Google Assistant Taps into a Much Larger Number of Voice Search Sources Than Alexa or Siri for Questions About Brands (Plus Webinar Tomorrow)
Google Assistant employs a much wider set of voice search sources to answer questions about brands than Alexa, Siri, or Bixby according to the findings reported last week in the Voice Assistant SEO Report for Brands. Voicebot and report sponsor Magic + Co. discovered that the disparity between Google Assistant and its rival voice assistants was much greater for brand related questions than previous studies have found that focused more on general knowledge. A key reason for this larger disparity appears to be Google Assistant’s wider reach among data sources related to brand information.
A good example of this can be seen in the answers related to “Where can I purchase [BRAND]” questions. Brand purchase location questions on Google Home and Google Assistant sourced questions directly from brands’ digital properties 7.5% and 8.5% of the time respectively. Alexa and Siri had access to this information for just 1% of these searches or fewer. They instead relied on third-party information repositories such as Yelp at twice the rate of Google with 9.5% for Alexa and 10.5% for Siri.
Google’s Local Knowledge Graph is Unmatched Today
Beyond these sources is where Google distinguished itself further. Google’s local information knowledge graph catalogs information through Google My Business and Local Product Inventory Feed, along with other sources. In particular, these first two Google services provide far more information than Alexa and Siri can match with their infrequent matches to the Yelp data repository. Google’s search assets enabled it to answer 72% of the queries accurately on Google Home and 94% on Google Assistant employed on a smartphone. The difference was Google Assistant’s use of weblinks on the smartphone which was not an option on Google Home. These Google results compared to success rates below 13% for Siri, Alexa, and Bixby.
The Voice SEO Takeaway for Brands
There are a couple of lessons for brands from these findings. First, Google has many ways for brands to generate discovery through voice search beyond a few information aggregation repositories. This can provide brands additional control over how their data is surfaced. And, there are even options for the source being a brand-owned digital property such as a website. By contrast, driving discovery and facilitating accurate information distribution about brands is harder today on Alexa, Bixby, and Siri. In addition, brands need to optimize for Yelp and other information aggregators as these are the most utilized sources for those assistants.
These findings also highlight that brands cannot simply rely on their own voice apps to capture consumer inquiries. The voice assistants today do not refer common queries about brands to their voice apps. Ben Fisher, CEO of Magic + Co. noted that Google was relying on text-based content transformed into audible speech to answer these questions and a voice assistant with conversation-optimized answers could begin offering a superior user experience. He told Voicebot in an interview:
We’ll have to see if Amazon or Apple can match Google’s prowess in this area. I think what is most interesting about this is that someone could theoretically upend Google’s search dominance as search itself becomes more voice based and less text based, which is a totally different paradigm.
Voice Assistant SEO for Brands Webinar
Voicebot and Magic + Co. are hosting a webinar tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16th, at 1:00 pm EDT to discuss the results of the Voice Assistant SEO Report for Brands research. You can register for the webinar to attend live or receive a link to the recorded session by clicking the button below.
Register
Follow @bretkinsella Follow @voicebotai
New Data on Voice Assistant SEO is a Wake-up Call for Brands
