For a lot of people, Siri has changed the way they use smartphones. Siri, Apple’s voice assistant and knowledge navigator, can check the weather, find a McDonald’s in the vicinity or calculate the square root of 13 without you even having to type into your iPhone. It’s very convenient, plus, Siri has in stock a variety of cutesy responses for users who think they can play around with her.

Many users think Siri has not yet developed into her full potential, and experts like Ed Dale believe that context-aware software such as Siri can change the Internet landscape altogether. For Dale, Google and SEO were bust—up until the smart guys at the Silicon Valley giant introduced Siri’s No.1 competitor: Google Now for Android 4.1 (also known as Jelly Bean) phones. Of course, Google Now cannot just catch up with Siri. It has to get ahead of the game once again.

Google Now is more than just a voice-activated assistant; it is intelligent software that can predict what you’re doing and what you need at the moment based on three things: time, location and habits. In other words, Google Now searches for information based on SEO in context.

Let’s take a look at the following example. When you wake up in the morning, Google Now tells you the weather and traffic conditions in your normal route to work. If traffic is congested, it searches for alternate routes you can take and tells you how many minutes it takes for you to get to your office. If you choose to ride the train instead, Google Now looks up a schedule of trains and tells you when the next train is going to leave. When you arrive at work, Google Now checks your calendar and reminds you of the tasks that have to be completed. It’s different from a regular task reminder that you set yourself because with Google Now, you don’t set anything. You don’t search for anything. Your phone anticipates your needs based on context. It does SEO in context.

How does Google Now know all this information about you? It’s in Google’s privacy policy, which not a lot of people take the time to read. Google has announced that it is aggregating content across all Google properties. This means whatever you post on YouTube can be accessed through other Google-owned websites, such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Translate, Google Maps and Google+. The world’s biggest search engine isn’t just creating a privacy fuss. It’s creating a pool of information that is ALL ABOUT YOU, and Google Now can use that information to provide the information it expects you to search.

Here’s another example of SEO in context. Let’s say you are flying to Bali for summer break. Google Now knows that because it’s in your Calendar and it shows you a list of flights to Bali. Once you’re booked, your phone makes suggestions about hotels that suit your preferences and looks up Google+ Local for the very best tourist attractions in the area. By lunchtime on your first day, Google Now relies on your phone’s GPS to track where you are, looks for restaurants in the area and even gives you directions on how to get there.

Searching based on SEO in context is a very smart thing to do, even for a smartphone. And while everyone else oohs and aahs at Google’s game-changing piece of smartphone software, smart businessmen should take advantage and get a head start. Technology research firm Gartner, Inc. vice president William Clark says that by 2015, around 1.8 billion people all over the world will be using smartphones, 40% of whom will be using context service providers. That’s around 720 million smartphone users who contribute up to $96 billion in consumer spending. By that time, if your local gas station is not listed in Google+ Local and therefore not optimized for SEO in context, even if your website is fully optimized for mobile (By the way, Dale says that around 50% of all Google searches will be made through mobile in 2015.), a cross-country traveler who needs to fill his tank will not find you.

This effectively changes not only the way people search but also the way businesses do SEO in context. The impact of context searching has yet to be felt as top contenders Google and Apple race to develop Google Now and Siri, It’s clear, however, that context will redefine our searches in the near future because it makes it a whole lot easier for users. It’s like Facebook redefining the way we connect because we no longer have to be physically present to do it, or Amazon changing the way we shop for goods because we can now do it in a single click.

So what can local businesses do with the pending boom of SEO in context?

Get yourself on Google+ and update your business page. Google has been saying it over and over again:  Google+ is not asocial network—it is Google upgraded. Shift your focus from plain SEO to SEO in context. Create a listing for your business on Google+ Local and other local listing websites and encourage your customers to follow your page, check in with their phones and write detailed reviews. It also helps if they like your Facebook page and tweet about their experience with you. Why even bother with sites that are not Google-owned? Because context searching is not limited to Google Now and Siri uses other sources to check for information shared in social venues. Although Google dominates the worldwide smartphone software market, Apple is not lagging far behind.

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