With people growing increasingly attached to their smartwatches, VR headsets, smart rings, or even fitness trackers, It has become imperative to understand how wearable technology will shape our future and how it will fare with us in the coming years. Be it from a marketer’s perspective or a business owner’s, there’s a lot to delve into, and the trend is just beginning.
Understanding The Shift
With all the information being provided at one’s fingertips, it is growing enormously challenging for businesses to manage and stay relevant in this wearable-heavy era. This also means that marketers need to be adept at optimizing voice search queries with natural language processing and designing wearable-friendly websites. Marketers and SEO specialists might get the first-mover advantage with negligible competition at present, but that might soon change. People are slowly navigating towards this shift of voice-heavy searches as opposed to traditional searches to rank higher on SERPs and understand the importance of responsive web design suited for all screen sizes.
Where Should One Start?
- One can simply start by optimizing their content for long-tail keywords. This approach always works and is one of the easiest ways to rank higher. For instance, if you’re a smartwatch brand, then instead of targeting “smartwatch”, target keywords such as “affordable smartwatches to buy” or “best smart watches for runners”, these kinds of searches usually end up generating more traffic as these are less competitive. When coupled with voice-search queries, this works like magic!
- To make the most out of long-tail keywords, one can create more content around the FAQ section of their website. This works because people usually ask FAQs and your content might come in handy, automatically making it rank higher.
Contextual Search & Local SEO
Contextual search is the ability of a search engine to understand the context of a user’s query to provide them with relevant and personalized results. This includes taking into account various factors such as the user’s location, time of day, device being used, previous search history, and current activity. Based on this, the search engine tailors its responses to their immediate needs and wants. For example, if a user is searching for “coffee places near me”, the cafe’s website should be able to prioritize showing the menu to a user searching locally. The same goes for voice searches as well, since they are mostly location-based. This quick access to information enhances the user experience, encouraging people to make spontaneous visits.
Furthermore, Businesses can use wearables’ location features to send targeted push notifications when users are nearby. For instance, a restaurant could offer a discount to people walking past, enticing them to stop in. These personalized notifications increase engagement and drive foot traffic.
Adopting a Mobile-First Design Approach
Since wearables usually have a small screen, web designs need to be simple and extremely user-focused. Responsive design is paramount and must ensure that websites look good on any device, including wearables.
To start designing for smaller screens, adopting a mobile-first approach should help, starting from smaller screens and then scaling up eventually. This ensures that important information and action buttons are placed in the correct places and are the focus of the screen, which helps users see and use them easily. Along with this, responsive design helps websites adjust to different screen sizes, including those of wearables. This involves using flexible layouts, adaptable images, and special CSS code to detect and adjust to the device’s screen size and orientation.
Keeping these design principles in mind and putting them to use highlights the importance of user experience and content delivery, which is fundamental when it comes to wearables.
Since traditional click-based searches don’t work well on small screens, designers often might have to look at ways how to innovate these with touch gestures and voice commands. Swiping and tapping become the main ways to navigate, requiring intuitive interfaces that don’t rely on precise clicks.
Voice commands often add complexity but often offer hands-free interaction, which is necessary for on-the-go use of wearable devices. This calls for voice-responsive design, where websites can understand and respond to spoken commands, providing an alternative navigation method suited to wearables’ capabilities and user expectations.
In all, designing for wearables challenges traditional web design norms. It requires a shift to more intuitive, accessible, and interactive interfaces that match the unique ways people use these devices.
Privacy and Security Challenges
With Wearables collecting vast amounts of data including a person’s health metrics, location, everyday meal-planning process, and so much more, they are extremely vulnerable to breaches and hacks of sensitive data and information of the users. Therefore ensuring that the data is safe from unauthorized access is extremely critical. Taking this into consideration, as per IP WATCH DOG, In 2018, several states in the US, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia, have introduced comprehensive privacy laws regulating how consumer data is collected. Additionally, around 10 other states are in the process of developing similar legislation.
Jenifer McIntosh, Of Counsel at Stinson LLP says, “From the outset, particularly in the wearables field, a company must know what consumer data they use, where it comes from, where and how long it is stored and who gets to use it—or not.”
Not long after this in late August 2023, India followed suit and Introduced the Data Protection Law. However, more such issues such as user content and confidentiality, data storage and transmission, ethical implications, and adherence to GDPR laws still loom. This, in turn, has caused a lot of wearable enthusiasts to raise often questions and concerns about whether they should be using them.
Often when making use of the data collected by wearables, Marketers and SEO specialists have been advised to follow HIPAA rules and protect patient privacy. Marketers need to tell users when their data is being used. If they don’t, it can hurt the trust of the users and damage their client’s reputation. Being honest about data usage lets users opt out and ensures that the data collected is accurate and ethically gathered.
Final Arguments
Wearable technology also brings constant metrics that can make users feel like they’re not doing enough. These metrics aim to motivate by providing dopamine boosts, but they can be harmful in the long run. It’s important to look at these numbers carefully to avoid negative impacts.
With wearables becoming more popular, there’s a great opportunity for users, marketers, and businesses alike. However, the real challenge is whether we can use this data in the right way. Using it correctly can benefit everyone, but misuse can cause more harm than good.
Looking ahead, the potential for wearable technology to shape strategies is immense. Businesses that proactively adjust their web design and SEO practices to meet the needs of wearable device users will not only boost their online visibility but also create stronger connections with their audience. The future holds many opportunities for innovation, and staying ahead of the curve will help businesses succeed in an increasingly interconnected world.
