Google Rolled Out a Spam Update Is Your Website Affected?

Google Rolled Out a Spam Update: Is Your Website Affected?

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

It’s been a tumultuous few months for the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Google made significant changes to its algorithm, and many websites were negatively impacted. Most notably, sites that had previously ranked well for specific keywords were now falling in rankings due to these changes.

But there are also other ways this update has affected sites and how you can get your website back on track if it was affected by the latest Google update. In this post, we’ll cover what happened with the October 2022 updates and what it means for your business.

October 2022 Updates

You may have heard a lot about Google’s October updates, which rolled out recently. These updates are relatively common and usually occur every few months or so. They are made to ensure that Google provides the best search results for their users and constantly refine how they rank websites.

This update was more of a spam-reduction update than anything else, though, so if you’re running into issues with your website rankings after this update, then we’d recommend doing a few fixes.

The search engine giant will seek to lower the rank of websites that “trick” users into providing personal information or installing malware. These are phishing scams and support bad actors on the web. When these sites get ranked high on Google, users get made and move to other search engines instead.

To put it simply – spam is bad for Google’s business.

How Will This Affect Your Website?

If your website is affected by this recent Google update, it may be time to take action. The good news is that your site will not be deleted entirely from the search results (unless you are spamming).

Instead, it will likely have a lower rank or may even appear lower in the search results pages than before. Google has said it will continue to work on improving its algorithms in order to detect and penalize websites that violate its rules and guidelines.

You should be fine if you provide quality content directly related to your purpose that doesn’t seek to trick users.

Why Google Wants to Reduce Spam

Google has been working hard to improve the quality of search results and reduce spam over the last few years. It wants to give users the best results, so it’s constantly testing new ways to achieve this.

The company has taken several steps in this direction:

-Improving its algorithm

-Removing low-quality websites from their index

-Removing bad ads from its platform

Google didn’t release specific information as to link baiting or what it defines as spam. However, most SEO pros agree upon two critical areas: thin sites and keyword stuffers.

Thin sites don’t have the unique content users want. They only slightly adhere to SEO practices and generally do not offer insights.

Keyword stuffing is filling a website with tags and meta information that repeats the same keywords or phrases to rank high. This is a flawed strategy, as most search engines will dock your rank if you do this.

What You Should Do

If you have yet to notice the update, that doesn’t mean your website is not affected by it. This update’s roll-out is gradual; not everyone will see it immediately.

You can use a tool like MozBar to check if your website is affected by the Google spam update or not.

If you want to keep your traffic steady and consistent, make sure to run SEO audits regularly (we recommend every 3 months) and fix any issues that may cause problems on search engines, such as:

-Duplicate content

-Broken links (404 error pages)

-Broken image links

The Google update is a big deal, but only some of your website’s traffic will be affected. It’s important to know if your site is being hit by this spam update so you can take steps to correct any issues before they get worse.

Our team at Griffon Webstudios can help you avoid getting hit by the recent Google Spam Update. We have SEO experts on staff who understand the nuance of rebuilding or fixing your site, so it is more compliant with Google. Let’s schedule a time to talk about how our professional team can elevate your web presence.

Google has announced helpful content update. What's new?

Google has announced “helpful content update”. What’s new?

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

On August 25, 2022, Google released a new update to its massive search engine algorithm. In this new edition, the focus of content marketing has changed from information explicitly written for search engines to a “people first” kind of slant. If you want to grow in search engine results, you need to cater your content to better serve the average consumer.

This update rollout aims to boost the rankings of engaging and well-written content designed for human consumption instead of helping those with blog posts that seem stuffed with keywords and intended for web crawlers.

The “helpful content update” will help the average search find highly relevant, high-quality content that speaks directly to their needs. So how do you change your content to adapt to this new update from Google?

1. Stick to the Main Topic

You want to ensure you don’t stray too far from your main topic. If a reader comes to your blog or website looking for information on one thing and sees something completely unrelated, they may not return. Try to keep a universal brand identity on your site that involves your content marketing strategy.

2. Showcase Your First-Hand Knowledge

To overcome the challenge of not having enough content, you need to provide examples of your experience in the form of stories that demonstrate how you have solved a problem for a customer or solved an issue in your industry. These stories should include real-life examples and capture attention by showing readers how they can benefit from your expertise.

If a hunter gives advice on underwater basket weaving, you may sound inauthentic to Google’s new update.

3. Avoid Multiple Topics in a Single Site

If you’re creating a site that has multiple purposes and topics, then this is fine. For example, if you have a site where the main focus is selling products but also offers information about how to care for those products, then combining both topics into one site isn’t an issue.

However, if your entire purpose is to provide information on one topic or niche—which most people do—then combining multiple topics into one site won’t help with SEO and can hurt it in some cases.

4. Give Quality Answers to Questions

You’re going to want to provide the answer. But don’t just give a partial solution. You want to make sure that everything you write is relevant to the searcher’s question and that it can be verified by someone other than yourself (like an expert). Again, you are trying to build authority and trust.

5. Create an Engaging Experience

The most important piece of content you can publish is everything that supports your reader’s experience. From the title to the tags, images, and links, you want to provide an engaging experience where readers want to spend time on your site.

6. Avoid Unanswerable Questions

Giving a single response to how best to lose weight will not help. We all know there are multiple different methods that people of different beliefs, backgrounds, and body types can utilize to lose weight. Google doesn’t want definitive answers to open-ended questions. Instead, they want helpful content marketing designed to help users find the different information relative to who they are as a user.

7. Stay Updated with Other Updates

Google is constantly updating its search engine algorithms. In fact, it releases a new major update every year or two. You can find out more about these updates at Google’s official blog. You want to know if there is a future update that will affect your business.

Getting Proactive About Your Content Marketing

If your site is starting to downgrade in rankings, it could be because you are caught up in the new Google algorithm update. In that case, your best option is to find a team of professional SEO experts who understands how to reformat your content to better fit this new change.

That is where our team at Griffon Webstudios can help. We keep a close watch on any changes from Google and immediately integrate those changes into our own content as well as our clients. Schedule a consultation with our team today, and let’s help boost your search engine rank.

How to Make Search Engines Fall in Love with Your Website

How To Make Search Engines Fall In Love With Your Website

by Digital Marketing

One of the most reliable ways to increase your site’s ranking with popular search engines is to correctly set up the layout and website architecture. The goal is to make the website so easy to navigate that visitors experience little resistance to exploring deeper and finding relevant content related to their search.

If your website is just a collection of random ideas and not easily laid out, it makes it a lot harder to understand, leading to higher bounce rates and lower page ranking.

Here are some tips to help boost your website architecture and improve search ranking with platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Improve Your Navigation

Make your navigation the simplest thing in the world. Do you have a menu that clearly lays out where to find information on the website? Remember that today’s fast-paced visitor doesn’t want to overthink anything. They want to get directly to the information they need with as few barriers as possible.

This includes making your URL as simple as you can. This makes it easier to remember and more logical. If you sell black puppy shoes, maybe go with something like: www.mystore.com/petshoes/blackpuppyshoes.

The 3-Click Rule

This is the practice where critical information is no more than three clicks away whenever someone lands on your website. That forces you to consider how to get to the information as quickly as possible with as few steps in between. Implementing this rule naturally creates a more organized structure that search engines prefer, leading to improved search ranking.

Topics and Categories

Whenever possible, group things together into easily digestible topics and categories. Human beings naturally want to organize the things they see in the world, and when you make your website architecture reflect that desire, it becomes more engaging to view. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Think of an online shop that sells basketball accessories. You could have categories by the different sports teams in the United States or the function of similar items (shoes, balls, apparel, etc.). It is just a natural way to group things together that makes it easier to understand.

Sitemaps and Internal Linking

Search engines love sitemaps and internal linking. Most WordPress-based websites create a sitemap naturally. This is some form of website architecture that is easily crawlable and usually in HTML or XML format. It shows the pages on your website, how they are organized by topic, and the overall site structure as if it was a map of a large building.

When you combine a quality site map with internal linking, you boost the overall accessibility of your content. It gives everything context, which is why you see search engine results from a single domain with multiple subpages listed underneath them. Google wants to show users exactly what they want to search for, and they will provide more information about your site and boost ranking if you give them the context they need to make the experience better for visitors.

Need Some Help?

If all this information feels a little overwhelming, it’s okay. There are plenty of experts available to specialize in on-page SEO and finding ways to improve search ranking organically. We didn’t even talk about canonical tags using breadcrumbs or putting an internal search option on your website.

This is why we at Griffon Webstudios always suggest you seek outside help. Our expert team spent years crafting and formulating websites so they are easily credible by search engines and organically reach the top echelons of search results. Why not schedule a consultation with our team today and learn how we can boost your website architecture so when someone searches for anything related to your store, it pops up near the top. Reach out today, and let’s help your site get noticed.

The Ultimate Guide to Google Shopping Ads

The Ultimate Guide to Google Shopping Ads

by Digital Marketing

One of the most popular online sites for people to search for content and shopping is Google. It has a repository of millions of brands that showcase their products and services online, making it easier for you to go forth and purchase. However, as sellers, you need to understand what Google Shopping ads are involved with and what can be done to shape the online ads.

With that in mind, we’ve broken down Google Shopping ads so that you find it easier to go forth and create ads on the platform.

What are Google Shopping Ads?

Google Shopping ads include a slew of rich information so that the customer can receive everything they need before considering a purchase. We mean things like the product image, merchant name, price, and more by rich information. 

This information is collated and created using the data attributes taken about the product that can be entered. The report can be entered in the Merchant Center and shown to those already looking for the products you’re advertising.

Google-shopping-ads

The ad content can be easily customized based on your requirements, and you can set the pricing and budget that works best for you. The ads can also be measured easily, with the impact understood via advanced reporting and performance tools available on the backend. 

Advantages of Google Shopping Ads

Google Shopping makes the shopping experience much simpler and streamlined for its users. It comes with a slew of benefits that can make eCommerce shopping much simpler for users online:

Qualified traffic

With Google Shopping, you can receive more qualified traffic, similar to a normal Google Search Text ad. You’re only paying if someone clicks on your ads and the text ads are difficult because it needs to be super appealing within a few characters. You need to try and attract many qualified clicks via the site. You won’t have to pay for irrelevant clicks, and this is one of the biggest advantages.

When you have an eCommerce store, you need to ensure that you’re only paying for the clicks you want. When someone is searching for your product, they can see the product title, image, price, and other information such as shipping and promotional info. It also shows up next to other similar products.

This means that whenever someone clicks on a shopping ad, they’re at least a little interested. The information is presented to them upfront to take a properly thought-of decision before they purchase. 

Better UX for better conversion rates

The Google Shopping user experience is much more streamlined than the regular search ads. Whenever a person clicks on the shopping ad, they are taken straight to the product page. They don’t have to click and navigate their way around the website for what they’re looking for. The process is made simpler, and this can help in the overall streamline of the conversion process. 

By being taken straight to the product page, users can enjoy lesser clicks to the point of sale, which means a lesser chance of them getting annoyed. It leads to better returns despite a higher cost of conversion.

Clear customer intent

The customer intent is one of the significant benefits and features on why Google Shopping is super beneficial. These ads are designed to come up only when someone’s query indicates what they want to purchase. Instead of paying for broad clicks at the top of the funnel ensures that you’re paying for those people who are ready with their money to purchase. The intent factor lifts these ads above the search ads a little bit more. 

Once this is paired with how these ads are shown and where they’re going afterward, you’ve got the content for a great ROI!

Shopping ads drive 76% of retail search ad spend, and generate 85% of all clicks on Google Ads or Google Shopping campaigns.

Tailoring goals down to a product

Instead of campaigns that specifically group keywords together, the Google Shopping campaigns can easily group certain products. The entire inventory is available; you can easily advertise and place a structure that suits you best. 

There are plenty of eCommerce stores that don’t have just one blanket goal for all the products. The sales targets and profit margins can also vary between the product type or between the individual products. 

Google-Shopping

The best thing about these Shopping campaigns is that products can be grouped together regarding the sales goals, which can be optimized. It can give you control over what you’re giving them money for and provides quality traffic rather than quantity. 

You can see revenue that results from better traffic and product. This can ensure better ROAS and far valuable insights from the customer’s behavior. 

Google shopping ads are a great way to catch people with one objective: to purchase something. If you have an online store, you can showcase the product in front of them and give them the power to decide based on that.

Creating a Profitable Shopping Ad

To create campaigns for these shopping ads is to advertise the products on the Google platform. The Shopping campaigns must make it simpler to organize, manage and also overall optimize the shopping ads. 

These robust benchmarking and reporting tools can help in better optimization and monitoring of the campaign performance.

The product data is also an integral factor in creating and also managing the Shopping campaigns. Once the product data becomes accessible, these campaigns make it easier to organize and browse product inventory to make better decisions. Here are some ways to improve your shopping campaigns:

Create the listings and photos up to the mark

Google-ShoppingOne of the first and foremost things to consider and take care of is the product photos. These are what your customer is exposed to at first, and they have to fall within the requirements that Google looks for. 

By this, we mean that the images have to be within the required dimensions for the ads, and Google lays these out on the site itself. Once you’re able to satisfy those demands, the photos can make it easier for you to go forth and advertise.

The listings also need to have all the information that can make them attractive for the customers. This is important because it needs to be up to the mark and also contain relatable and relevant information all in one place.

Make sure the store is as per the Google Shopping ads policies

Whatever ads you put up all need to properly align with the rules and requirements that Google’s Policies hold. The ads can also be created so that they don’t fall foul of the various conditions that Google has created to ensure these ads’ smooth operation. 

The store needs to effectively satisfy the necessary store policies to show these Google ads to the right audience without causing any issues. Just go through the rules docket once, and it’ll become easier for you to start advertising online.

Create and set up the Merchant Center Account  

This is an important step because it is through this account that you’ll run your entire business on the Google platform. You’ll require a Google Account to sign up for the Merchant Center. In case you don’t have a Google account, go to accounts.google.com and create one.

Once you’re prepared, you can head over to the Merchant Center and also sign in with the Google Account. 

Create your product feeds

The feed can be defined as a file that contains a product list that you wish to advertise via the Merchant Center. Whenever you add the products, you can assign specific attributes to them, and the product feeds will use the same to group these products together. 

Once the feed is created, it can be used across as many Merchant Center features as needed. There are various types of feeds that are present in the Merchant Center.

These feed types will also depend on what your needs are as a retailer. The attributes used to describe these products to the Merchant Center are the same across the various feed types.

Mobile devices generate 65% of clicks on paid Google search results.

Link the MCA to Google Ads

This is another crucial addition that you need to make for your Google account and the most important one pertaining to running a store. When you plan to showcase your products on the Google platform, you need to have an account properly connected. 

By linking your Merchant Center account with the central Google Ads console, you’ll be able to gain all the necessary tools to run your store. Whenever you approve a link between the Merchant Center and Google ads, you can allow the product data to seamlessly flow from the Center to the Google ads for all your ad campaigns. 

Depending on the product data type you submit, you can create effective Shopping campaigns to advertise products, use certain dynamic remarketing to drive the Display campaigns, and do so much more. 

Only if you have a Merchant Center account can you link the same. There are new account link requests that appear in the Google Ads account on the “Linked accounts” page, which is also located right at the Setup part of the Tools and Settings menu that drops down.

Campaign settings

Country of sale: You need to choose the country where you want your products to be shipped and sold. Your ads are only shown to people in the country that you’ve selected. To advertise, your product data in the MCA is available for those countries that you choose. If there’s no product data available, you won’t be able to advertise.

Further, the country of sale cannot be changed once the campaign is created. You’ve to adjust this setting to limit the total number of products on the campaign.

Inventory Filter: This is one setting that needs to be adjusted if you wish to limit your campaigns’ overall product number. You need to choose criteria that the product meets to become advertised. The products that match these requirements alone are added to the campaign. This can be changed even after the campaign is created as well.

Bidding: This is something that you wish which can also be adjusted once the campaign is created. Make sure you’ve taken account of the finances before proceeding with this step.

 

In the United States alone, e-commerce sales are expected to surpass $740 billion by 2023.

 

Daily budget: The daily budget needs to be selected based on what you’re willing to spend on a campaign.

Campaign Priority: This setting only needs to be adjusted if you’re advertising one product in various campaigns for one country of sale. The priority helps determine the budget that will be used whenever there is an overlap in the campaigns.

Networks and devices: The shopping campaigns can help drive traffic to the products and increase conversions. In case you’d like to limit where these ads appear, you’ve to uncheck boxes for networks that you’d like to exclude. Ads can appear on any device, including mobile and computers. This can be changed based on the campaign and once it is created.

Locations and Local inventory ads: This setting can limit where these ads are shown in specific locations. This can be changed once the campaign is created. The local inventory ads need to be adjusted if the shopping campaign must include those sold in the local stores. If you’d like to advertise local products, you can submit local data to the Merchant Center.

Once you take care of these factors, the Google Shopping ads are now live!

google-shopping

Top Strategies for More Sales from Google shopping ads

A few strategies can be followed to increase your sales and make sure the ads are running more efficiently. These include:

Optimizing product titles

The product titles need to be efficiently optimized so they can be easily searched and discovered on the Google platform with ease. Make sure the product titles contain all the necessary details with regards to showcasing your brand and the products you’re selling, and you’ll be good to go.

Optimize the descriptions and categories

The product feed descriptions also need to contain a synopsis of the relevant information along with the product titles. This summary needs to have the necessary keywords and other information that a customer would like to know about before going forth and purchasing from your brand.

Ensure that the categories are also corrected, and the products are not shown in other categories so that there is no confusion and a loss of money if it’s not done in the right way.

Optimizing the images

Your product images are another essential addition to the mix, and they need to look inviting. The customer must know that the product they are looking to purchase is the same as the image, so ensure that the editing is precise and well-aligned.  

Use extensions

With Google Merchant Promotions, you can also enjoy the opportunity to showcase certain offers along with the Shopping ads. These extensions make it easier to distinguish products from other ones with certain goods, which gives clients an added incentive to visit sites. 

Reviews and Ratings

If you need your products to sell, fetching good reviews and high ratings is extremely important. New customers need to know that the product they are looking to purchase is of good quality, and one of the best ways to do that is by showcasing product reviews and ratings. Ensure that you have this highlighted on the page, and it’ll make your job so much easier.

The ratings and reviews need to be in line with the products, so don’t share fake reviews because it will have an adverse impact on your brand perception.

reviews

Use negative keywords the right way

The negative keywords strategy is another important requirement for anyone who wants to showcase their brand but only with the right ones. The negative keywords will ensure that your products are not shown whenever a customer types in specific keywords which stray away from the ones that your brand needs to be known for.

Adjust based on the performance of devices

Where your customers are buying your products is also essential, and you need to ensure that you’ve optimized your bids accordingly. Take a look at where they’re shopping for your brand online and with this, make it easier for you to go forth and create campaigns. 

These campaigns need to be optimized so that you don’t face any issues regarding where your customers are shopping from.

Optimize by geolocation

Certain products can only be sold in particular demographics and locations. If yours is one, make sure that your ads are also effectively optimized by geolocation to avoid targeting an audience in the wrong geography! 

High-performance products can have in

When you have products that are performing well, you need to capitalize on getting the most out of them. Make sure that you increase the bids for your products that are performing well, and you’ll be able to gain more footfalls once they get optimized.

Remarketing Lists

For your shopping ads, you can increase the number of people purchasing if you remarket to them. They might have dropped off for many reasons, but once you’re able to showcase the product again to them at a time when it is more convenient, you increase your chances of selling.

Ecommerce accounts for close to 11% of all retail sales in the U.S.

Once you implement the above techniques, you’ll begin seeing a change in how your brand is being perceived online. Follow the necessary steps and ensure that you’re always in line with the Google Shopping ads requirements, and you’ll soon begin making a lot of revenue online. 

Creating an approved Google Shopping Feed & running profitable Google Ads is a multi-step process. AdNabu’s app helps you to easily create a Google Shopping feed & run profitable Google shopping Ads. All changes from your Shopify store are fetched and updated automatically in the feed. 

google-rank

10 Reasons why your website is not ranked on the search results

by Website Development

If you have a website, your ultimate objective is to get it ranked on the leading search engines such as Google. Unfortunately, most of the website owners out there in the world struggle hard to get their websites ranked. If you don’t experience any positive results in getting the website ranked, you need to take a look at the reasons behind it.

Here is a list of 10 prominent reasons that indicate why your website is not getting ranked on the search results.

1. High Bounce Rate
2. Frequent Hosting downtime
3. Duplicate content
4. Links to suspicious websites
5. Poor website architecture
6. Not Mobile Friendly
7. Lacks Depth in content
8. Over optimization
9. Too many 403 and 404 errors
10. Poor grammar and spelling in content

High Bounce Rate

What is a Bounce Rate? It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave (“bounce”) rather than continuing to view other pages within the same site.

If the visitors exit your page without browsing further then your bounce rate will increase. When you have a higher bounce rate, the search engines will assume that your website is irrelevant or it doesn’t provide adequate information to the visitors.

Therefore, you need to add more relevant content, make your website more user-friendly and engage your visitors, so that you will be able to minimize the bounce rate.

Frequent Hosting downtime

If your website cannot be accessed by the search engine crawlers, it will not be indexed. This usually happens when your web hosting keeps going down frequently.

Best Web Hosting Services in 2018: Reviews & Comparison

If you are having any such issues, you are strongly recommended to change your web hosting service provider. Then you will be able to make your website visible for the search engine crawlers.

Duplicate content

You should never copy content from other websites and paste them on to your website. It is true that you need to have quality content to assure higher rankings in the search engine results page. But this doesn’t mean that you can copy content. Instead, you need to put efforts and come up with unique content that adds value to your audience.

If you find it difficult to come up with content on your own, you can seek the assistance of a professional to get the job done.

Links to suspicious websites

If your website has outbound links to suspicious websites, the search engines will not rank you in higher positions on the search results. It is important that you keep an eye on whether your website has links pointing out to suspicious, unethical and adult websites. If you find any, quickly disavow them.- How to Use Google’s Disavow Tool Correctly 

You also need to be vigilant on inbound links as well. If you notice any suspicious links, which you have not added, you will need to take appropriate steps to get them removed. This will let you minimize the damage caused on the website.

Poor website architecture

There is a strong relationship between the architecture of your website and the search engine rankings. That’s because the search engine crawlers find it as a difficult task to go through your website and properly index content if the site architecture is bad.

Therefore, you will need to spend your time and effort to come up with a proper architecture of the website. If you can do it, you will be able to secure amazing results in the search engine results.

Not Mobile Friendly

Most of the users in today’s world prefer to browse the internet via their mobile devices. The leading search engines tend to present mobile responsive websites to those users. If your website is not mobile responsive, it will not be seen by most of your potential customers.

Google has announced mobile friendliness as an important ranking signal. The change has affected the websites all over the world and made a significant impact on the search results. Optimizing your website to be mobile friendly will result in reaching scores of mobile users.

Lacks Depth in content

Your content should offer value to the readers. That’s why it is important for you to be concerned about the depth of content available on your website. Even if you post 10 articles in your website each day, you will not be able to secure top placements in the search engine results.

That’s because the search engines will reject your content because they don’t have enough depth. Due to this reason, you must extremely be concerned about the quality and depth of the content available on your website.

Over optimization

Website optimization should be done moderately. If you over optimize your website for the search engines, you will not be able to get ranked.

For example, most of the people tend to increase the number of keywords that appear inside content. In other words, they believe that increasing the keyword density is in a position to provide a tremendous assistance to them with securing better results in the search engines.

This fact is not true at all. If you do this, you will become a victim of keyword stuffing and won’t be able to get the website ranked. Therefore, it is important to use the keywords in your website in moderate amounts.

Too many 403 and 404 errors

If you don’t link the pages of your website properly, you will end up with 403 and 404 errors. These errors are in a position to create a negative impact on the search engine results.

Therefore, you should continuously audit your website and locate the broken links. Once you notice such broken links, you will need to take immediate steps to get them fixed.

Poor grammar and spelling in content

Having poor grammar and spelling in web content can also make the leading search engines reject your website from indexing in the top of the search engine results. Most of the website owners who live out there use article spinners to come up with content.

The article spinners just duplicate content. They don’t care about the quality of the content. Hence, you need to make sure that you come up with high quality, unique and manually written content on the website.

Voice-search-is-changing-the-future-of-SEO

How Voice Search Is Changing the Future of SEO?

by Artificial Intelligence

 siri-760x400

Statistics from think with Google place voice search at 20%. Users are interacting with smartphones more than their computers, and Google is trying to provide quality mobile-friendly websites. Therefore, content marketers need to focus on mobile users more.

What Are the Pros of Using Voice Search?

voice-search-app-ss-1920On a mobile phone, it’s quicker to ask Google a question than to do manual typing. In some demanding scenarios like when driving; you can’t type in the query for directions, but the voice search feature is applicable and safer. Also, you can accurately express what’s on your mind by talking; rather than typing it down.

An Expert’s Take on the Impact of Mobile Search

During the Search Marketing Expo in March 2016, BehshadBehzadi, a Principle Engineer at Google delivered the keynote speech on the prospect of mobile search. According to Behshad, the future of search is the creation of an online virtual assistant. He also demonstrated the strides made by the search recognition technology, which has a high accuracy rate and an advanced capability of comprehending natural speech patterns. For instance, the voice recognition algorithm automatically removes repeated words and stuttering in speech. It’s able to recognize the user’s intent and display relevant content.

Google SearchThe Google search algorithm can understand long questions, and give the user accurate information. An example you may ask Google what the weather condition will be tomorrow and get the weather forecast based on your location. The voice search app talks back to the user; it’s like having a conversation with a real person. You can also set alarms using the action feature; play music, call someone, or book a reservation –providing users with a hands-free experience. Google has also improved the integration of voice search with other apps for increased productivity.

How will the new trend impact SEO?

It will place more demand for unique content that Google can use to answer voice queries. To rank higher; websites should focus on adding more pages that target both short-keyword phrases and long sentences queries. Also, existing content would require rewriting to incorporate longer sub-titles. The use of location-specific keywords would also increase since Google is focused on helping users interact with their immediate surroundings better.

How can Marketers and Content Creators Gain from Increased Mobile Search?

Understanding the difference between voice queries and typed searches is important. When typing on the computer, users will be less descriptive and focus on specific keywords. However, in a voice search, the user is free to add more details to the query creating a longer phrase. Content marketers need to add detailed descriptions to the products focusing on using real-world phrases. It’s also important to incorporate more versions of the keyword phrase in the content.

mobile search

Google wants to focus on providing the right user experience. The process of displaying search results is still the same. First, Google crawls the web and downloads web pages, analyses them, and stores them for retrieval during a search. What’s different is the focus on semantics or linguistic analysis in addition to the mobile-friendliness score. For better SEO webmasters need mobile-friendly sites; they will rank higher on the Google index. It’s also critical to avoid duplication of content and ‘spammy’ behaviors.

The reality of an online virtual assistant to automate daily mundane tasks is no longer a science fiction fantasy. In the future, instead of searching the web, we will be having a conversation with the internet.