December 2017 - Gorge Design Studio

If you’ve been using Facebook for a while you have probably noticed that many people “Like” their own posts just as soon as they post them.

While this could be viewed as a form of vanity (I mean, really, is it cool to “Like” your own posts?), in most cases it isn’t vanity at work at all.

Facebook has made numerous changes to their user interface of late, and one of the most reviled changes of them all were changes to the news feed and the introduction of the Ticker.

Now, instead of seeing all of your friends’ posts, you only see a selected few (selected by Facebook of course) showing up in your news feed. Under Facebook’s “Edge Rank” system, friends that don’t “Like” and comment on your posts usually stop seeing them altogether before too long.

In order to compensate for not showing your posts in some of your friends’ news feeds, Facebook added the ticker — a box in the right-hand column that lists the activities of your friends as they happen. This is where “Liking” your own posts comes into play.

When you “Like” a post, that action is noted in your friends’ ticker boxes, giving them a chance to at least be made aware that you have posted something even if it doesn’t show up in their news feeds.

So the next time you see one of your friends “Like” their own post, they probably aren’t giving themselves a pat on the back. Instead, they’re giving you an opportunity to check out a post that might never make it into your news feed. I recommend that you “Like” your own posts as well!

Web data has long existed in a virtual world, accessed by a virtual portal. Users log on, type into Google, and sift through the results that arise. Or, at least, that’s how the majority of web searches used to happen. Today, with the increase in voice assistants, like Apple’s Siri, and voice-first devices, like the Amazon Echo, search is spinning off in a brand new direction.

The Rise of Voice Assistants

If you’ve ever asked your phone how to get to the closest gas station or when your favorite musician is hosting a concert in your area, you’re already familiar with the growing popularity of voice assistants. While not necessarily a new concept – Apple’s Siri debuted in beta on the iPhone 4S in October 2011 and has been included in every version of the phone since then – the presence of voice assistants in the technology industry is only on the upswing. Today, the market has spread far beyond smartphones, with stand-alone search devices existing as part of a smart home setup. With Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and other such options, voice search is now becoming a part of daily life.

Voice Assistants in Search

As the role of voice assistants becomes more normalized in modern culture, the number of individuals who search the web solely or in large part by voice is growing, too. Somewhere around 20% of all searches are now made using voice assistants, with that number expected to rise to closer to 50% by 2020. One study even estimates that voice search will grow to a $600+ million industry by 2019.

The bottom line? Sooner rather than later, voice will dominate the search world – and the way content must be created.

Tailoring Content to Voice Technology

Search is changing, and that means content marketing needs to change, too. Historically, content has been created with traditional screen-based keywords in mind but now, as more and more web users are speaking rather than typing, SEO is in rapid need of an upgrade.

In a voice search, human speech patterns start to matter. Over the last few decades, searching online has been dominated by chains of related words – “Target store near me,” for example – but this isn’t how most people talk. Instead of spitting keywords into a microphone, people ask real, normal questions: “where is the closest Target store to me?” Instead of ranking for keyword strings, content needs to start targeting speech, diction, and regional colloquialisms that may be said but not typed.

Furthermore, organic search will soon play an even larger role than it already does. Unlike a traditional search engine results page in which web users can browse hundreds of results in search of the right answer, AI voice responses are limited to top-ranking data with no real option to scroll through other hits. Thus, the best, most relevant results are what Alexa or Home or Siri will read – not the articles on page 5.

The SEO landscape is ever-changing, but the rise in voice searches may be one of the biggest yet. Without a strategy that keeps voice assistants in mind, it’s going to be easy to fall behind. A few tweaks now, however, can put you at the forefront, ensuring you stay relevant as voice search continues to evolve.