What will Siri mean for SEO?

Thursday Nov 10th 2011, Posted by: Ryan Mattock (1 comment)

Siri(A virtual personal assistant) is a function on Apples new iPhone which allows the user to ask their phone to conduct a search on their behalf. This essentially means that the user bypasses the traditional methods of manual search using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. It is still very early days, however as these technologies progress it could eventually mean the end of traditional search as we know it.

Siri can be used effectively for a number of tasks including choosing which application, service, or site is most suitable to complete a task which has been specified by the user. Eventually this kind of technology could even eliminate the need to open a browser and search using one of the many search engines.

Great, but what does this mean for SEO?

Siri does not rely on any one source to pull its information and decide which result is most appropriate to ‘recommend’ to the user. For example; If Siri is asked “to find the closest Chinese restaurant” then the users location will be determined and results pulled from a site like Yell.com or Yelp. This means that being found at the top of Google for ‘Edinburgh Chinese Restaurant’ will not necessarily give you an advantage when the search is being carried out by Siri.

As a result, a non e-commerce business which relies on local trade should work with their SEO company to focus on ‘social’ and ‘local’ optimisation across a number of platforms such as Google Places, Yell.com, Facebook Places and Yelp, in addition to optimising specific Keyword Phrases to be ready for this new form of search once it becomes mainstream.

What about ‘Pay Per Click’?

Well simply put, if the user is bypassing the search engines there is no pay per click. If you rely heavily on PPC advertising to drive traffic to your website and neglect an investment in SEO, then in time you will lose out to your competitors. Remember, every day that goes by, is a day you will need to spend catching up when that time comes.

http://youtu.be/rNsrl86inpo