The Influence of Digital Assistants on Search Engine Strategies: Recommendations for Voice Search Optimization

Digital assistants are conquering the world and providing new opportunities and challenges for digital marketing and e-commerce. Apparently, one-third of Internet users in Switzerland already use (digital) voice assistants. One of the advantages of voice search is time as a search query is four times faster spoken than typed. The goal of this study is to determine factors that should be used to gain visibility in search engines and ultimately optimize voice search. To be able to answer the research questions, six Swiss experts were selected and interviewed. Based on the interviews, the five most important factors for VSO (Voice Search Optimization) were determined and tested with 30 everyday questions on Google Home and Siri. The interviews revealed that the search behavior would change in the future, and therefore, websites should consider these recommendations and focus on natural language for their content. The practical test showed that not all of them were that prevalent in the provided search results but might become more important over time.