SEO has evolved significantly from its early days of on-page optimization, building backlinks, and creating “relevant” content. Current trends indicate that SEO is becoming a more comprehensive strategy, which goes beyond mere link-building or content marketing.
Today’s SEO practices emphasize brand building and influencing search queries themselves, rather than simply starting with a list of keywords and creating content around them. While links, keywords, content, and site optimization are still fundamental components, the overarching pillars of SEO are changing. Let’s explore these key pillars.
1. RankBrain
RankBrain is the third most significant ranking factor in Google’s algorithm and is also one of the most misunderstood. Speculations abound, but what is clear is that Google has made strides in using machine learning to enhance their search algorithm.
Notably, RankBrain does not act on your backlink profile, content quality, or click-through rate. It primarily helps the algorithm better interpret queries and match them with relevant page content. As Google continues to reduce human intervention in its processes, RankBrain’s importance is expected to grow. Currently, RankBrain processes every single Google search query.
However, optimizing specifically for RankBrain is not possible, as confirmed by Gary Illyes at SMX Advanced.
2. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
In February 2016, Google integrated results from its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project into its search results. Today, Google has 150 million indexed AMP documents. Despite the growing adoption of AMP, many users still do not recognize its significance. For instance, an informal survey revealed that only three out of 44 respondents could correctly identify what the AMP icon in search results stood for.
Nevertheless, AMP is here to stay. Google aims to enhance the mobile web experience, making it comparable to native apps while remaining relevant in an increasingly mobile-centric world.
3. The Knowledge Graph & Rich Answers
Launched in 2012, Google’s Knowledge Graph is part of its mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.” The Knowledge Graph gathers semantic-search information from various sources, including Wikidata, Wikipedia, and the CIA World Factbook, to enhance search results.
Knowledge graph elements often appear as boxes with structured information and links to authoritative sources. The number of queries displaying rich answers, such as featured snippets and knowledge panels, continues to grow. Managing brand impressions and influencing queries is becoming increasingly significant for marketers.
4. Real-Time, Integrated Penalty Filters
Google’s Penguin update is now a real-time signal processed within the search algorithm, refreshing data on your pages every time they are crawled and re-indexed. Panda has also been integrated into the main algorithm. These updates indicate that Google is making spam fighting a central, automated function of serving search results.
This is beneficial for website owners, as cleaning up spammy backlinks and improving content quality will yield quicker results.
Conclusion
Google’s future focus includes machine learning, understanding semantics, connections and patterns, and enhancing user experience. While SEO remains closely tied to content marketing, Google’s advancements like the Knowledge Graph, rich answers, RankBrain, and AMP aim to provide more timely and relevant search results. Integrated penalties ensure the quality of these results.
SEO has a promising future. Feel free to discuss these trends with me on Twitter.
