#SEOisAEO: Episode 2 - Voice Search Is Changing the Game - Jason Barnard with Eric Enge, Dawn Anderson & Jo Juliana Turnbull
Published by: Semrush. Host: Jason Barnard. Guests: Eric Enge, Dawn Anderson, Jo Juliana Turnbull. September 11, 2018
Voice search in 2018 was one of the most visible signs that search was changing.
When someone asks Alexa a question or speaks a query into Google Assistant, they are not necessarily presented with a list of ten blue links. They may receive one answer - or none. That difference changes the economics of search. In a ranked list, position two can still attract clicks. In a voice response, there may be only one opportunity to be the answer.
That shift was at the heart of Episode 2 of the #SEOisAEO series, where Jason Barnard was joined by Eric Enge, Dawn Anderson, and Jo Juliana Turnbull to explore what voice search meant for content, keyword research, user behaviour, and the way brands needed to think about their relationship with search.
Voice Search Changed the Shape of Search
The difference between typed and spoken search begins with the query itself.
Typed searches are often compressed into a few keywords. A user might type “best running shoes”, leaving the search engine to infer what they actually want.
Spoken queries tend to be more conversational. A user might instead ask:
“What are the best running shoes for flat feet under £100?”
The second query gives the answer engine considerably more context.
It contains the subject, the user’s need, and specific constraints. The question itself provides a clearer indication of intent.
That makes voice search particularly important to the transition from traditional SEO toward Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
The challenge is no longer simply to match a page to a keyword. The machine needs to understand what the user is asking and which available answer best satisfies that need.
From Keywords to Questions and Intent
Voice search helped make conversational queries more visible, but the underlying lesson applies far beyond voice assistants.
People do not search because they want keywords.
They search because they have questions, problems, needs, or tasks.
That means effective content needs to reflect the questions users are actually asking.
Instead of creating a page simply because a keyword has search volume, brands can build content around the underlying information need:
- What is the user trying to accomplish?
- What question are they asking?
- What information would satisfy that question?
- What additional questions are likely to follow?
- What would make one answer more useful than another?
This changes the role of keyword research.
Keywords remain useful evidence of demand, but they are no longer the complete picture. The goal is to understand the intent behind the query and create content that genuinely satisfies it.
The Challenge of Becoming the Answer
Voice search exposes a fundamental difference between ranking and answering.
A traditional search results page can present many possible sources. Users can compare results, reformulate their query, and decide which link to visit.
A voice assistant has to make a decision.
It needs to determine which answer is appropriate enough to deliver to the user.
That creates a much more concentrated form of competition.
If ten websites rank on a page, several businesses can receive visibility. If an assistant provides one spoken response, only one source may be selected.
This is where the central idea behind #SEOisAEO becomes particularly relevant:
The objective is not simply to rank. It is to become the answer.
That requires businesses to think about what makes their information useful, relevant, understandable, and trustworthy enough for an answer engine to select.
Content Needs to Answer Real Questions
The shift toward voice search also changes the way content can be structured.
When users ask complete questions, content that directly addresses those questions becomes increasingly valuable.
A page might answer the primary question first and then address the related questions that naturally follow.
For example, a page answering “What are the best running shoes for flat feet?” could also address:
- What causes discomfort for people with flat feet?
- What features should they look for?
- How much should they expect to spend?
- Which types of running shoes are suitable?
- How should the shoes fit?
This creates a more useful resource than a page built around repeatedly using the phrase “best running shoes.”
The principle is straightforward:
Create content around the user’s information need, not simply around the keyword.
Featured Snippets and the Search for the Best Answer
The rise of voice search also increased attention around featured snippets and Position Zero.
A featured snippet can provide a concise answer directly within the search results, reducing the need for the user to visit a webpage before receiving useful information.
That makes featured snippets particularly relevant to voice search.
If a search engine can identify a clear answer on a webpage, that answer can potentially become the basis for a spoken response.
This creates a direct connection between traditional SEO and AEO.
Optimizing for an answer engine does not mean abandoning SEO. Instead, it means thinking more carefully about how search engines identify, extract, understand, and deliver answers.
Technical SEO Still Matters
Voice search may feel like a completely different search experience, but the underlying information still needs to be accessible to machines.
A business cannot become the answer if the search engine cannot properly access or understand its content.
That keeps fundamental technical SEO considerations relevant.
A voice-oriented strategy therefore still needs to consider factors such as:
- Mobile usability
- Page speed and performance
- Crawlability
- Indexability
- Structured information
- Clear page structure
- Accessible content
The interface may have changed from a browser screen to a spoken response, but the machine still needs a reliable source from which to retrieve the information.
Voice Search Was About More Than Smart Speakers
It is easy to associate voice search exclusively with smart speakers such as Alexa or Google Home.
But the episode’s broader implications extend across the growing number of devices through which people interact with search.
Voice interfaces can exist on:
- Smartphones
- Smart speakers
- Cars
- Watches
- Other connected devices
This creates a more complicated search ecosystem.
The same brand information may need to work across multiple environments, each with different interfaces and user expectations.
A person looking at a screen can scan several results.
A person driving a car cannot.
A person asking a smart speaker a question may want a short answer.
A person researching on a laptop may want a detailed explanation.
The information needs to remain consistent while the experience changes according to the context.
From Answers to Actions
Voice search also raises a question that goes beyond simply providing information:
What if the user wants to do something rather than just know something?
Conversational interfaces can potentially allow users to move from asking a question to taking an action.
That could mean finding a business, making a reservation, ordering something, requesting information, or interacting with a service.
This represents an important evolution in the relationship between search and businesses.
A brand may no longer be competing only to have its content selected as the answer.
It may eventually compete to become the service through which the user completes the next step.
That makes voice search part of a much larger transition toward conversational and assistive experiences.
The Business Opportunity in Voice Search
The emergence of voice also raised an important commercial question:
How will businesses make money when search becomes conversational?
Traditional search provides considerable visual space for organic results, advertisements, shopping features, maps, and other search elements.
Voice is different.
A spoken answer does not have the same amount of real estate.
If an assistant gives the user one answer, there is less room for multiple businesses to compete for attention in the same interaction.
That creates both a challenge and an opportunity.
Businesses need to think about how their information and services can become useful within the conversational journey rather than relying exclusively on traditional search-result visibility.
The question is no longer only:
“How do I get a click?”
It becomes:
“How do I become the trusted source the assistant recommends?”
Voice Search and the Multi-Channel Customer Journey
Voice should not necessarily be treated as an isolated marketing channel.
A customer’s journey can move across multiple devices and platforms.
Someone might ask a voice assistant for a recommendation, research the answer on a smartphone, visit a website on a laptop, and eventually purchase through another channel.
The important consideration is therefore consistency.
A brand needs to communicate the same fundamental identity, information, products, services, and value proposition wherever customers and machines encounter it.
This is another reason why AEO requires a broader perspective than simply optimizing individual webpages.
The goal is to build a digital presence that remains coherent across the different environments through which search and discovery take place.
Don’t Believe Every Voice Search Prediction
The growth of voice search also produced some very ambitious predictions.
One of the most widely repeated claims at the time was that 50% of searches would be voice searches by 2020.
The episode’s presentation itself treated such forecasts with a degree of caution.
That skepticism is important.
The exact percentage of searches conducted by voice is less important than the underlying behavioural change.
People were becoming increasingly comfortable asking machines questions conversationally.
And as interfaces became more conversational, search engines increasingly needed to understand questions, context, entities, and intent rather than simply match keywords to webpages.
The technology may evolve differently from the predictions.
The strategic shift remains.
Voice Search Was a Sign of a Bigger Change
The significance of Episode 2 extends beyond voice assistants.
Voice search made a fundamental change in search behaviour impossible to ignore.
Search was moving toward a model where machines were expected to understand the question, identify the available answers, and select the most appropriate response.
That is fundamentally different from simply returning a list of documents.
For businesses, the implications are substantial.
Content needs to address real questions. Technical SEO needs to ensure information can be accessed and understood. Structured information can help machines interpret what a page represents. And brands need to think about how their information and services can function across an increasingly conversational customer journey.
Voice search may have been the most visible symptom of the change.
But the bigger story was the shift from retrieval toward answers.
And that is exactly why voice search became such an important part of the #SEOisAEO story.
The presentation deck used during the episode is preserved on Anton Shulke’s SlideShare archive.
Published by: Semrush
Series: #SEOisAEO
Episode: 2
Host: Jason Barnard
Guests: Eric Enge, Dawn Anderson, Jo Juliana Turnbull
Original webinar date: September 11, 2018
Topic: Voice search, conversational queries, user intent, content strategy, technical SEO, featured snippets, voice assistants, and Answer Engine Optimization
