2018 has been an eventful year for the SEO industry.
by Steven van Vessum at Search Engine Journal
1. This Year’s Google Updates Were Unparalleled (And No One Really Knows What Changed)
Search engines have been rolling out updates since the early days of the industry— nothing new there.
We’ve seen big updates such as the Panda and Penguin updates, which had a massive impact.
And yet still, the frequency and complexity of the Google algorithm updates we’ve seen this year are unparalleled.
2. It’s Google’s World – We Just Live in It
Everyday Google dictates the kind of SERP we see, and what it contains.
And we have to deal with that.
We’re all just test subjects in Google’s massive, continuously updating tests.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
3. Google’s Mobile-First Index Hasn’t Had Much of an Impact (Yet)
Over the course of the year [while content was the ruler of the land], the mobile-first index rolled out, and… actually nothing much happened.
Back in November 2016, Google said they’d roll out the mobile-first index slowly and monitor its impact closely —and that has turned out to be the case.
Even though the mobile-first index shift only changed how they gather their data, not how they rank sites, I still expected to see a lot more fluctuations.
4. SEO Pros Are Creatures of Habit & Dislike Change
Even though we’re part of a fast-moving industry, many SEO professionals are creatures of habit who dislike change.
They don’t like to change how they audit websites, the way they report, the tools they use, and so on.
I know, SEO pros are human, too — and humans generally don’t like change.
But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to innovate.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
5. DuckDuckGo’s Growth Has Picked Up, by a Lot
While they’re still a small player in the world of search engines, DuckDuckGo’s growth has surprisingly picked up by a lot.
As of November 26, they’re processing 33.6 million direct queries per day, compared to 19.1 million a year before.
6. Search Intent Is Extremely Important
I think a lot of the Google updates we’ve seen recently help Google serve the right results for the right search intent.
Google has loads of user data, and they’re continuously testing whether searchers are happy with the results that they’re shown.
Never before has search intent been as important as it is now.
7. Google’s Far from Perfect
Google employs the smartest engineers and they’re using the most advanced algorithms to determine:
- What your content is about.
- What their users’ search intent is.
- What results satisfy people’s complicated search queries.
- And much more.
So, What Does 2019 Have in Store for Us?
Obviously, for the foreseeable future, Google will keep on dominating the lives of us SEOs. They’ll try to become even more dominant, possibly by leveraging AMPand the WordPress partnership.
This article was borrowed from Search Engine Journal. To read the full article, click here!
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Everything we do in business is surrounded by the messages that we put out, however, most of us — if not all of us — did not get into business to write about it. I’m William Dickinson, owner of Cortex Marketing and I specialize in creating compelling content and engaging marketing when business owners find it difficult to create it themselves.
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