Dr.Venkatesh Raman 22 February 2019

Categories B2B, Mobile, Search Marketing, Technology

Hello Google, tell me the key voice search stats for B2B marketers

It’s a challenging time to be a marketer today. Do you agree? They have to understand and follow emerging trends in the ever-changing digital landscape. The industry experts predict ‘Voice Search’ to be one of the most important digital marketing trends beyond 2020. Here are a few stats around Voice Search.

There are a lot of questions that are popping up in the minds of marketers, such us:

•    What is Voice Search Optimization?
•    Is it a new organic search?
•    How do I optimize?
•    Is it a future of SEO?
•    Is it a fad?
•    Why is it growing rapidly?
•    Are there compelling stats that prove the importance of voice search?

As modern marketers today, we need to prepare for voice search revolution. Trust me, voice search is not a passing trend but it’s going to be an evolution of SEO in the future.

Key Drivers

There are a lot of actions that are driving this trend globally - Faster than typing, most suitable for mobile devices, easy to multitask, more convenient, highly conversational and so on. Following stats highlight this growing trend for B2B businesses and marketers:

• Searching with your voice is 3.7x faster than typing.
• Nearly 60% of mobile searchers use voice search at least “some of the time.
• 70% of searches on Google Assistant use “natural language.”
• Want to get quick answers without typing.
• Humans speak 150 words per minute but can type 40 words per minute.
• 28% think voice search is a more effective way of searching.
• 43% cite that using voice search is faster than using a website or an app.
• 21% don’t like typing on their mobile phone so they prefer voice search.

Key stats that prove the importance of voice search

Voice search is rapidly growing in today’s digital world. Consumers use voice search often so modern marketers should embrace this emerging trend in the future. According to Dougherty, CEO of Jelli, "The goal of any marketer is to establish a genuine connection with customers. Voice is their chance to get one step closer." Here are the key stats that prove the importance of this growing trend – General, Mobile and Local Voice Search:

General Voice Search Stats

• 20% of all Google mobile queries are voice searches.
• 25% of all Windows 10 desktop searches are done via voice.
• By 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches.
• 72% of people who own a voice-activated speaker say their devices are often used as part of their daily routine.
• By 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.
• 2 in 5 adults use voice search once daily.
• Voice search queries are longer than normal text-based searches.
• Voice search queries tend to be three-to-five keywords in length.
• The average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds.

Mobile Voice Search Stats

• Mobile voice-related searches are 3X more likely to be local-based than text.
• 1 in 5 adults use mobile voice search at least once monthly.
• Google Assistant is now available on more than 400 million devices.
• 9 out of 10 consumers use a voice assistant on their smartphones.
• 1 in 2 smartphone users now use voice technology on a daily basis.
• Between 20 and 25% of mobile queries are voice searches.
• 88% of all “near me” searches are done on mobile.

Key Local Voice Search Stats

• 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in 2017.
• 46% of voice search users look for a local business on a daily basis.
• 27% visit the local business after doing a voice search.
• 25% of consumers say they would like to try local voice search in the future.
• “__near me now” searches have grown by 150% over the last two years.
• 22% of voice queries are done for finding local content.

The Bottom-line

With the rise of smartphones with voice assistant capabilities, consumers prefer voice search nowadays. This is the core reason for the growing popularity of voice search in today’s digital world. The above stunning stats also highlight the importance of voice search in B2B businesses.

Effective voice search optimization is the need of an hour due to the emergence of conversational search. It’s going to change the SEO landscape for B2B marketers. Be ready to embrace the voice search in the future by developing a sound voice search optimization strategy.

Stay tuned for my B2B Voice Search 101 blog series in the future!

Feel free to share your thoughts on this emerging trend.