Dr. Pete will be speaking on Voice Search at the Engage Conference, which will take place March 9, 2017 in Portland. For more information, or to purchase tickets, please click here.
1) Please give us your background and let us know what you do for a living.
My educational background is in experimental psychology and computer science, but I went to work for a start-up after grad school (in 1997) and have been working on the internet in some capacity ever since. I’m currently the Marketing Scientist for Seattle-based Moz, where I research Google’s changes and use that research to inform content and product direction. I also run the MozCast project, a tracking system for the Google “weather”.
2) At this point in time, is there any real difference in how Google handles a voice search vs a “typed” search? How might this evolve?
In terms of the core algorithm, no — voice searches and typed searches feed into the same algorithm and use the same ranking factors. There are, however, huge device differences in the output of a voice search vs. a typed search, which I think is what we have to pay attention to right now. A voice search on Android or Google Home will only return a short answer, such as a Featured Snippet (and maybe even only part of the snippet we see on desktop), and so it’s a very different experience for the searcher.
Natural language search has also pushed Google to process queries differently, which has gradually impacted typed searches — this was a core motivation for the Hummingbird update. Voice is forcing the algorithm to evolve, and we’ll continue to see that trend over the next few years. The need for short answers has also increased the prevalence of Featured Snippets dramatically since their launch (more than 500%).
I expect the next evolution will come as Google sorts out monetization for voice and determines how advertising will work. We may see some subtler changes, such as voice search returning Featured Snippets where desktop doesn’t, but I expect these changes will be gradual.
3) Is there any correlation between voice search and knowledge graph answers? Does Google see the intent of a voice search as the searcher wanting a more direct answer with less SERP variety?
There’s definitely a strong correlation between direct answers of all types and voice search. This trend even started with mobile — small screens and voice results share a need for more concise answers. In terms of the core Knowledge Graph (in the sense Google defines it), we haven’t seen huge changes, but only because there are only so many types of queries and questions that the core Knowledge Graph can answer. This is why Google created Featured Snippets and has pushed hard for index-based answers. I do expect that we’ll see Google trying to “answer” more and more searches, even when a single answer doesn’t necessarily make sense.
It’s important to keep in mind that Featured Snippets are algorithmic. Not only are answers generated in real-time, but Google has to determine if a search is a question in real-time. They’ve gotten much better at this in the past two years, but as they try to treat more searches like questions, it can make for strange results. This is a balancing act that they’re going to be sorting out for at least the next 2-3 years.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.