By 2022 50% of all searches will be performed through voice and 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.
According to a report by Score Publishing, best selling authors and publishers stand to lose millions this year because they are not optimizing for voice search. All authors and publishers should be optimizing for voice search.
What exactly is voice search?
Voice Search is SPEECH RECOGNITION technology that allows users to perform searches by SAYING the terms aloud rather than by typing them into a search box. More and more people are using spoken words instead of typing out queries to search online.
If you’ve used a Google Home device, Siri, Alexa then you’ve used voice search technology.
Voice Assistants: How voice search works
Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google are all digital voice assistants. Voice search is processed through the following digital assistants.
- Siri if you’re using Apple on iPhone or iPad
- Cortana if you’re using Microsoft
- Alexa if you’re using an Amazon Echo device
- Google if you’re using a Google Device or Google Home device
Smart Speakers: Home devices that use voice assistants for voice search are called Smart Speakers
- Google Home
- Amazon’s Echo
- Microsoft Cortana
Common voice assistants like Siri, Google, Alexa are used in help and service phone lines, smartphones and other places to assist users with tasks, including:
- Listening to books (audiobooks)
- Requesting information (where voice search comes in)
- Performing mathematical calculations (like my kids love doing)
- Playing music
What happens currently with your book if someone performs a voice search for it? Nothing? Does it return your website? Recommend your book?
It’s like audiobooks were a few years ago, very few people bothered with them and now everyone has one.
Voice Search is critical to book marketing because smart speakers and digital voice assistants are gateways to purchasing in the home. Authors need to HELP digital voice assistants find their books.
What is the adoption of voice search right now?
First, consider how many people ALREADY use voice search:
- 42% of adults use voice search in the US
- Google’s voice assistant is now available on more than 400 million devices.
- 3 months after Windows 10 launched, 33% of searches were coming from voice.
- The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on all of Amazon in the 2018 holiday season.
- It’s much easier to say 150 words per minutes than to type out 40 words per minute
- Global voice commerce is expected to be worth $40B by 2022
- Smart speaker shipments grew nearly 200% year-on-year in Q3 2018
- Up to 43% of voice-enabled device owners use their device to shop
As an author you want to make sure of two things:
- Your books are at the top of search results when you perform a voice search.
- That you have audiobook versions of your books available for ordering through Smart Speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
In my next post I’ll talk more about how to rank higher in voice search results and why a meta description is important for voice search.
About Me:
I’m Miral Sattar and I help authors to sell more books by leveraging cutting edge technology. Working with authors and writers is my passion and my tech training programs that have been attended by thousands of people around the world.So what makes me qualified to teach? I have worked in media for over 15 years, most recently at TIME Magazine where I developed and implemented the digital SEO strategy that enabled TIME to be one of the most trafficked sites in the industry. I have lectured at Yale, NYU, CUNY, Pace, and other universities and have helped numerous authors market their books and hit number 1 in their categories.I have an M.S. in publishing from NYU and a B.S. from Columbia University in electrical engineering and computer science.
Interested in taking one of courses? You can register here.
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