Let's start at the very beginning today: With the change in the Internet in the 21st century, the hour of birth of search engine optimization (SEO) was initiated. Because where previously it was largely about informative research on various topics, the Internet was now increasingly used for product searches and thus for commercial purposes.
Marketing experts also knew how to use this phenomenon. Internet pages were adapted to the needs of the various users and the content of the pages was given specific keywords and optimized in order to ensure a stronger presence in search engines. However, the development did not stop at this point. New Google updates (e.g. Panda or Penguin), changes in user behavior and the demands on SEO are constantly changing.
On the occasion of the last Searchmetrics Summit, which took place in Berlin on November 11th, 2017, we would like to introduce you to the latest trends that have attracted attention there, because: Even if improving content and rankings is still a central topic , in the future, a strong focus must be placed on generating added value for customers.
1. International trends and industry-related ranking factors
First of all, it is important to understand that users in different countries may deal very differently with the Internet and with it the search engines. One example of this is Volker Schmid, CEO of Searchmetrics: If two people, one in the USA and one in Germany, are looking for a cordless screwdriver, the search terms will be different for cultural reasons. While the American is looking for the “best cordless cordless screwdriver”, the German just types in “cordless cordless screwdriver”. The American simply wants to find the best deal, while the German first wants to get an overview of the various devices.
These culturally determined differences must therefore be taken into account in future optimization in order to be able to provide users with the best possible result.
But not only cultural differences play a role here. It is just as important to consider the needs and thus the ranking factors of the different industries. So it goes without saying that the ranking factors in the travel industry differ significantly from those of financial service providers or the news industry. And only those who adapt to the needs of their industry will be able to play a leading role in the future.
2. Adaptability and speed as central factors in SEO
Due to the constant further developments, it is particularly important for SEO professionals to remain adaptable. In addition, the speed of this adaptation also plays an important role, because only those who keep an eye on the latest trends and developments and can react to them will remain attractive to consumers.
In the future, the focus will no longer only be on the content, but also the needs and behavior of the users have to be taken into account even more. Accordingly, not only keywords should be used that provide the customer with an "entry point" to the respective page, but also approaches that positively influence his further behavior on the page. Because a customer will not necessarily buy something just because he (deliberately and or unintentionally) lands on a page.
So you have to ask yourself on the one hand what needs a customer has and on the other hand consider how and in which direction these can be directed.
According to Marcus Tober (founder and CTO of Searchmetrics), one way of covering the phases of the customer journey (stages from visiting the site to purchasing) is to use holistic sites. These also enable operators to “reduce” the content on a domain without losing any essential content. Because a reduction in complexity often leads to an improvement in the ranking.
But how can you react as quickly as possible to the latest trends and developments?
One approach here is certainly the use of product texts that are written with the help of artificial intelligence, as is already the case with Adidas, for example. Since many of the texts only stay online for a few months, according to Amory Kelie (Global Director Organic Traffic Generation Adidas), working with copywriters would be far too time-consuming. The artificial intelligence takes over 95% of the work, while the team ultimately only takes on the optimization of the product texts.
Kelie also relies on speed in order to always be at the top of the ranking, the company successfully revised some facets of the website in a very short time (HTTPS implementation, platform change, responsive update, code revision, redesign), but these are immense Speeding up such large revisions also carries a degree of risk to be considered. Particular sensitivity and caution are required when migrating content. Because even if many companies have so far postponed a migration to the holiday season (problems that arise should be resolved before the vast majority notice them), the cooperation and support of the entire team is required in such a large project.
3. The Voice Search Challenge
A particular challenge will arise in the future from the increasingly widespread voice search. Because while users enter individual keywords when searching via search engines, they ask formulated questions here. In plain language, this means that in the future, so-called W-questions (what, why, etc.) will have to be dealt with more intensively in texts and not, as before, exclusively on the qualitative use of keywords.
In addition, the areas of “Marketing” and “Advertising” have been assigned a new position. Because with voice search, the artificial intelligence decides which offers the user is shown. The "classic" marketing funnels lose their meaning in such a scenario and information that is important for decision-making is no longer based on the presentation of the company at the moment of the search, but on the presentation in the past. How exactly these challenges can be solved remains to be seen.
4. Conclusion
The fact is: Search engine optimization is definitely not coming to an end. On the contrary, how do you say so beautifully? "People believed dead live longer". Answering users' search queries with as high-quality search results as possible will continue to be of great importance in the future.
Rather, there will be a restructuring of classic search engine optimization, in the course of which it will become more “diversified”. Where traditional SEO has so far been mainly of a technical nature for many website operators, the added value for users will become more and more important in the future (keyword machine learning). Voice search and mobile first in particular will have an impact on future developments (which cannot yet be fully assessed). We will of course keep you up to date on this exciting topic!