Google Search Trends: 5 Things You Need To Know

Google is continually rolling out new features and updates. Although you might not notice them, there'll be hundreds of tiny little changes to Search being made in the background every day, but we've picked out 5 of the most prominent to make sure you can stay on top of your company's SEO.

Why has my Google search ranking dropped?

There could be a number of reasons why this is the case, but one of the reasons could be that Google have started rolling out a core update. Core updates are released several times a year and according to Google, it's to make substantial improvements to their overall ranking process, including making search results more helpful and relevant. If your SEO results have dropped or are a bit all over the place, it's worth checking the Google Search Central blog to see if any major changes have been rolled out recently.

1. A Rise in SERP Features

Firstly what's the SERP?! It's short for search engine results page, so that's just the page you see when you type a search query into Google. Essentially what's happening is Google is including lots more different features or facets in the search engine results page.

2. The Rise of The Instant Answer

On mobile in particular, Google is doing it's utmost to answer queries themselves through taking snippets off people's websites. Rather than showing the most relevant website and making the user sift through the page to find the answer, it wants to give it you straight away. Whilst this can take away traffic, when you get it right it means you go down as an authority on that particular subject. If it's relevant to what you do, this increase in trust can lead to an increase in sales.

4. The Importance of Backlinks

Since Google was first getting on the search engine scene, they've placed a high amount of importance on having backlinks to your website. Google see it as a measure of trust, if other websites are willing to point visitors towards your website, it makes sense that it's probably for a good reason. Link building strategies used to be a bit of a grey area in the past, there were a lot of ways of tricking the system. In recent years Google have cracked the whip here, punishing websites who engaged in black hat techniques. 

Nowadays it's about quality over quantity. One good strong backlink from another well-trusted website will do far more to help you rank higher than 10 iffy backlinks from all over the place.

5. Machine Learning & How You Talk To A Search Engine

Google's machine learning is getting very complex indeed. RankBrain, the name of Google's machine learning system, is getting more and more adept at understanding user intent when they search for something. Consider the following searches;

• Best netflix shows
• What are the best things to watch on Netflix?
• Best shows on netflix
• What shall I watch next on Netfix?

They're all essentially asking the same question - what are the best shows on Netflix, but in slightly different ways. RankBrain tells Google that these are all looking for a similar answer, and will therefore show similar if not identical content for all of them. Google is always looking at 'what exactly is the user asking here' and use that to determine rankings. It's a lot more detailed than just keywords! If you want to learn a bit more about RankBrain, check out this cracking blog from Moz.

Following on from this, it's worth noting the increase in Google Voice Search. Whilst it's not yet as popular as typing in searches, the rise of mobile means users are putting conversational style questions in to Google more and more. Digital assistants like Siri, Cortana and of course Amazon Echo's all new 'Alexa' mean it's a rapidly changing digital landscape. 

But what does this mean? In the past, an Estate Agent might have optimised their website for terms like 'houses for sale Devon' or 'rent house London', whereas the way search is moving points towards searches like 'where is cheapest to buy a house in East Devon'. 

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