Voice search is becoming more important and better

The average percentage of questions that cannot be answered by voice assistants is just 6.3 percent. Just over a year ago, a Forrester study put this figure at 35 percent. An important detailed result is that while Google Assistant and Apple's Siri were only unable to answer up to five percent of the questions asked, this figure is 23 percent for Amazon's Alexa. The popular home assistant is primarily a device for the home that understands voice commands and questions on general topics, but is not intended for carrying out local search queries.

The study includes Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa on a total of six different devices - from Android Phone to Amazon Echo to iPad Mini - and thus covers almost 100 percent of the voice assistant market. For example, according to the Microsoft 2019 Voice Report, Siri and Google Assistant each account for 36 percent, while Alexa comes in at 25 percent. Overall, Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa thus occupy comparable market shares. Companies should try to take all three assistants into account - not least because their algorithms differ significantly. Among other things, they draw on different sources of information.

What can companies learn from search queries?

The SEMrush study asked Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa a total of 5,000 typical search queries in English. These consisted of various basic forms and combinations thereof, for example "where to buy pizza?", "pizza near me" or "best pizza"). The evaluation of the different results provides important insights for small and medium-sized companies, which can use them to significantly improve their SEO and marketing strategies. Thus, there are different ranking factors from voice assistant to voice assistant.

For Google Assistant, for example, the usual local SEO tactics in combination with natural spoken language are particularly relevant. For Siri, on the other hand, which refers to the Apple Maps service, the main thing to aim for is many positive Yelp and Tripadvisor reviews. A Yelp rating of at least 4.5 out of 5 stars combined with the largest number of testimonials makes a business the best local address in Siri's eyes. Finally, Alexa uses information from the Bing search engine as well as Yelp and Yext files to find a suitable answer.

"Already today, voice search is an interesting marketing factor for regional companies as well. It is a trend, which is not as rapid as it was thought. However, if you've thought about Local SEO as a business, why wouldn't you think about Voice Search? Companies would therefore do well to work on their voice search readiness," explains Evgeni Sereda, Senior Marketing Manager DACH at SEMrush.