Over the last decade, Google have been working on technologies to rival competitors and change technology as we know it. It started with the Self Driving Car and now with the release of Google Assistant and Google Home, Google are slowly introducing new technologies that will change our everyday lives – but are these changes for the better?
What is Google Home?
In the most simplistic form, Google Home is a voice activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant which enables you to use voice requests to trigger certain actions and responses. For example, you can ask your Google Home device to play a certain song, to perform a calculation for you, to find out facts about a topic online or to add a task to your to-do list.
View the full list of features
What Does Google Home Mean For SEO?
Out of all the features offered by Google Home, the only two features that can be monetised by businesses is the Facts & Info feature and the Local Guide feature. The most commonly used features in a household such as playing audio, asking for live sports updates or setting alarms are not beneficial for businesses anyway.
When you ask Google Home to find out the answer to a factual question or to find you a local café, they (currently) pull this information from the rich snippet for that query, whether than be Wikipedia or another website. The thing with Google Home is that there are no search results; there’s no top 5 or top 3 rankings- you either rank first position and gain the rich snippet or your website won’t be chosen on Google Home.
It’s clear at present that for queries such as “How much are tickets to see Adele in Birmingham on Saturday?” will return whatever is in the rich snippet, businesses will need to find the right balance between factual and promotional messaging so that when Google answers the query they can also be plugging your brand.
The Future Of Google Home?
As with any new device entering households on such a large scale, people are concerned as to the real incentive behind the device. Is the device listening in on what you’re saying to gather information on how to advertise to you in the future? At present, Google Home is not being used as a method of advertisement however in March people reportedly were receiving an advertorial message about the upcoming release of the latest Beauty and The Beast film.