How is search industry changing

In , Yahoo! Search engines derive most of their revenue by delivering ads to users based on the search term entered. As such, companies have directed significant portions of their budgets toward advertising on search engines. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. The Changing Landscape of Search Engines [infographic]. Previous Next. View Larger Image. We've learned the playbook and have published so much content, some marketers say we've hit "content shock," and that producing content at this rate is no longer sustainable.

While the quantity of content has dramatically increased, quality has not. Sure, there are individual publishers and sites that create amazing content you probably consume regularly. But for the most part, a lot of content published today doesn't contribute much to the conversation. In addition to our search behavior, the general way we use the internet to interact with sites has changed.

We've shifted from desktop-based PCs, to mobile laptops, to smartphones as mini-computers in the palm of our hands. Readers are skimming content and searching for quick answers. The emergence of messaging also means visitors are less likely to fill out a lengthy form.

This has natural consequences on how we think about our content to build an audience, brand, and ultimately generate leads. When Google first popped up on the scene, the way they returned results was to essentially deconstruct queries into their fundamental pieces -- meaning individual keywords that appeared -- and serve results based on exact matches.

At that time, marketers who stuffed matching keywords into content would naturally rank for the query, until Google started adjusting their algorithm. If we go back just a few years, we can see a rich history that leads us to the search experience we have today, and we can uncover lessons that apply to our own content strategies.

Let's walk through three of the most important Google search updates and how they impact your strategy. This algorithm update was designed to penalize "webspam" and sites that were over-optimized using black-hat SEO techniques.

Webspam --such as keyword stuffing and link schemes -- was penalized in this update, with 3. In the official Penguin announcement, Google described a blog post that was written about fitness and had relevant content. But within the post, there were also completely irrelevant links to payday loans and other sites.

This form of random keyword stuffing is a perfect example of an SEO tactic that was likely impacted by Penguin. The takeaway: Include relevant links and keywords in your content, but don't overdo it.

While there's no magical number that's right or wrong, look at your content through the lens of a reader and make a judgment call if it's too much.

Hummingbird Algorithm Update -- Announced on August 20, Based on what we know, this was a core algorithm update that focused on improving semantic search. As search becomes more conversational, Hummingbird is now the core algorithm interpreting these queries and translating them into meaningful results.

For example, if you search for "what's the best place to buy an iPhone 7 near my home? With Hummingbird, Google began to look at the meaning behind these words and translate them into a better result.

Digging into that example query above, "place" means you're looking for a store you can physically go to, instead of a website you can buy from.

Hummingbird looks at the entire query and attempts to understand the meaning behind the words used to return relevant results. The takeaway: We now search the way we talk.

Focusing only on keywords means you're likely missing out on traffic from conversational search. Start thinking about clustering your content into topics , and adjusting the way you create content with pillar pages.

In October , Google announced that machine learning, via RankBrain, had been a part of their algorithm for months and is now the third most influential ranking factor. It's important to understand that there are over ranking signals when Google evaluates a page. When RankBrain was announced, it immediately became the third most-important factor Google uses to determine rank. So, what does RankBrain do? At a basic level, this algorithm helps interpret searches to find pages that might not have the exact words searched for.

For example, if you search for "sneakers," Google understands that you might have meant "running shoes" and incorporates that factor into results. Although Google begun to understand synonyms between words prior to this update, RankBrain propelled that understanding forward and truly brought a focus on topic-based content to the forefront.

The takeaway: Searchers are likely discovering your content even though they don't use exact keywords. When you combine this update with Hummingbird, the evidence is clear that we need to shift how we think about, plan, and create content.

Based on our search behavior, and the search technology updates, the playbook for content needs to change. The same formula we used for the past ten years might still generate moderate results, but it will not help us adjust to the way potential buyers are searching for our content today, or the way search works. No -- keywords are still very relevant today. Yet many marketers solely rely on keywords to inform their content strategy. With the search behavior and technology changes we've discussed, your future playbook must be based on the overall topics that match the intent of a searcher, and the specific keywords they use.

For example, if you want help companies redesign websites, then you would naturally want to appear on a search engine results page for the keyword "website redesign. But some users might be really be searching for "redesign existing website", which is essentially the same query with different keywords. Visual search, just like other search tools introduced before, still aim for the same objective. As search engine companies develop and make this technology more accessible to consumers, it is imperative for companies using SEO to rethink the way they optimize their visual assets for search.

This is especially important for retail companies, where the majority of customers conduct reverse showrooming , i. The good is that most SEO practices still apply to this kind of search platform. This includes using alt-tags, schema markup, image optimization, and metadata. Metadata, in particular, will still continue to play an important role in the SEO even as visual search engines develop and change the way people search. This is because metadata holds the information of both web pages and images, and it is still what semantic search engines use to determine what an entity text, image, video, etc.

While it is unlikely that visual search will make text-based search obsolete, they will likely become just as popular as the latter. As such, it is crucial for businesses to fine-tune their SEO techniques and ensure that they are up-to-date and relevant so that they can keep up with the rise of visual search. In his Search Engine Land article , Jim Yu provided some actionable strategies digital marketers can use to optimize for visual search. Indeed, visual search technology is one of the most exciting innovation in the field of search this 21 st century.

While there are still a lot of improvements to be made, there is no denying that visual search has already caused for the online search behavior of the modern consumers to shift. For brands using SEO, this means that they must revitalize their efforts on visual content marketing and image optimization in order to avoid being left in the dust by more forward-thinking competitors.