Search engine trends
2019 Google Ranking Trends
Part I
Google’s algorithms continue to evolve creating excitement, fear, and misinformation in the digital marketing industry. This very article could prove to be a misguided attempt at reading Google’s intentions by 2020! Who knows.
In order to increase the odds that our analysis will hold true now and in the future I will stick to the basics. For that I apologize if I repeat myself (just with different wording) in blog post after blog post but … this is what we all are about the most. That is ranking on search engines and either improving our status or protecting it.
2019Algorithm Of Update
The buzz is that, in and around, January 9th, 2019, Google released the first major algorithm update of the year. Of course nailing down major algorithm updates is usually not exact since Google doesn’t usually cooperate in communicating this so we’ll stick to our Groundhog seeing his rankings drop method. A few facts:
- Google updates its algorithm about 500-600 times every year to keep – what Google considers – the highest quality, most relevant results toward the top of your search page
- Without even knowing it if you search multiple times throughout the day you’ll probably see ranking changes as a result of daily algorithm changes
- Agencies that write blogs like this usually go by spikes / ranking volatility to zero in on a algorithm change such as using the effect of gravity to find a celestial body we can’t see
Ok, here are the trends that we believe we are seeing and with some, have been seeing for a while. To make the information more useful we will translate it directly into what matters:
- Shopping Results – There was a dip in the shopping Ads block of Adwords and an increase in relevant “organic” blocks – in English if you search for EngineX t-shirts you are more likely to see a vendor that deals exclusively in EngineX t-shirts than yet another paid Ad.
- People Ask Spike – This goes hand in hand with our preaching that, ultimately, great content wins. Google pulls content from the most relevant sites and voila! Instant answers.
- More emphasis on voice searching – Alexa / Google / etc. Sixty percent of people started using voice search dating back to 2016.
The Bottom Line: The best way to protect and improve your rankings? Stick to following the SEO basics including quality content that adds value to the site visitor and answers their questions.