Voice Search in United States Digital Media Outlets. Use of the "Speakable" Markup with Google's Virtual Assistants

This research explores how United States digital media outlets use the "speakable" semantic markup for voice search. Its use is intended to enable media outlets to promote their content on Google Assistant and Google Home devices. It is also considered an essential strategy for voice search optimization (VSO) which plays an essential role in ensuring that these kinds of devices load accurate results.Analysis of the use of this markup was limited to fifty media outlets (with websites with the greatest number of visits) based in the U. S. because "speakable" is currently only implemented in this geographic area. In this study, 372,000 news items were analyzed with the SEO tool Screaming Frog. Initial forecasts predicted growth parallel to using smart speakers, but unexpectedly this research identifies a non-generalized use of this type of semantic markup. Although data evidenced use of semantic markup in only seven media outlets, four of them demonstrated that it was widespread practice in all the articles. The "speakable" markup is applied through the CSS selector system or through XPath, an expression language designed for the transformation of XML documents.This work provides a useful basis for future lines of research related to voice search optimization strategies, which is an intrinsically valuable field to enhance web visibility and raise the profile of media outlets.