Latest Google Algorithms & SEO Trends 2018

Google algorithms keep changing every now & then. As technical as they might get, there are times when the high-end Google algorithms also get beaten up due to certain flaws. Recently in 2010, Google was highly criticized by the global media for increasing the overall amount of content clutter in its search results. As such, soon after, Google released the Google Panda update which was particularly aimed at removing low-quality & spammy content from the search results.

Whether or not some kind of knowledge-based trusting algorithm or method might be enough towards combating the fake news, it is clear that Google is keen on making its truthfulness as a matter of ranking factor. With the recent updates to the Google’s algorithms, there are some top SEO trends that you can expect in the coming times:

  • Featured Snippets & Voice Search will Grow Hand in Hand: A recent study reveals that around 5 queries with respect to mobile searches come from voice search. This number is however, likely to increase with the advent of Google Assistance-enabled technology & devices like Google Home –which continues to rise in popularity. As the voice searching technology grows, you can expect observing an increase in the usage of featured snippets as Google sources its voice search results from the same. If the given trend continues, featured snippets might have to start competing with the topmost organic listing if your site wishes to get noticed.

 

  • AI (Artificial Intelligence) Will be Powering More Aspects of the Search Engine: Since the world’s introduction to RankBrain, several aspects of Google search results have changed significantly. RankBrain is the machine learning AI (Artificial Intelligence) system by Google which is aimed at helping the search engine in processing the given search results. Since its launching 2 years back, RankBrain has advanced itself from searching around 15 percent of the search queries to nearly all of them.

 

The overall interest of Google in Artificial Intelligence tends to extend much more than RankBrain. However, Google has also come up with the latest Cloud Vision API –which is known to be capable of recognizing several objects. Definitely, Google tends to possess a wide range of high-end machine learning capacity such that it is now considering selling its own range of products. However, more interestingly, Google is on the verge of building an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system that overpowers the imagination of the humans all over.

 

  • Mobile-First Indexing: Google recently announced that mobile searches have finally surpassed the overall desktop searches on the Google’s search engine. Just last year, BrightEdge claimed that around 57 percent of the overall traffic amongst its clients was from the mobile devices instead of the desktop systems. As a response to this gradual change in the user behavior, Google is on the verge of introducing “mobile first indexing”. This implies that Google will be creating & ranking the overall search listings on the basis of the mobile version of the given content. This will be applicable for the listings that are available for the desktop users as well.

 

  • Mentions without Links: Recently, Bing has confirmed that they practice tracking the unlinked brand names or mentions and make use of them as a ranking signal. Similarly, a particular Google’s patent claimed that Google might be doing this as well in the coming times. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is beginning to play a major role in the overall ranking scenario, it is not unlikely to expect the use of “linkless” mentions of the given type to begin playing a major role in the overall search rankings of different web portals.

 

The tricks used for earning the brand mentions are no different from the tricks that are used for earning the links. However, as the total number of people who would be mentioning brands tends to be much higher than the total number of people who would be linking to them, this trick could offer an excellent boost for the small-scale brands out there that might be falling below the earning press threshold.

 

  • Rise of the Manipulative Guest Posting Trend: Last year, Google had warned the webmasters across the globe that utilizing the method of article marketing as a major link-building trick turns out to be against the guidelines & might result in a hefty penalty. As this piece of knowledge is well known in any reputed SEO community, the announcement made by Google is likely signaling that a recent algorithm update might target manipulative guest posting to be on the trends in the coming times.

Look out for more on the latest SEO trends!