The online environment is changing every day and as users we're part of the change and sometimes don't realize how often we alter our behaviour within the environment. As a marketer I've learned to adapt to new seo and technology changes pretty quickly. I think at this stage we're are at a point where search and seo will take a huge shift.
So how will search and seo change rapidly over the next 3 to 5 years?
3 big changes in search behavior have an impact on seo
1. Mobile Search
We all know that mobile search is growing rapidly and people stay away from desktop applications and use tablets and smartphones instead. Pretty much every millennial is using a tablet or a phone in the evening to search for content on the web or chat with friends over whatsapp and Facebook messenger. Mobile devices now take up 60% of all online searches. That is a pretty big number, considering a lot of brands and marketers haven't really adapted their online strategy and are still trying to desperately reach the remaining 40% of searches to market and sell.We now need to stop thinking about "mobile" and "desktop" search because they are no different. They are part of our life and the shift towards mobile will only grow over time.Most of the time we spent on our mobile we're using apps and not searching the web. So how will that impact seo?
Well, you can't surface the content of apps in a search engines and only access them through app stores. This will have to change in the next years because these stores don't scale and the app search is terrible in terms of user experience.
The spotlight feature from Apple, where you can search apps on your phone, is the first step in the right direction but there will be more to come on this front.
2. Voice search
Not only Desktop applications or Siri are using voice search. The whole industry is slowly shifting towards voice recognition and search. Most of the products aren't advanced enough yet but they could become very powerful if you were able to connect them and pass along information from your smart watch to your tablet. So let's have a look how our behavior has changed.Since we're no longer searching when we're just sitting at our desk and working, we are producing way more search queries and using these technologies much more. If you're searching in a browser it looks at how you phrased your search query and what words you used but if you're talking to a personal assistant like Alexa it will use context and connect to other apps to get a bigger picture around your query. Technologies like Google Now follow a similar pattern and are learning more about us every day. Through this technology of search I can directly get to what I am looking for.This will change the whole spectrum of seo because people are going to change how they search. So instead of searching for "nice restaurants" in Dublin you're now asking "What can I do tonight?". This examples explains well how machines will get to know us better and how the marketer will have to change with it.
3. Social Media search
Let's be honest. Have you ever tried to search Facebook? Yes, it's a terrible experience and you won't find what you're looking for. Sometimes it's even impossible to find a fan page or an old article. There are certain features where you can save posts for later and you can follow people but there is still a lot to be improved. Nevertheless, social platforms could also impact seo because I am sure that Facebook will start investing more into these features.Facebook is already trying to keep people in their app even if they click on stuff that is outside of Facebook. With "Facebook Instant Articles" you can now even post on Facebook and there is no need to leave the app. That comes down to my first point where companies slowly realise that keeping users in apps has an advantage for the network itself. Facebook keeps more people engaged, they still make a lot of money with ads and the traffic that would normally go to other sites stays on Facebook. That's obviously Facebook's thinking behind these tactics but I am not sure if that will work for the long run since sites like Steemit will gather more attention in the next months.Giving brands the opportunity to host content in and outside of Facebook will have an impact on seo and google will need to figure something out because we all know that they hate duplicate content. ;-)
What impact can communities like Steemit have on seo?
People are slowly moving away from the traditional social media sites because the content is not very targeted and the search functions on Facebook and Twitter aren't great either. Valuable insights are nowhere to be found and the whole network is mainly controlled by ads and random videos. These platforms might still attract a good majority of users who just want to spend time scrolling through friend's posts and photos but they no longer carry much value. In the beginning Facebook was all about the ability to connect school friends and people across the world but now we have so many ways of connecting... Whatsapp, Skype, Viber, Google Hangout... and many many more.That's where communities like medium.com reddit and steemit come into play. They provide an open community and valuable insights where people across the whole world can share stories and tips with each other. These types of content will be much more likely to show up in search results of the future as any content that was ever shared on social media. Value always outperforms quantity.What trends are you seeing? How will search change in the coming years? Please leave your comments below!