Google has made a significant change to search results.
That’s because “Google is no longer always the first place people go for answers. They’re increasingly turning to social media, YouTube, Amazon, and ChatGPT. These platforms have become search engines themselves.” – Neil Patel
Google is trying to combat loss of marketshare by providing answers themselves, keeping users on their own platform. The only way you can guarantee that you’re visible at the top of Google search results is to pay (Google Ads). As you can see, the only answers visible to this question before scrolling were paid for.
It’s also about intent. When I started managing SEO for a funeral company, the number 1 visited page on their website was an article entitled ‘The Top 10 Funeral Songs of all time.’ They achieved a high volume of traffic. But how many of these visitors, from all over the world, were looking for a funeral company in his local area? Having lots of articles on your website is not what it used to be.
Optimising social content and increasing ad spends is now key for any SEO strategy.
Every keyword we target in a Google Ads campaign is given a quality score by Google based on the quality of the landing page the visitor is sent to. The quality score is impacted by page load time, website security, relevance to the search term and what steps visitors are taking after landing on the page (eg are they filling out a form, making a purchase, visiting other pages on the website, or clicking straight back to search results – which tells Google whether your landing page is the right fit for people who are searching for the products or services you offer).
So, every business needs to change their SEO strategy to meet the new way people are searching…
Improve social media content, boost posts regularly, and, through intel gathered from Google Ads, optimise your website landing pages based on quality scores for each keyword you’re targeting.