give voice to a revolution.MethodologyMagic + Co. is a next-gen creative services firm whose core expertise is in designing, producing, and executing on conversational strategy, the technologybehind it, and associated marketing campaigns.Facts 25 people, technologists, strategists, and creatives with focus on conversational design and technologies. 1 Webby Award Nominee and 3 Honorees. 3 years old and global leader. Weve worked primarily with CPG, but our practice extends into utilities, governments, banking, entertainment, healthcare and is international in scope. Magic + Co.An Introduction to Voice Search Today / 3Consumer Adoption Trends / 10Voice Search Results Analysis / 16Grading the Experts / 32Practical Voice Assistant SEO Strategies / 36Additional Resources / 39Consumer survey data was collected online during the first week of January 2019 and included 1,038 U.S. adults age 18 or older that were representative of U.S. Census demographic averages. Findings were compared to earlier survey data collected in the first week of September 2018 that included responses from 1,040 U.S. adults. Voice search data results from Amazon Echo Smart Speakers with Alexa, Apple HomePod with Siri, Google Home and a Smartphone with Google Assistant, and Samsung Galaxy S10 with Bixby, were collected in Q2 2019.Consumer Trends and Research Results from the Next Discovery BattlegroundRebecca Sentance of eConsultancy did a nice analysis of the origin of the ComScore 50% of search by voice myth. She noted that it can be attributed to Andrew Ng when he led Baidu in China and that his prediction also included visual search. Her estimates are that voice search was closer to 13% of Googles total search volume and 20% of mobile search volume in 2018 as Google has previously stated. SEO Tribunal says total Google searches in 2018 were 2 trillion, so combining these figures suggests over a quarter of a trillion voice searches were conducted last year. Even if the 50% threshold wont be reached by next year, over 250 billion voice searches in one year is not a small figure. Voicebot consumer survey data suggests that a lot of people are using voice search today and it will continue to rise. PAGE 3VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDS© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019ComScore never said that 50% of all search would be by voice in 2020 even though the internet likes to attribute that quote to the research firm. However, a quarter of a trillion annual voice searches is a number that should command your attention.A January 2019 survey by Voicebot found that nearly 60% of U.S. adults say they have used voice search and 47% expect to increase usage this year. Smartphones are the dominant voice search devices today, but smart speakers are a big contributor and are sure to increase these figures even more as we approach one-third of U.S. adults with access to them. The scale and frequency of voice search suggests it will be an increasingly important (and urgent) trend for marketers to address. That fact along with a common misunderstanding that overlooks the realignment of search to voice assistants made this report necessary. Voice SEO vs Voice Assistant SEOBecause search in general is so concentrated in Google (and a few other players that mostly attempt to mimic Googles algorithms), there is a dominant belief that optimizing for voice search is very similar to, or identical to, optimizing for text-based search. There is good reason to believe this assumption as our research confirms both Google Assistant and Apples Siri rely heavily on the Google Knowledge Graph to answer most queries. Similarly, Amazon Alexa taps into Microsofts Bing Knowledge Graph which is a close approximation of Google search results. However, change is afoot in search engine optimization. Voice Assistant search results are often different from text search.PAGE 4© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019Source: Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDS58.6%UsingVoice Search41.4%Not UsingVoice SearchIncreasesignificantly15.1%Increasemoderately32.1%Stay aboutthe same38.0%Decreasemoderately0.7%Decreasesignificantly1.3%Not sure12.8%RISE47.2%FALL2.0%U.S. Consumers Using Voice Search Jan 2019Expected Change in Voice Search Use FrequencyOne change that is often overlooked is the rising fragmentation of search behavior. eMarketer reported in late 2018 that 46.7% of product searches in the U.S. started with Amazon compared with just 34.6% for Google. YouTube (owned by Google but a different search engine) is the top search engine for video and number two worldwide for all searches according to Search Engine Journal. Facebook said in 2017 that users were conducting two billion searches per day globally. Baidu and Yandex dominate searches in Chinese and Russian respectively. Search is less monolithic than it may appear on the surface when you see figures like Statistas reporting that Google controls 88.5% of all search worldwide. It depends on how your are defining “search.”Smart Speaker Smart Display Smartphone - Google Assistant Smartphone - Apple Siri Desktop Web Browser1 Result1 - 10Results1 - 15Results3 - 15Results10 - 35ResultsVoice assistants are riding the wave of changing consumer habits around search. Googles browser search competitors typically replicate its well-honed model of showing 10 or more search results, often with sponsored links that are also relevant to the search intent. For some queries we have seen as many as 35 different results on the first search engine results page (SERP). This approach works well for the desktop web and the more limited list results are reasonably well suited to mobile. It does not work well when search is initiated through voice assistants.Many people recognize that in a voice-only search interaction, a single audible result is the only decent user experience. VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDSPAGE 5© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019Search Result Variation by Device SurfaceSource: Voicebot Voice Assistant SEO ReportAnd, that is what the voice assistants have largely settled upon. Sometimes you can get options for additional information beyond the first results using Siri on HomePod, or Alexa through a smart speaker. This only happens when the assistants are sourcing local information from Yelp and have a list to access. Siri on smartphones typically offers 3-15 web search results when it doesnt default to a single audible answer. Google Assistant on a smartphone or smart display will most often give you 3-10 results as well as “chips” to refine your search or access a relevant Google Action voice app. So, when we talk about voice search, it is important to recognize that the search experience and results will often differ based on the interface. The voice interface inside of the search box on the web, or the Google mobile app, will deliver results differently from a smart display, smartphone, and smart speaker. Voice assistant-based searches are particularly important to evaluate because they use different algorithms. Today, searches conducted through voice assistants frequently wind up tapping into Googles or Bings knowledge graphs or hit one of the common knowledge databases such as Wikipedia, Yelp, or Yext. Those results often make voice assistant searches look like a facsimile of web search while disguising the fact that something else is going on before an answer is surfaced. When you ask Alexa about cures for the flu, you will get an answer from Mayo Clinic. Sometimes when you ask Alexa about certain topics you will hear an answer provided by another Alexa user. If you ask about products, you will get information from Amazon. When you ask Siri about “the best tablet” you will hear about the iPad. Even Google Assistant will preempt its knowledge graph to offer different results for some queries regarding its products. Voice assistants consult multiple data sources before checking the knowledge graph. These include proprietary databases for “reserve terms” that the voice assistant providers want to control messaging around. There are also other in-house and third-party information repositories. In addition, voice apps can increasingly answer user questions and are optimized for conversational interactions. All of these sources can be used for answers and be given priority over the web search knowledge graphs. This is a significant change in search algorithms that few people have yet to recognize. They see the surface differences in terms of voice input and audio output but dont recognize the back-end changes that are taking place. As voice assistant optimized content increases, the traditional web search knowledge VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDSPAGE 6© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019graphs will be consulted less frequently. When you combine this change with the rising use of voice assistants for search, marketers are facing a significant change in how they optimize for search results. This is doubly important because search engine marketing (SEM) which many people know as Google AdWords is severely limited through voice assistants, and in most cases not present at all today. Brands Should Take NoticeThe Voicebot research team asked over 4,000 questions to leading voice assistants to assess where we are today with voice assistant SEO and where we are headed. Instead of replicating generic consumer requests, we asked a series of questions about product categories and individual brands to see how the assistants answered. Interestingly, Google Assistant appears to have changed its algorithms around the end of 2018 and is defaulting more often to the knowledge graph and information repositories where it used to refer many queries to third-party Google Actions. Almost everyone else is using some form of knowledge graph or information repository today for most queries, but you can see how this is likely to change in order to better serve consumers. Overall, the scorecard for brands is not good when it comes to voice assistant SEO. Voice search is rising and third-party sites such as Wikipedia and Yelp are defining the information consumers are hearing about brands. Much of that information is not flattering. Sometimes it leads to competitive brands being mentioned as well. Only 26.5% of 200 leading brands analyzed have some sort of voice app for Alexa, 21.5% have one for Google Assistant, and about 15% having presence on both platforms. Notably, many of these voice apps are not focused on answering common questions about the brand or product segment in which they focus. This means third-parties are solely responsible for offering information about 3-out-of-4 leading brands during voice assistant interactions. And, for many common searches about brands, the figure exceeds 90% based on our analysis. Change often means both opportunity and risk are present. Today, voice assistant search seems to be leaning more towards brand risk. The logical question for brands is then, “What should we do?” 26.5%AmazonAlexa21.5%GoogleAssistant200 Leading Brands with Voice AppsPAGE 7© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDSGIVING VOICE TO A REVOLUTIONWhat the “Experts” SaySEO “experts” are offering magical elixirs to answer these questions for brands. The mythical 50% comScore prediction was accompanied by other properly cited predictions such as Gartners estimate that 30% of all web browsing will be done without a screen and the rapid rise of smart speaker adoption globally. These data points led SEO experts to train their gaze and recommendations on voice search in countless blog posts and articles in 2017-2018. Voicebot analyzed 38 of the more popular articles on voice search strategy and cataloged 27 different tactics being promoted as recommendations. Some of these recommendations align well with what we see in voice assistant search results today while others arent likely to have any impact. Many of these suggestions may be good voice search hygiene but will not help much as the voice assistants increasingly tap into sources other than the web knowledge graphs. We match the analysis and trends for voice search with the predictions to offer some practical advice for brand marketers to consider today and going forward. Understanding Voice Assistant SEO and its TrajectoryThe Voice Assistant SEO Report for Brands 2019 was launched to dispel some of the voice search myths and inject real data back into a heretofore highly subjective debate. We have segmented the report into four sections:- Consumer Adoption Trends- Voice Assistant Search Results for Brands and Product Categories- Grading Recommendations by SEO Experts- Practical Recommendations for Voice Assistant SEO for BrandsWe hope the information provided here helps you better understand where voice assistant SEO stands today while enabling you to better chart a course for success. A thank you is in order for our sole sponsor of this report. Magic and Company helped support this research and make it freely available to you in what we expect will become a valued resource. VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDSPAGE 8© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019CONSUMERADOPTION TRENDSConsumer Adoption of Voice Search 2019PAGE 10VOICE ASSISTANT SEO REPORT FOR BRANDS© VOICEBOT.AI - All Rights Reserved 2019The reason to care about voice search is consumer adoption. There are plenty of technology trends that come along and dont secure consumer traction. Voice search appears to be one of those behavior shifts that the adoption numbers suggest you should pay attention to and start taking action. The top level finding is that 58.6% of online U.S. adults say they have used voice search.That translates into 148 million U.S. adults that have some voice search experience. Among smart speaker owners, the adoption rate is far higher at 87.8%. This is not surprising given that asking questions was the most tried use case among smart speaker owners in both January 2018 and 2019. Many of those questions are search queries. 58.6%HaveUsedVoice Search41.4%Have NotUsedVoiceSearchU.S. Consumers Using Voice Search Jan 2019ALL CONSUMERS / 58.6%SMART SPEAKER OWNERS / 87.8%U.S. Smart Speaker Owners Using Voice SearchJanuary 2019GIVING VOICE TO A REVOLUTIONSource: Voicebot Voice Assistant SEO Report