1.
Getting Found Through “VEO” and Virtual Assistants
Cherith Meeks, Soleo Communications
Manpreet Singh, TalkLocal

2.
Voice Search Continues to Grow
The use of voice search is skyrocketing.
• By 2020, 30% of searches will be done without a screen 1
• 40% of adults now use voice search once per day 2
It’s redefining the way people search for local.
• Mobile voice-related searches are 3X more likely to be local-
based than text 3
• Nearly 50% of people are now using voice search when
researching products 4
1 MediaPros; 2 comscore; 3 Search Engine Watch; 4 Social Media Today
2

3.
Consumer Searching Habits Continue to Adapt
Consumers are adapting to voice search from traditional
text search.
• A text query is fewer than three words on average
• Voice queries are often much longer and more detailed
• These longer queries provide richer intent
3

4.
Sample Search Categories for Voice Search
4
Consumers use voice search for things they need in that
moment.
Restaurants
Coffee & Cafes
Delis
General
Contractors
Beauty Salons
Groceries
Bars
Gas Stations
Pet
Supplies
Banks & ATMs
Icons from Flaticon.com

5.
The Value of Understanding Natural Language
Natural Language Processing underpins the work of
conversational search.
• It is important for search devices to leverage natural language
processing to support voice search.
For example, consider these two searches:
“I need my lawn mowed” and “I need my lawn mower fixed”
5

6.
“I need my lawn mowed”
6
A search engine should understand the user’s need (lawn
mowing) and location and return relevant results.

7.
“I need my lawn mower fixed”
7
In this case, the search engine should understand the difference
between lawn mowing and lawn equipment.

8.
Businesses Must Evolve Too
Businesses will need to optimize for what they offer rather
than simply who they are.
In the past, a roofer in San Diego, CA simply had to ensure that
they would show up in searches within the business categories
of “General Contracting”, “Contracting – Roofing”, “Roofing”, and
similar categories.
But that doesn’t consider how users search by voice:
“I need some shingles replaced”
8

9.
Voice Search and Associated Terms
Businesses must ensure they are aligned with their product
and service offerings:
9
“I need some shingles replaced.”
Contractor
Replacement
Roofing
Service
Asphalt
Roof
Shingles
Repair
Residential
Solar Panels
EfficiencyEnergy
Installation
Slate
Maintenance
Rebates
Commercial

10.
What Does This Mean for SMBs?
Traditional SEO and SEM are changing too.
• Be found on more search ecosystems
– Get listed in local directories
• Make sure local directories know what you do, not just who
you are
• Make sure you choose partners who are equipped for
conversational search
10

11.
Respond to Voice Commands
….like Fido
by: Manpreet Singh
Co-Founder

12.
Lessons from
Mobilegeddon
ENGE , ERIC. (2015 , Jun 3) Mobilegeddon: Nearly 50% of Non-Mobile Friendly URLs Dropped in Rank. https://www.stonetemple.com/mobilegeddon-may-have-been-bigger-than-we-thought/
NonMobile Friendly URLS Mobile Friendly URLS
Bad dog. Good dog!

13.
Source: Thrive Analytics. (2016, June 6) Adoption of Voice Search Continues to Gain Traction. http://www.thriveanalytics.com/blog/?p=709

14.
What Makes Voice Search
Different?

15.
Tighter Competition
“If you’re not first, you’re last.”
The Ricky Bobby Law of Ranking is
now in effect thanks to…
• Voice based interfaces
• Direct answers
• Google rich answers
• Action buttons

16.
More Expressive Search

17.
Impact on the Search
Landscape
Tabeling, Jason . (2014, Dec 1) How Will Voice Search Impact a Search Marketer’s World? https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2383498/how-will-voice-
search-impact-a-search-marketers-world

18.
Best practices
 Come up with Who/What/Where/When/Why/How questions
regarding your offerings
 Create content with a conversational tone responding to
common answers
 Factor in the intent indicators in your different responses
and when building campaigns around answers
 Find out which mobile voice commands are best for your
business
 Update your site with schema.org/structured data markup
 Remember to test your structure data. Google’s is here
https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/

19.
Structured Data…
Voice Answers
 Structured data Rich Snippets
Direct Answers

20.
Extensions
• On the go voice search users will be more responsive to quick
call to action offers in search results. They don’t have time read
your website.
• Types of extensions:
– Location Extensions.
– Call Extensions.
– Dynamic Search Ads: With help from structured data markup, a ad
partner like Google can actually crawl a website and promote the
aspects of the site that are relevant to the searcher based on
indicated intent.

21.
New Gatekeepers
• Voice technology creates the need for new
digital gatekeepers
– Virtual assistants
(i.e.HelloAlfred)
– On-demand and referral companies (i.e.
AskAlexa and HomeAdvisor)
• Access through these gate keepers only
makes the normal digital strategy more
important