48 Voice Search Statistics That Unveil Emerging Opportunities

Voice search has changed how we interact with our devices and access information. Nowadays, we frequently use them to look things up online. It’s easier and requires less effort since users speak commands instead of typing them.

Voice recognition technology and software power these searches and convert our spoken words into text. Artificial intelligence (AI) interprets the text and uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to produce expected results.

These searches are getting even more familiar with assistants like Siri or Google Assistant. For businesses, it opens up an opportunity to optimize for voice searches. Let’s look at current usage patterns to explore these kinds of opportunities. 

Voice search usage and trends

Voice search is catching up with the younger crowds. People between 25 and 49 years of age interact with smart devices and speakers daily. The statistics below discuss growing usage and trends.

• Weekly voice searches are a habit for 21% of people.
• From 2008 to 2016, voice search usage skyrocketed, multiplying 35 times.
• Google has broken language barriers, offering mobile voice search in over 60 languages.
• Voice search answers are short, around 29 words.
• People are asking questions in nearly 10% of voice searches.
• Voice makes up 20% of mobile queries.

• 27% of Google searches came from voice in 2022.
• By the end of 2023, sales from voice searches could reach $40 billion.
• Expect to see 8.4 billion voice assistant devices around the world by 2024.
• 80% of voice searches might sound more like natural conversations by 2024.
• Voice search is big, with over 4 billion digital assistants globally.
• Voice shopping is on track to reach $80 billion a year by 2023.
• 40% of adults talk to their devices to search every day.
• 50% of smart speaker owners love using voice commands to keep their hands free.
• The voice recognition market could hit $26.8 billion by 2025.

Voice search in daily life and home use statistics

Voice search is becoming a big deal. It's like having a helper who does things for you by listening to your voice. You can ask your phone where the closest coffee shop is, and it tells you where to go without you having to type a thing.

The statistics below look at how voice searches help users in their everyday lives.

• Smart speaker users ask for around 11 different things weekly.
• Talking to a voice-activated speaker feels natural for over half of users.
• A quarter of people who own smart speakers have shopped using voice commands.
• In 2021, nearly 90 million Americans owned a smart speaker. 
• 34% of people without smart speakers are thinking about buying one soon.

• 30% of online browsing involved zero screens in 2020. 
• The number of households that use smart speakers is estimated to reach 93 million households by 2027.

Voice search and local business statistics

Most consumers find voice search handy when they're busy with something else. More than half of people prefer making restaurant reservations using voice search. Several kinds of local searches on mobile phones take place on voice search. The statistics below justify local companies increasing their adoption of voice search 

• Voice searches on mobile are three times more likely to be for local information than text searches.
• On Windows 10 desktops, 25% of searches are done using Cortana's voice feature.
• 50% of consumers like using voice search to discover local businesses.
• 82% of smartphone users turn to search engines to find local shops. Local businesses are discovered by 58% of users through voice search. 
• After a local search on their phone, 88% of people will visit or call a related store within a day.
• Local voice searches on smartphones lead to a purchase within a day 18% of the time.

• 27% of people check out a local business website after a voice search.
• 1 in 4 people are open to trying voice search to find local shops.
• Over half of consumers have looked up local business info with their voice in the past year.
• 62% of people use voice to find local businesses while driving.
• Local content grabs 22% of voice search queries.
• One-third of clicks from Google searches go to the "snack pack" of local business listings.
• Location-based voice searches are key for businesses in multiple places – they get 22% of voice queries.
• Reviews are super important, as they help result in voice searches if it's about a local business. They can encourage people to spend up to 31% more.
• 52% of people use voice to research products or services.
• Voice search and good online reviews go hand in hand for local businesses – 27% of users go straight to the website after a voice search.
• 76% of smart speaker users asking about local places do so every week.

Voice search optimization and web presence statistics

Google Home reveals that voice search pages load in under 5 seconds. Businesses are now structuring their content to make it easier to find on voice searches. 

Many Facebook shares and X (formerly Twitter) posts have become a part of voice search results. Let’s look at what businesses are doing to compete.

• Websites with structured data markup appear in over 34% of voice search results. Several niche businesses are adding schema markup to their pages. 
• 50% of the answers from voice search come from a featured snippet box – like this one!

• The top voice search results are usually also the top 3 results on desktop searches.
• Dentists' offices have done the best job at optimizing for voice search. Consumer protection groups are the least optimized.
• Google's voice recognition is right 95% of the time, making it easy for users to trust it.

Listen to the sound of my voice

Spoken language is more conversational and natural than formulaic text-based queries. As a result, search queries on voice have become longer and more question-based. For instance, instead of typing “weather New York,” a user might ask, “What is the weather going to be like in New York today?”

Businesses need to optimize their content for queries like these so they’re sure to come up in voice search results. 

Learn more about search engine optimization to enhance the overall visibility of your business on Google Search.