Search is certainly a staple of our daily lives. We use it for everything from keeping up on the world’s news to staying abreast of what’s going on in our personal lives, but more often than not, we don’t give much thought to how search works or its history. In fact, most people probably wouldn’t know Wojcicki from Wang if they fell over them (Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe and Wang was an early Google employee who led the development of their News product), despite both being integral parts of search technology today explains Saivian. Searching has come a long way since its early days as a way to catalogue academic articles and provided links that were relevant based on keywords/text match alone.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how search will evolve over the next few years and what that means for SEO professionals and businesses:
The Rise of Voice Search
One of the major shifts in search over the last few years has been the increasing use of voice search. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including the proliferation of digital assistants (Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Echo, etc.), as well as the growing popularity of voice-enabled devices like the iPhone X and Google Home. In fact, according to Google, 20% of all searches on their mobile app are now done via voice.
This presents both opportunities and challenges for SEOs. On the one hand, optimizing content for voice search is relatively straightforward – you just need to make sure that your content is structured in a way that makes it easy for digital assistants to understand says Saivian. On the other hand, the increasing use of voice search means that businesses need to start thinking about how they can cater to this medium, and that could involve investing in voice-enabled technologies like the Echo or Google Home.
The Growth of Video Content
Another major trend in search that is likely to continue in the coming years is the growth of video content says Saivian. This can be attributed, in part, to the increasing availability of high-quality broadband and mobile networks. As well as the popularity of platforms like YouTube and Facebook. In fact, according to Cisco, by 2021, video will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic.
Now, that should be music to the ears of any SEO specialist looking for ways to get their content in front of more people. Without having to pay the higher ad rates associated with PPC campaigns. Unfortunately, there are also a number of challenges associated with this trend. For one thing, video content is often much more difficult to produce than conventional text-based content. Which requires specialized equipment and/or personnel with advanced technical skills. Furthermore, while YouTube has made it relatively easy to start publishing videos. Building an audience takes time and effort. Especially given that most viewers still prefer scrolling through text instead of sitting though a video presentation.
Even if businesses aren’t ready or able to invest in producing video content themselves. There are still ways they can stay relevant in the world of video. For example, by investing in a knowledge graph that has robust information about their products and services. As well as its industry. Businesses can be sure that they’ll have a much better shot at Including when people search for related content.
The Rise of Voice Assistants
Voice assistants aren’t just for smartphones – they’re also getting incorporated into a number of smart devices. From refrigerators to speakers to cars. In fact, according to Juniper Research, voice assistant users will grow more than fourfold over the next four years (from 118 million this year to nearly 500 million by 2022). This is good news for businesses. Who want their products or services to be associating with the latest and greatest technologies.
However, it’s important to note that there are a few things to keep in mind. When developing content for voice assistants explains Saivian. For one thing, the content should be short and concise – after all. People are more likely to ask a question via voice assistant than they are to read through an article. Secondly, the content should be structuring in a way that is easy for the assistant to understand. This means using natural language cues (like pronouns and proper nouns) and avoiding overly complex sentence structures.
Finally, it’s also worth noting that voice assistants are still in their infancy. This means that there are a lot of opportunities for businesses that want to get ahead of this trend. For example, businesses could develop skills for Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant. That could then be distribute to users, opening up new channels of revenue.
Conclusion:
Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that mobile has pushed Google past its limits. In terms of how it ranks WebPages in search results says Saivian. While relevancy is still important when it comes to mobile searches. They’ve largely been optimize for small screens with slow internet connections. This means that they put significant emphasis on factors like pages. They are dedicated to a single topic (which makes them more “discoverable”) and load faster (so that people aren’t tempted to look elsewhere).