Skip to main content

Voice Search

Voice search is searching using voice commands via a smartphone, speaker, or voice assistant.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search refers to searching using spoken queries instead of typed ones. Voice input is most commonly used on smartphones, smart speakers, and in vehicles.

The biggest difference from traditional search lies in the phrasing. While typed queries are short and sometimes consist of keywords, spoken queries are phrased in completely natural sentences and often take the form of a question. Instead of “weather Ulm,” you’re more likely to ask, “What will the weather be like tomorrow in Ulm?” Voice queries are therefore often longer, phrased more naturally, and more specific.

Where did voice search originate?

Voice search became suitable for everyday use with the advent of digital assistants. Devices and services such as Apple’s Siri, introduced in 2011, as well as comparable assistants from Google and Amazon and smart speakers from the mid-2010s followed.

This was made possible by advances in machine speech recognition and natural language understanding. Today, traditional voice search is increasingly merging with AI systems and conversational assistants that can also respond to follow-up questions.

Why is voice search important?

When the way people search changes, content must be structured differently to provide the right answer. The goal is to answer the typical questions of your target audience clearly, naturally, and directly.

This improves the chances of your content appearing in relevant voice search results. This is significant because voice assistants often provide only a direct answer, which can make traditional search results less visible. If you’re not there, you’re essentially completely absent.

Advantages

  • Content that naturally addresses questions increases the chance of being considered as an answer in voice search.
  • You can benefit from this in both traditional and AI-powered search.
  • Voice search can be particularly valuable for local businesses because it’s well-suited for questions asked on the go that have a local focus and a direct intent to take action.

Challenges

Voice search often returns only a single direct answer, which intensifies competition for that position.

However, success is difficult to measure separately, as spoken queries are not clearly identified as voice search in standard analytics.

And as systems continue to evolve and increasingly merge with AI systems, the landscape remains in flux and requires ongoing monitoring.

Example

A local repair shop serving a specific geographic area notices that many customers ask about opening hours and phone numbers while on the go. As a result, the shop updates its Google Business Profile with the relevant information to ensure it is current and complete.

On the website, typical questions such as “How often should a heating system be serviced?” are answered in fully formed, natural sentences. This improves the business’s chances of being considered a relevant source or answer for corresponding voice queries.

Related terms

Long-tail keyword A long-tail keyword is a search query that is searched for relatively rarely and is often very specific. Featured Snippet A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box at the top of Google search results. Local SEO Local SEO refers to search engine optimization that focuses on location-based searches. Zero-Click Search In a zero-click search, the user does not click through to an external website. Instead, the search query is answered directly on the results page.