It’s a big deal when Google makes changes or updates that affect search results. Lastly, it was the extended meta descriptions that received much attention. This time, however, a change has been made that can completely change the way we integrate with search results.
New update in search results
For us who work with Google and other search engines daily, it’s no secret that they are constantly working with new features that will provide users with better results. About two weeks ago I noticed an additional update that I think has the potential to completely change the way users integrate with search results …
It has begun to show related searches directly related to the results:
However, the related searches do not appear directly you do a search, but instead when you do a search, click on a result and then return to the SERP.
Why is this important?
As most people are familiar with at this point, the search engines’ primary task is to provide users with relevant results that respond to their search query. To determine which webpage is relevant and what position it should get in the search results, use a variety of ranking factors.
Historically, most factors have been focused on keywords and backlinks, which is still among the most basic in search engine optimization. However, in recent years, it has been discovered that Google and other search engines have begun to use more and more ranking factors based on user-experience and experience of your site.
Rank Brain
This was also confirmed when it was discovered that RankBrain is now Google’s third most important ranking factor . If you learn to learn more about RankBrain, you can read our previous post SEO 2018 .
However, to describe it briefly, RankBrain is a machine-learning AI system that is used to process and sort Google search results. What makes this system so unique, however, is that it attaches great importance to how to integrate with the results. Especially when it comes to:
- The percentage of users who click on your search result (CTR)
- How long visitors stay on your side (Dwell Time)
- The number of visitors who click on your search result but leave your webpage (bounce rate)
It is therefore not possible that this new update is part of RankBrain and something used to determine how relevant a search result is for a specific query, which in turn may affect the placements. Since nothing has been confirmed by Google, as is often the case, it’s only possible to speculate on this at this time.
No matter what, however, it is a strong indicator that user experience continues to be an increasingly important ranking factor and something that should be a major priority when you work with search engine optimisation. Something that can be seen from this update is that it is even more important to be in the absolute top of the search engines!
However, for us who work with SEO daily, it’s no secret that you sometimes work with these updates and then remove them. The effect of this update, or if it is here to stay, remains to be seen. What do you think?
