Who wouldn’t know Siri, or Alexa? They are the popular voices behind one of technology’s most amazing inventions, the voice search. With the help of the advancing capabilities of applied sciences, speech recognition technology has become more precise.

More and more consumers have been using devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple’s HomePod, both for personal and commercial use. In fact, more than half (52%) of adult Americans use voice assistant on their smartphone.

Because of the advancement in AI, sectors such as the travel industry need to rethink their marketing strategies, because voice search seems to be the next big thing in the online travel marketing area.

For businesses in the travel industry, online searches through different search engines had been a common activity. Business marketing can be a success through the effective utilization of company resources especially through search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and the employment of the latest search engine tools.

Online searches can be done through various methods. One of the latest methods used for online searching is the voice search. There are many ways that voice search can change how online travel marketing is done today.

As many travel businesses are competing in the same market, only the toughest will survive, and only those with effective processes and the latest technologies will win the unending battle in such a competitive market.

Though the voice command technology is still subject to some improvements, it is already being utilized by big companies and is being used from cars to refrigerators. Ultimately, there will be a big shift in consumer behaviour, and on how people are interacting with technology.

How to Maximize the Use of Voice Search Technology

Currently, the search engines are continuously evolving and changing. The technology used in search engines has reached great heights from text-only searches to its highly advanced searching possibility such as its voice search capabilities.

Businesses need to operate with the latest technological trends to not be left behind by their competitors. Once maximized, the voice searching technology in search engines can help both consumers and travel businesses all over the world.

The following are some of the ways that travel businesses can maximize the use of voice search technology.

1. Optimize Local Directory Pages

Voice searches favor results from local directory pages which simply mean that the results from searches done through voice searches are those that are in good ranks in local listings.

2. Consistency of Company Information

The company’s information in its content should be consistent in all its online presence. This information includes the company’s office hours, contact information, place of business, and other relevant information regarding the business and its products. These are the common searches by potential customers of hotels, tour operators and other accommodation businesses.

3. Use Conversational Keywords and Frequently Asked Questions

Powerful keywords can help businesses win the search engine optimization rank battle. The use of conversational keywords can help with online marketing and acquire higher rankings in search engine results through the voice searching technology.

In fact more than 20% of voice search queries are triggered by a combination of only 25 keywords (like how, what, best, where etc.)

A “frequently asked questions” portion for travel marketing can provide convenience and fast access to commonly asked questions. This can also provide results for searches with “frequently asked questions” as keywords for hotel and other travel business online voice searches.

These three methods can contribute to the ways on how voice search can change how online travel marketing is done.

How Voice Search Will Change Online Travel Marketing

The voice-search capabilities offered by the voice command technology can pose threats and advantages to online travel marketing. There are numerous ways on how online marketing can be changed through the growing trends of voice search usage.

1. Hands-free Searching

The hands-free searching technology available to almost all smart device users is increasing every year.

The popularity of the voice command features for online searching is also at an increasing trend. Companies will be competing for the top results in voice-searches in Google and other voice-command-capable search engines.

According to statistics, by 2020, 50% of all searches across the internet will be voice-based.

Travel agencies can reach thousands of users who are using the voice-search technology in looking for hotels and other accommodation businesses for their travel and additional needs. This changes the travel marketing because these types of business activity will need to employ powerful and latest tools for winning the voice-search engine race.

2. Content Generation

Content that is used by businesses to market its services will be geared towards powerful content creation techniques which will help earn the business’ services at the top ranks during voice searches on search engines such as Google.

Some of the following steps in improving a company’s content for online marketing are:

• Review the current content.
• Identify those which can be improved or corrected.
• Determine the possible questions or search engine searches that these contents can answer.
• Recheck the volume of searches for the contents.
• Frequently update old content and make new content.

3. Voice Searches Tends to Use Longer Keywords and Sentences

Content for businesses marketing its services online will shift to longer keywords using long sentences. Due to the fact that most of the voice searches performed by many potential customers of hotels and other accommodation businesses are in long sentences.

The potential customers of hotels and other accommodation companies tend to use multiple words in doing voice searches compared to the conventional method of typing words in search engines.

These keywords are called long-tail keywords which is typically exceeds three words. For voice searches, long-tail keywords are more important in reaching top ranks in search results than the typical keywords used for the traditional search engine optimization.

There are many tools available in the market that may help businesses acquire effective long-tail keywords for voice search engine optimization.

Companies may use these tools to help them in coming up with effective long-tail keywords for their content. The endless technological advancements in SEO and its effect on online travel marketing is huge. According to a recent study, 43% of adults in the United States are using voice search technology daily and this trend will continue to increase in the coming years.

This is a major reason for the increasing demand for online marketing for different industries such as the travel industry.

The travel industry is a growing worldwide industry. Its growth includes the use of the latest technological trends like Instagram, YouTube, voice search and more. Businesses in this industry utilize the internet to advertise their service since there is a growing trend in the volume of online searches all over the globe.

Voice search technology is the new booming trend in the world of SEO and it can and will change how online marketing is done from keyword construction to the overall content creation process.

The author is David Kovacs an entrepreneur and a performance-driven digital marketing expert. David worked with businesses that range from Fortune 500 companies to start-up ventures. He is the founder of a digital agency Travel SEO that helps growing travel businesses profit from online marketing with #1 page rankings.