When inbound marketing was raised in 2006, readers were solely dependent on search engines to discover new content. It has been well over a decade, and the same concept still stands true.
Yes, we do have a new content-sharing landscape like social media and messaging applications. But still, with more than 3.5 billion searches every day, search engines are a lucrative method to share valuable content.
Over the last decade, most of us feel that we have understood how content performs on the search engine. Perhaps this is why most of the content online looks exactly the same.
But!
After the pandemic wave, the online market will see some astounding changes.
The Way People Used To Search Has Changed!
There is no denying that the concept of online searches has changed drastically in the last couple of years (especially during the pandemic phase).
After introducing AI-powered digital assistance, people were using voice searches more than traditional search practices.
Although we were aware that online search is changing its landscape, the pace was too slow for us to really think about it.
When the pandemic hit the world, and every business was forced to take the digital space, we could truly grasp the importance of changing online search behavior.
Businesses soo realized that optimizing their content only for the right keywords will not help them compete against the big names in the industry.
This is where the concept of search intent comes from.
Over time businesses became aware of search intent and started optimizing for their business.
In fact, it was also seen that optimizing content more intensely than keywords is performing better on the search engines.
To know more about search intent, SEO, and how they help your business to thrive in 2022, visit https://digitrio.com.sg/why-seo-is-important-for-business/.
How Has Search Evolved?
Talking about how search has evolved in the last decade, we can divide the search evolution into two different phases -
- Search behavior.
- Technologies used by search engines to interpret and serve results.
Search Behavior
Back in the day, search algorithms were simple. We just need to type the keyword and look for the relevant content. However, today, it's more about conversation than just typing keywords.
Regardless of your type of voice search, we use more descriptive keywords like ‘Best place to eat chinese NEAR ME!’, instead of just searching for ‘Restaurants’.
While researching this, we found that most people find it comfortable to use long-tail keywords that are simple one-word keywords. This ensures they get what they are looking for in the first search.
Technologies Used By Search Engines
Now coming to technology!
Over the last decade, search engines have gone through some massive changes and search engine algorithm updates.
Because most users use Google as their default search engine, we will focus only on Google.
When Google was launched for the first time, they were a search engine that mostly focused on returning deconstructive queries into more fundamental pieces.
That means the Google algorithm was not only targeting only the searched keywords but also the keywords that are close to exact match.
This was the start of the search engine evolving from a platform offering results for keywords to a platform that offers results after understanding what the users are looking for.
Does That Mean Keywords Have Become Irrelevant?
NO! Keywords are still relevant. But, they are not the only factors that decide the results of search engines. With the search behavior changing, marketers need to find the right balance to work with.
With the shift in search technology, search behavior, and how we interact with the content, we need to keep up with the changes and follow modern trends.
That being said, as we are entering a competitive era, we need to come up with different strategies to rank higher in the search engine and get the most of user demand.