(Newswire.net — July 22, 2020) — Web search has gradually changed over the years. In fact, it doesn’t look anything like it was when it first came around two decades ago. Although it’s still basically about retrieving information, the types of such info, the usable search queries as well as the devices being used to access the information have all changed almost beyond recognition. Search has evolved past the predominance of text-based activities.
Nowadays, it has become multimedia, personalized, and interactive. It’s no more just an efficient tool for indexing the web; it has now become the driving force behind it. Google, the company that has the most popular search engine in the world has become one of the most powerful and largest technology empires today.
However, there seems to be a reasonable apprehension of what the future holds for SEO. In December 2014, a report by Shareaholic revealed that social media dethroned search as the first source of website referral traffic. Mobile applications and messaging apps have become the primary source of traffic and they command the attention of consumers throughout the digital marketing world.
This is why we need to address the fears of possible extinction of search engine rankings in the nearest future. We believe firmly that the industry won’t lose relevance anytime soon and that is why under this post, we will be bringing out important statistics that show why Google and SEO are here to stay for some time into the future.
Content discovery is now beyond only web browsers
Gone are the days when the content discovery was restricted to just web browsers. Now, it has gone beyond that and some statistics lend credence to that fact. For one, according to Statista, the penetration of mobile internet grew to 61.2% in 2018 throughout the world. In addition, another report has revealed that 84 percent of mobile time is exhausted in applications.
No doubt, mobile applications are gradually taking over so what does this spell for the future of SEO? Well, the solution is simple. Messaging apps might have to start complementing search engines for content discovery shortly and that’s one way SEO is guaranteed to remain relevant.
Improving SEO is the biggest priority for 61% of companies
Despite all the facts indicating a gradual shift from search to Mobil apps and messaging apps, statistics show that a lot of businesses still prioritize Google rankings because they know the kind of growth is brings to their brands. Indeed, SEO is the biggest priority for over 60% of companies around the world while all companies in the less than 40% that do not have it as their biggest priority will have to do so if they want to remain current while they grow.
The lines between search and social media will blur
Unlike search engines that have been around for almost two decades, social media only started to mature around 2011. It also took us some time to get used to using these search engines. Facebook now boasts of a large ecosystem, getting over a billion searches every day and the searches are not just about individuals. A large percentage of the searches are for content that is shared by other users of Facebook. As such, it is believed that in the nearest future, social signals will help SEO.
Social profiles will help index websites and even search engines will most likely index social content which means both search and social will integrate to become the web. What does the mean for the average internet user in the foreseeable future? You will most likely have to adapt various social marketing optimization strategies to repurpose content and get exposure.
Backlinking might be past its peak but it still has a role to play
It was in 2011 that backlinking became a part of Google’s algorithms; in fact, a big part of them. This however reached another peak in 2017 and since then, it has been on a downward spiral. As such, the focus currently is quality over quantity which means that having many backlinks to irrelevant pages won’t get you anywhere.
On the other hand, if you are linked by an authoritative source, your page views will be negatively influenced. So while links now lose some value in the eyes of Google as well as the search results, websites that have heavier PR and popular blog mentions are bound to be relevant and drive traffic.
In conclusion, the information above has shown you the possible directions of SEO in the future.