If you feel like marketing your small business is a whole new game these days, you aren’t alone. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly changing the world we live in -- which means that entrepreneurs and marketers must change with it. Understanding the way that AI is affecting searches and SEO -- both now and in the near future -- is going to be increasingly important to your business’ survival.
How Is AI Changing The Way Consumers Interact With Technology?
Artificial Intelligence in the form of voice assistants like Alexa and Siri is more prevalent than ever in consumer homes. In 2017, 13% of American households already had a smart speaker in them -- but that number is expected to soar to 55% by 2022.
In fact, 65% of the people who own a smart speaker can’t imagine doing without one again. Massive numbers of people -- around 40% of all adults -- have embraced voice search so much that they use it at least once a day, whether they talk into their smart speakers, computers, or cell phones. By 2020, half of all online searches are expected to be accomplished by voice -- many without a screen!
These days, there’s a remarkable willingness among consumers to adopt new technology as it arises -- and an active embrace of artificial intelligence -- particularly as more digital natives mature into adulthood. For many younger consumers, all these amazing technological advancements are something that they’ve come to expect -- and why not? They’ve been witness to incredible technological changes their entire lives.
The smart entrepreneur is going to recognize two things very quickly. First: now is a good time to get ahead of the curve (and your competitors) by integrating AI into your brand’s overall marketing strategy in general and search engine optimization in specific. Second: it’s not going to be very long before your brand gets left behind if you don’t.
Adapting, if you want to survive, isn’t really optional. AI in the form of smart speakers, voice-responsive computers, chatbots, automated suggestions, and more is not a passing fancy.
What Do You Need To Know Before You Start Integrating AI Into Your SEO?
The popularity of smartphones shifted consumers away from their computers and onto mobile devices. Small business owners suddenly had to rethink the way they approached everything about SEO. Websites that were mobile-ready and optimized to catch the consumer-on-the-go quickly came out on top.
The shifts caused by the adoption of AI and voice-assisted search are no less profound. The changes somewhat build on what brands have already been doing to adapt to mobile searches, but there is a big difference. Instead of vying to be among the top three or four entries on the search engine results page like a brand does for mobile, anything less than the top slot in a voice-assisted search is literally going to be invisible to consumers. A voice-assisted query gives the consumer exactly one result.
To get that top spot, you have to focus on several different factors as you think about your brand’s SEO in the future:
The Content On A Site
Every small business has to strive very hard for accuracy in its online content. Brands also need to be incredibly specific about everything that they have to offer. Detailed content on their website is going to be key to gaining those top slots in a search.
Pages that incorporate frequently asked questions (FAQs) will gain attention in voice searches. The more specific, accurate, and concise the answer you can provide to a consumer’s question, the better. Specific product information that helps a consumer hone in on something they want or need is also crucial.
Location And Navigation Information
A large percentage of AI technology is devoted to navigation and location-based services, whether the AI is located inside a smartphone or in a device like Siri. When consumers make a voice-based search, the artificial intelligence in their devices automatically keeps their location in mind. Local businesses are only going to compete by doing everything in their power to make sure that they’re on the radar of the artificial intelligence that’s operating.
Claiming the “Google My Business” listing and making sure that your business shows up on Google Maps is essential. Making sure that consumers -- and AI -- can easily pinpoint the location, hours of operation, and directions to your business are also critical, so having a page on your site that contains that kind of key information is also necessary.
The Language Used In Voice Searches
There’s a significant difference between the way that people conduct a query on a mobile device and the way that they ask a question using voice search.
Someone who is researching the best place to buy a birthday cake, for example, will type “bakeries near me” into a search box on their phone, but say out loud, “Where can I find the best bakery in Cleveland?” Long-tail keywords, which were waning in popularity, are going to become increasingly important again. Content that sounds like natural speech -- especially those FAQ pages -- is going to rise in value.
The Wrap-Up
Artificial intelligence is changing the way that consumers search for information -- and it’s going to present new hurdles for small brands. You’ll have to push harder and harder to occupy that precious top slot in the search results. While challenging, the basic rules of the game are really still the same: take every opportunity to get good content, have a well-organized site, understand what keywords are important to your consumers, and keep striving to perfect your search engine optimization.