Every online business is obsessed with the innovation and system updates of Google. Since it is the most widely used search engine, different business owners from different sectors are now engaging an SEO agency to help them strategize and keep up with the demands from Google. The Search Engine Results Page is the competition ground to all businesses. The main goal is to be at the number 1 position on search engines. But it became a lot harder due to the continuous updates of Google algorithm.
Here are the four changes made by Google in recent months.
1. Search Snippet
Search snippets functions as a short descriptive text that highlights and describe what individual search results are. It is also designed to immediately answer the query without clicking the website URL.
Here’s a statement from a spokesperson from Google.
“We recently made a change to provide more descriptive and useful snippets, to help people better understand how pages are relevant to their searches. This resulted in snippets becoming slightly longer, on average.”
After the update, the search snippet is able to display roughly 230 characters, as compared to 160 characters previously.
2. Feature Snippet and Knowledge Panel
Another friendly update made by Google was the featured snippet. Featured snippet is the block at the top of the SERPs that provides an extracted answer from a given webpage.
“Today, we’ve added more images and related searches inside select Featured Snippets to help you learn even more about your topic, or to discover new things related to your interest.”
In addition, Google also integrated Knowledge Panel to show relevant content after a specific query. For example, if a user would like to know how to bake a red velvet cake, he/she can also access other topics like how to bake blueberry cheesecake. The recent search is then followed by another related topic that might be useful to some extent.
3. Carousel Snippet
Currently in beta testing, carousel snippet may be one of the updates that Goggle will initiate in the future to reshape the search engines. It is a carousel-like structure where answers and keywords are on an IQ bubble. The content may be coming from a forum thread or any website that has reliable content and credible authors. When the information is being pulled out on a specific webpage, it will feature the top page of the SERP that holds many answers to a particular query.
For example, if a user typed-in ‘what are the essential qualities of having a business’, The SERP will reveal a carousel snippet that has various answers to a query. The next part is that the user will see an IQ bubble related to the recent search. It could be another keyword such as “essential qualities as a business owner.” This update has provided more accurate and credible content for the users, and eliminating incorrect information surfaced on the search engine.
4. Celebrity Snippet
The last update made by Google was the celebrity search in the SERP. This is a new way of getting to know more of your celeb faves. If a user would like to search his/her favourite movie star, the search engines will reveal results through pre-recorded videos and recommended entertainment news site.
The Impacts of the Update
The updates made by Google had an enormous impact on many businesses online. Businesses face a new set of challenges on how to remain or to reach the top-ranking position on the SERP.
Google prioritizes the user’s experience by making some changes to the SERP to provide the best and reliable content for the users. With the new snippets updates, it targets the time duration of a user in engaging all the results displayed on SERP. However, it changes the attention of webmasters in a different direction. Users can immediately access important information without visiting the website for the content. It will lessen the amount of traffic that will be received on a website.
It all comes down to quality content. The lesson behind this is to write and publish quality content that targets your audience. Keep it concise and informative that directly answers the query of the users.
As Google continues to make changes and update its system, webmasters and owners have no other choice but to adapt and keep up with those. The only chance to maintain or boost your ranking and increase your sales are through writing quality content and regularly optimize the website. These could lessen the impact of the updates as you also continue to comply with the standards set by Google.
