We’ve consistently said that knowing what keywords your client/viewer base uses to find your company (and your competition) is, excuse the pun, key to SEO success. And to be quite honest, we’ll probably always be touting this factor as the most elemental and vital aspect of great search engine optimization. But there is a change that’s coming to the keyword realm.
The way people search has changed and this tide is steadily rising. Think about your own search habits and you may see that you, too, are using a virtual assistant to do more of your searching. With Siri, Cortana, Google Now and others becoming a ubiquitous feature on cell phones and tablets the landscape of search is shifting.
It’s a subtle shift, as you’re still looking for the same end result, but people tend to enter typed queries using different words and phrases than they do when they do a voice to digital assistant query. The smart websites will find a way to incorporate these changes and adapt their keywords to retain this group of potential loyal followers.
Filament highly encourages you to start thinking about developing your 2016 marketing and search efforts with this in mind. Using your metrics to see what the subtle changes are is a great starting point. Separate the way you review results into digital assistant results and traditional organic results. Do NOT dump your traditional approach, but add a layer of keyword optimization to help Siri, et al.
Another wonderful way to dive into this area is to reach out to your target persona and ask them how they verbally research. Conduct some actual human studies. We love this approach because it not only gives you valuable data but it adds a personal touch to your interactions and lets the customer know that their loyalty and habits truly do matter to your brand.
Overall, expect to see more long tail keywords as a solution and more localized queries. Also, expect to see this area show a lot of movement in the next year or two.
