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Just a few years ago SEO was really simple. You had to be in the top 10 or rather in the top 3 for relevant keywords. Then the traffic came and with it the leads, sales or whatever you wished. Today there is no real top 10 anymore. Even if you are at #1 in the organic search results, you might be below the “fold” so that users have to scroll to see your site on the Google search results page aka SERP.
Google has introduced so many changes to most SERPS that you can’t ignore them and go on as if it’s still 2005. You have to change your SEO strategy accordingly.
While many people already have noticed that Universal search is all over the place, and images, video or news results get displayed frequently, many still behave as if SEO was about checking rankings and aiming for #1 in organic search. These 30 Google SERP changes impact your SEO strategy in a way you can’t ignore.
- Ads and universal search push organic results below the fold
- There is opportunity in local search results
- Paid shopping results show above organic results
- There are sometimes more or fewer than 10 results
- Infinite scroll allows users to peruse longer lists of results
- Author avatars get displayed on the left of search snippet
- Bulleted snippets made of list items stand out
- Local results show up even without adding a location
- For location-based SERPs, organic results almost disappear
- Local SERPs may vary significantly
- Huge full-page site links for brands monopolise branded queries
- Brands tend to dominate their own SERPs
- Sidebar menu attracts clicks and competes with the actual results
- Social search annotations show up with favicon sized avatars
- Google+ bar with red notification distracts while searching
- +1 button clicks reorganise your search results significantly
- Google +1 counts appear in search results for everybody
- Public Google+ profile messages show up prominently in SERPs
- Google remembers and adds recent search queries you performed
- Your last visited pages get highlighted by Google
- Google adds your address from Google Profiles to public search results
- Mobile SERPs differ significantly from desktop SERPs
- “Searches related to” draw away attention from first query
- Google instant search results send people away to partial queries
- Google instant previews can lower your CTR and affect conversion rate
- Personalisation is taking over the average SERPs
- Keyword matching domains can now barely be seen
- Google may shorten your URL displayed, hiding “irrelevant parts”
- 5 years from now SERPs could be completely different
- Google can highlight on-site videos in SERPs
So how do we actually deal with these SERP changes? How exactly do they impact your SEO strategy? There are a few common traits you can focus on:
- Relying on ranking reports is less and less useful; other metrics and KPIs have to be taken into account, such as traffic, conversions and ROI.
- Websites have to be more usable and social in nature to stay competitive in SERPs.
- You have to embrace universal search and add other media types than text.
- Local SEO is the only SEO many businesses can go after, while for others it’s a new way of getting additional exposure.
- Like it or not, you have to pay Google “to get your organic ranking back”, whether by ads or shopping search results.
- You need to offer many ways to reach you, both via Google and social media. Organic results are not enough anymore.
- You have to step up your SEO efforts or increase your SEO budget. SEO isn’t simple anymore, if it ever was. Now there are so many things to consider that only full time specialists can deal with it correctly.
Any other recent or significant SERP changes I haven’t mentioned? Any other ideas on how to tackle these massive changes? Please add the in the comment section!
* CC image by SomeDriftwood.
Good post. I think the worst part (or best, for those who keep up to date) is that so many self-proclaimed SEOs haven’t the slightest clue about them, and still cling to their outdated, obsolete ways of doing things.
Yes indeed wat. I have the impression that many people who practice SEO are very conservative. They use a few techniques they have succeeded with a few years ago forever.
Excellent post Tad. It can’t be stressed enough that keeping up to date on the latest changes is imperative if you want to increase your visibility. Thanks for the great insight!
Tad,
Thanks so much for this well thought out list of resources. As someone who wears many hats from SEO to social media strategist, analyst, etc, I need all the help I can get to stay up to date. And you are so right…one needs to be a full time expert in just ONE thing to keep up with all of it and do it correctly. I’ve been saying that for two years to the powers at be at my company!
Guess I have some heavy reading reading tonight!
Once again thanks!
Debbi: Thank you for the kind feedback! What other new developments are you interested in? I’m always open to suggestions!
Lisa: That’s true. Just a few years ago I tried to keep up with the changes on all fronts, blogging, social media and SEO. Nowadays I focus on SEO mostly as the day has only 24h.
Excellent article. Having read a number now I find yours very concise. What do you think about this from the perspective of the consumer?
When Google became the search engine of choice for so many it did so for certain reasons which I won’t bother debating. It’s the reason products develop into market leaders. SEO’s work toward a goal of ensuring their content is at or near the top of all that other organic content. Somewhere along the timeline of changes there is a point where the maximum number of users of that service will peak. At that peak the balance is right between organic and non-organic results and people can find what they want without too many mouse miles.
Google’s algorithm for giving an insatiable public what they think the public want in terms of search results may yet backfire via greed. That thing that’s bringing economies down all over the globe, and people are wise to it.
People are not stupid in the main and will sense that things are changing and what once attracted them to Google may not any more and so it’s position may yet be being slowly eroded.
The question is at what point do customers switch to something else and what will be the trigger for the potential exodus? What would a viable alternative?
Their product is in danger of becoming exclusively paid results, more and more paid results. Click-ability with a price attached with profits for Google and its shareholders. Will the public wise up they are being spoon fed and start to switch? Have Google started on the slope of their own demise?
As page 1 seems to be more and more paid links it doesn’t take much to get below the fold – a quick scroll and maybe a click to page 2. However, how many will be bothered with this and start to look for another mainstay alternative?
Interested in what you think. To me if Google ceases to be what it was it will decline as people look for alternatives. Not all changes are improvements and I don’t see the changes since your article and today being improvements for the consumer.
dear sir
how to add menu in serp result………………………………
So much for Google pushing SEO firms out of business. Companies are going to need a good SEO firm to keep up with all the new signals that search engines are adopting.
I don’t think than any updates to Google will run SEO agencies out of business, they adapt to the updates and will still get results for their clients. As long as you don’t break the rules then a good SEO campaign is worth paying for.