It's official. The SEO game has changed. That's the word in a new and ever-evolving world of search. Things are changing so fast, in fact, that it's hard to keep up with them. We no longer live in a world where we can easily grasp what SEO is all about, because it's constantly changing. We grasp a new reality - like the importance of local search - and another one pops up right behind it. It can feel impossible to keep up - and yet we have to keep up.
What SEO used to be
When looking at the evolution of something, it's good to start by looking - at least briefly - at what used to be. In the world of search engine optimisation, this is a relatively short period of time, but one that is packed with updates, changes and rethinking. In the early days of search engine optimisation, search was all about keywords. Webmasters stuffed their sites with keywords, confident that this practice would get their sites to the top of the search engine results pages. Then Google came along and turned search on its head. Their refined algorithms prioritised quality over keyword stuffing. Suddenly SEO professionals were talking about backlinks and content and things like that... ... And then the algorithms changed again. Local search became the topic - and then mobile search queries surpassed desktop search queries and Mobilegeddon happened. Now SEO professionals were confronted with a range of new search options.
Five new search trends that you should remember
SEO is no longer just for Google - or for Bing and Yahoo In fact, most of the big changes in SEO have nothing to do with search engines, or at least not the search engines we're used to. SEO still stands for search engine optimisation, but new search options and technologies require new types of optimisation. Here's what you need to know.
Mobile search
First and foremost is mobile search. If you're thinking: "Wait a minute, Mobilegeddon has already happened! Why do I have to worry about mobile search?" then you should pay attention - because things have changed. Now when we think about mobile search, we're not talking about using Google on your phone. In fact, mobile search in this sense has become so commonplace that it's hardly worth mentioning. In the US, more than 70 % of total internet usage handled over the phone!
But here's the thing: Most of the time we spend online on our mobile phones is not spent using traditional search engines like Google. In fact, we spend 92 % of our time with mobile apps - and this poses a real SEO challenge. Originally, the only in-app search option available was Spotlight. Now there are many options - and while some were originally designed for GPS only, they have expanded beyond that to include general geographic searches. Google Maps also plays a role in many mobile searches. This also makes sense when you consider how much information a single Google Maps entry contains.
Voice search and personal assistants
Just a few years ago, voice-to-text technology was uncommon. It existed, but it wasn't something people resorted to when they wanted to search for something online. Now, the widespread use of digital assistants such as Siri (the iPhone assistant) or Alexa (Amazon's entry into the market) has added a whole new facet to the world of search - and search engine optimisation. And it's not just digital assistants - TVs, lights and other household items are all connected via the Internet of Things.
What does this mean for search? Well, for starters, Alexa doesn't even need keywords to give users what they want. A casual question like "Where should I go for dinner tonight?" is enough to get a list of local restaurants. These digital assistants are intelligent enough to see beyond normal human language and understand what is being asked without keywords. These new search options extend the search beyond our devices. They are activated by the sound of our voice and can take into account our personal history and past actions to give us the answers to our search queries.
Social search
Another big change in search engine optimisation is the way people use social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to search for content. When these sites were first launched, their search functions were simple and only intended to help users find their friends. Today, however, more and more people are using social search engines to find local businesses and services. They know that if they type in local search terms on Facebook, for example, they will get a list of businesses whose pages they can view.
There has also been a shift, as it is now very easy to use social search to find content rather than brands. When you log into Instagram, you'll notice that the algorithms make recommendations based on your activity on the site. If you look at a lot of wildlife photos or frequently travel to San Francisco, these preferences will be reflected in the content Instagram recommends to you. If you use the right hashtags and descriptions, the algorithms can recommend your content to the people most likely to visit your business.
Messenger apps
Messenger apps such as Facebook Messenger also play a role in the search. If you've used Messenger recently, you've probably noticed that when you use certain words - such as "song" - you get a message that says, "Find songs now" In other words, there's an in-built search engine working behind the scenes. There are messenger apps like Pegg, which provides financial services for small businesses and start-ups - and some companies are now using messenger bots to handle routine customer service issues. This is another example of casual, non-word language being used to deliver search results in the moment. And it shows that anyone clinging to the old, keyword-centric SEO of the past is missing the boat.
Topic cluster
Finally, we have the issue of topic clusters - a natural result of moving away from traditional keywords and towards casual and contextual search results based on natural language. Topic clusters require businesses to link pages with related topics to give context and meaning to your content.
Instead of writing repetitive blog posts, create a main post on a specific topic and then create other posts and pages that link to (and from) that post to build the architecture of your site. If you do it right, the result is a site that is specifically designed to recognise user intent and allow them to jump from one related topic to another. This can increase your visibility in search engines and ultimately help grow your business.
Don't be intimidated by the change in SEO...
These changes are good because they offer a chance to move away from optimising for broken phrases and awkward keywords and into a future where human language and intent are recognised by search engines without keywords. With any luck, these trends will usher in a new era of content designed to connect users and businesses.
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