SEO has changed significantly in 2016, and many in the industry have missed it or did not notice that. Here I concentrate for you some of the last changes and trends in the field of search engine optimization in the past year and for the coming year of 2017. Some of what you’ll read about here is currently being tested and mostly available in large TLDs such as Google, but it’s important to see where things are heading and prepare yourself for the future.
The Death of Brands
Google’s brands favoring is slowly dying. Many studies show that branding doesn’t really bothers the search engine users as much as it bothers marketers, and for this reason, search engines focus gradually moving to products and services. Of course, the increasing use of Mobile and how people search for services and products online is leading this trend naturally. Google and other search engines perform many tests in recent weeks on this issue which will become active very soon (I've seen a lot of tests in real time on this matter, which is the direction that all search engines are going to).
Google will begin to push products on Google maps and on other of its services. Reviews and ratings scores gradually changed the 5 stars ratings to percentage rating, and many times presents products catalogs of companies straight from its organic search results (read more about it here)
My recommendation is to stop focusing on abstract things like branding and begin to focus on tangible things like products and services. You need to think less about time spent on page, bounce rate and other false parameters, and focus on conversions. At the end of the day, we're here to make money and sell products and services, and this is what your potential customers are looking for. In the forthcoming years, Google's biggest rivals in the field of commerce will be Amazon and Alibaba, and if you'll fail to provide a smooth buying funnel for your potential customers, they'll just move to your neighbors.
AMP and A4A
There have been several studies that prove that using the AMP platform is no longer an option but a necessity. In recent months Google carried out a gradual transition from strictly blue links search results to turnstiles based imagery, and rich media increasingly dominate the search results. The A4A pages publishing system for AMP, uploads in less than a second, and is one more reason to start using AMP as soon as possible (read more about it here).
Live updates and real time
Live Blogs - Have you ever seen a blog that is being updated every few seconds or minutes? For example, during the Brexit day, many news sites in the UK showed live streamed video and live entries were updated every few minutes. Google promotes such sites in search results with a LIVE red tag. Facebook are doing something similar with a red tag on their own live Streams.
Check out this example of live blog tweets and comments in real time - this page covers so many parameters within Google's algorithm of organic search (content-richness, multimedia, relevance, freshness, etc.) and will feed the search monster's appetite to the point it screams for more.
Live video - although not new, I have to mention that live video is really a great thing. Of course Youtube are leading this phenomenon, then Twitch and Facebook. In addition there is also a Amazon Live, and in-the-know SEOs know for a long time that live stramed Youtube videos are being favored by Google's and Youtube search results.
Live Discussions - We'll be able send real time messages and announcements on behalf of our company or business straight to the search results, and this will increase conversion rate and other factors as well. Here are a couple of examples - real-time updates on TV broadcasts, live discussions on sports stars' search results.
The semantic search progression
Structured data - The graph panels are also changing within search engines (semantic panels on the right side and top of search results), and now you can add additional content and expansion to these panels, which will allow you to take control of almost all of the upper half of the 1st page. This is also available in other search engines such as Bing, and Baidu. This post contains a nice breakdown of what you can add to graph panel of Google.
Until now, people were the most important identity in the eyes of search engines, but from now on, as stated in the beginning of this post, they are starting to focus more and more on products and services, which is also the direction in which all of Google's semantic engine is going to. To illustrate this, I can introduce myself under some categories of services and / or products, for example:
- Yoav Bernstein
- 41-year-old
- SEO Expert
- Reputation Management Expert
- http://Quora.com participant
There is also a broader set of options for companies and businesses - In Google for business, now businesses can register several departments for their business, rather than a general business registration which was the only option up until now. In addition, the semantic panels gradually take the place of the Google Maps' search results, so the trend is clear.
Offline
The fusion between the online and the offline worlds is growing. Google has added the option to use some of its services offline, for example with its automatic translation service, Google now allows the use of several languages in an offline mode. In addition, offline activity can be supported by online activity in many aspects, for example, an online business can arrange an offline event to its members and so on.
To sum things up:
- Stop focusing on brands and begin to concentrate on products and services.
- Start using AMP.
- Everything is now LIVE.
- The semantic engine moves its focus to products and services as well, so upgrade all of your semantic data in accordance with Google's graph.
- Perform offline activities to support your online activity and vice versa.
Good luck with your online marketing in 2017 and have a great new year!
