The deconstruction of search engine rank into those two main components made SEO more approachable to marketers of all company sizes. (Incidentally, it also led to nefarious practices of keyword stuffing, link planting, and more than a little gaming of the Google system).
Over the years, with updates like Panda and Penguin, Google has made some changes targeted at countering black-hat SEO. Changes to its algorithm in recent months, though, have taken on a different nature and seem to indicate a more momentous shift in search as a whole.
While keywords and inbound links will always be important, as we examine these recent trends, it seems as though in the future, they won't stand alone as primary factors in your website's search rank.
Predicting the future is always a dangerous and pride-threatening venture, but I'm willing to take a stab at it for a few reasons:
- I'm picking it up from people far better at this than I, and
- If history has shown us anything, it's that sometimes,things don't just turn out as you thought, and the world spins on.
But the biggest reason I'm pretty confident in these? In the words of science fiction writer William Gibson: "The future is already here -- it's just not evenly distributed yet."
Below are a few early signs of how we can expect SEO to evolve in the coming years. You can also check out my thoughts on the future of SEO in this SlideShare!
Mobile Search Will Continue to Rise
According to Google, 61% of mobile searchers who land on non-optimized site will immediately leave the site and return to Google to find one that is more readable.
"Smartphone users are a significant and fast-growing segment of internet users, and at Google, we want them to experience the full richness of the web," explained Yoshikiyo Kato, software engineer at Google. For that reason, changes went into effect this summer that will start to prioritize mobile-optimized sites on search results for users on such devices.
Of course, this means the inverse will also occur: Sites that might otherwise have ranked highly based on keywords and inbound links will be demoted in search rank if they're not properly optimized for mobile.
If this focus on mobile search is an early signal of the future, it's also true that that it's not evenly distributed yet. According to the Pure Oxygen Mobile Report, two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies risk ranking downgrades in Google for not serving mobile versions of indexed pages. For sites with mobile counterparts, Google's biggest concern is faulty redirects
So how do you position yourself for this evolution? Google recommends building your website using responsive design for your next website redesign. Responsive design is an approach which automatically repackages website content to fit the device viewing it. (HubSpot uses responsive design for our website, landing page, and blog software). Separate mobile sites are also acceptable but have to be set up properly. Google will penalize separate mobile sites that redirect searchers to a mobile homepage if their desired search result directed them to a sub-page.
Therefore, the next time you redesign you website or blog, make sure that responsive design and mobile search are part of the discussion.
Social Will Become More Central to Authority
When I first learned SEO, the only way to increase your search authority was to write the sort of content that was so good it got picked up and linked to by other websites. In fact, earning inbound links was one of the core tenets of inbound marketing. And that hasn't changed, but the definition of what makes a good inbound link is starting to. Let me explain.
A few years ago, the best inbound link you could get was from a site with a lot of authority itself. A link from the Wall Street Journal or a government website, for example, was of incredibly high value. That value hasn't changed, but there are other ways now to achieve an authoritative link.
Social media has enabled people to get content and product suggestions directly from friends and, according to Nielsen Research, 92% of consumers worldwide trust recommendations from friends and family more completely. Search engines, as a result, have begun to shift to factor a searcher's social connections into their results. Here's Google's explanation of how they do it.
This change has come piece by piece over the last few years, and it's reasonable to assume that the social connections of content authors and searchers will continue to rise as an influencer in the future. Here's are a few big milestones so far:
- December 2010: "Google and Bing Confirm that Facebook and Twitter Influence SEO."
- June 2011: Google announced support of the authorship tag (Rel="author") to connect authors to their content (and Google+ accounts) across the web.
- 2013: Studies from Moz andSearch Metrics find high correlations between search results and social shares (particularly Google +1s). Google's Matt Cutts is very clear to underscore that correlation does not equal causation, but in this case, correlation might be enough. Sites with a lot of social shares also tend to be sites with high search rankings, and that's because they're an indicator of the virality and number of inbound links generated by the content.
The good news about this change is -- even as social continues to grow as an influence SEO -- your existing social media strategy should naturally work with the change to position your posts to do well. If you're concerned about your social search optimization, here'sa post with a more in-depth explanation and action steps you can take to position yourself well.
Search Engines Will Get Better at Understanding Intent
Traditional SEO has been all about keywords. In fact, we've always recommended frontloading your titles and URLs with the keywords used in your content. This fall, however,Google introduced its Hummingbird algorithm, its first major algorithm update since the 2009 "Caffeine" update and a significant shift in Google's approach.
The main goal of the new algorithm is to make Google far better at interpreting "conversational" language and understanding the intent of a given search rather than just a series of keywords. As the announcement said:
"The main focus was that the new algorithm allows Google to more quickly parse full questions (as opposed to parsing searches word-by-word), and to identify and rank answers to those questions from the content they’ve indexed."
This means searches like "What's the best reviewed contractor near my home?" will factor in the full statement and pull from reviews and maps in addition to just keywords. This shift is the result of changing user behavior.
Over the years, searchers have started to type questions directly into Google rather than search terms. Here's a screenshot of the rise in popularity of the search terms "How do I" and "How do you" over the last few years.
In the future, I expect the role of natural or conversational language to play an even bigger part in search engine optimization. This move toward search intent is actually a really good thing for inbound marketers whose core strategy involves creating useful content aimed at answering user questions.
Instead of thinking about keywords,think about the questions someone would ask to find your company online and create content around that.
Search Engines Will Get Better At Understanding Context
In addition to understanding intent, search engines are also getting better at understanding the context under which you are conducting the search. Nowhere is this more evident than in the spread of localized search and the early use of Google Now.
Let's start with localized search:
- Approximately 3 billion search queries contain local terms every month. (Source: comScore)
- 70% of online searchers will use local search to find offline businesses. (Source: Kelsey Group)
- 30% of Google searches are for local information. (Source: HubSpot via Google)
As a result, Google and other search engines have made it easier to find local information. Back in August, my colleague Rebecca Churt published this really helpful piece on how to dominate local search. Chief among her recommendations was to go create a Google+ account for your business. In addition, you can check how you are listed across different local listings at getlisted.org -- a free service from Moz.
Google Now is even more fascinating, as it integrates a number of elements to better understand and respond to the context of a given search. Wikipedia explains it well: "Google Now uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services. Along with answering user-initiated queries, Google Now passively delivers information to the user that it predicts they will want, based on their search habits."
So, as you're headed to the airport, Google Now will tell you things like travel time and good restaurants at your destination. The implications for brick-and-mortar businesses are significant, but even online businesses will see an individual's context play a bigger role in user-initiated inquiries.
What does this mean for marketers? For starters, it means that going forward, personalization and optimization should be considered in the same breath. As users start to see more and more of their world adapt to their history and interests, their expectations of companies will follow.
You've got time, of course, but it's worth brainstorming now how a visitor's context will affect their experience on your site. How does their history with your company define their interests? What role does their industry or job title play in the content they choose to consume?
All of this will increasingly become key to marketing effectively.
Fortune-telling is more fun with a crowd. How do you expect SEO to evolve over the next few years? What is your company doing to evolve with it?
Inbound Marketing Feed
Mike Wise
Thanks so much for the distillation and interpretation. Question: Isn't this further evidence that Google is moving towards "Social Search"? If so, isn't "Engagement" the operative essential with regard to Web properties and the Content therein? And lastly, isn't creating content that is both engaging and long-tail keyword or keyphrase optimized much more difficult than simply keyword-rich content?
PS. Nice slideshare. Thanks. Video?
Sarah Quinlan
Really interesting article thanks. So much is changing and so quickly - mobile, local, personalisation, contextualisation etc etc it's pretty tricky for small businesses to keep up with it all. This time last year 16% of my website traffic came via mobile, now it's over 40%. So you have to produce good quality content, then get it out there through various social media to get noticed, and then engage with your sm followers to get it liked/retweeted/+'d. I agree that all this is generally beneficial for the consumer, but only if small business can keep up otherwise the results will be dominated by the larger, better resourced players, and they're not always what consumers want.
Thomas Lartin
So instead of just keywords google is beginning to become smart of enough to know the intentions of the searcher. I am guessing this makes quality content even more important.
Viorel
It is very truth that keywords and inboud links "won't stand alone as primary factors in your website's search rank" in the future. Google made a lot of changes lately, and many of those traditional SEO factors are no longer so important as they use to be. Also, there are other factors that gained relevance and I believe some of those changes are very good. We will not find keyword stuffed content on first places, but quality content, social factors will be more relevant, etc... I hope this is the beginning of something good ...
Nithin Rao
Great and timely article!
And with keyword data becoming a "google secret", contextual content that helps folks (and they share it, like it and link it...) seems to be the only way (and the right way) to become a go to website for products or services. My two cents...
Colin Gilchrist
Meghan, thanks for sharing. I've found this an invaluable update.
christos Stamos
Very interesting article. I have already lost on website from the penguin algorithm. I need more info about SEO. Thanks
Susan
This is a really great article - on the verge of information overload though. I'm going to make a bullet list summary.
Ryan
Great list here Meghan! I've heard whispers of some of these for a while but its good to have someone put it all together.
Ruoaa
I`m happy i found this , thanks Meghan !
Belinda Summers
Thanks for the interesting slide It’s not just our keywords and content that affect search engine optimization anymore but even the engagement of audience and involvement of the many.
Pradeep
Nice post and well explained. Future lies in Social + Conversation. Writing great quality contents that more and more people would like to share will make all the difference in the future.
Thanks
Neethu Thomas
Great article and very informative..!!!
Andrij Harasewych
Is there a reason a bunch of this is plagiarized from http://curatebee.com.au/uncategorized/2013-what-can-we-expect/
Andrij Harasewych
I mean, it's VERY shocking to be coming from the MARKETING MANAGER for Hubspot. I really hope you have a good reason for this, or if you can prove you originally wrote it...
"In the future, I expect the role of natural or conversational language to play an even bigger part in search engine optimization. This move toward search intent is actually a really good thing for inbound marketers whose core strategy involves creating useful content aimed at answering user questions." is just one example of the multitude of phrases/paragraphs stolen from curatebee.com.au/uncategorized/2013-what-can-we-expect/
Pat
Hi Andrij,
As an employee of Curate Bee, I'd like to address the comments you've made above, and state that there is no ground for accusing Meghan for plagiarising content. There are no similarities between her blog post and the blog posted on our website in December 2012 to suggest 'content stealing'. I appreciate you taking the time to contact us about this, and rest assured, there is nothing to worry about as while both blog posts are in the space of content marketing there is very little to suggest any form of plagiarism. Meghan, a fantastic read above, and I wish you all the best. Apologies for any misunderstandings that may have been caused.
Meghan Anderson
Thank you all for the comments.
Pat - Thank you for responding to Andrij's comment. I really appreciate it. Curate Bee looks like a good blog and is worth a read for anyone interested in similar content. To second what you said, I didn't pull from that post for this content and hadn't seen it before writing this. These thoughts on where SEO is headed are held fairly broadly. As mentioned above, I learned a lot of this from great posts by Jenny Halaz and Shari Thurow. Also worth a read: http://searchengineland.com/eating-my-keywords-173936 http://searchengineland.com/seo-smackdown-round-2-old-vs-new-search-engine-optimization-145825 Mike - Thanks for the comment, in regards to your questions, I think they're both well founded. I think creating good content for questions can be harder, but it can also be more natural to write to a question than to write to get a set of keywords in.
Jamie
Andrij,
The hubspot piece is actually embedded on the http://curatebee.com.au site in the 'Marketing from around the web' feed section. Jamie
Mike Wise
Thanks for the response @meghkeaney. Agreed.
Btw, and I'm sure it's on the HubSpot enhancement list - New Commenting Tool? :-)
Traffic Charger
In upcoming days, Google will down fall ranking of all website that is front-loading title, description and URL with keywords.
Aaditya
Thanks for sharing your nice blog. I really enjoy it. I put this link to my site here so other people can read it, came across your blog when I was searching kissmetrics blog I found the some info that I found to be quite useful.
Andrij
I apologize for the misunderstanding. Should have taken a closer look - Moderating the Social Media Strategy community on G+ can get tough with over 60,000 members now - and we do get plagiarism from time to time - so I try to call it out when I can, but this was the first misfire since I've started.
I am very sorry about that. Feel free to delete my original comments accusing you of this. Or leave them up - it's fine by me. :)
Nicole Tongue
I agree with Thomas and am THRILLED at the prospect that yes . . . finally . . . maybe Google is going to truly focus on good content. So often I have plugged in words searching for something and getting entirely something else. I had written an article regarding this at http://everythingbutthesink.org/2013/09/time-seo-revolution-web-user-education/.
It will be so much more effective now that Google is appreciating the consumers point of view in real language versus robotic jargon. We might finally be onto something. Great read btw!
Dan Carter
SEO was always a process of gaming the system as a result of which many deserving sites were outranked by lesser ones and maybe Spam ones to say the least. This is a great article and i would try to work around this to get ranked in search engines.