GOOGLE SERVES UP MAJOR CHANGES TO - Google Search Changes (September 2018)

GOOGLE SERVES
UP MAJOR CHANGES TO

Marking its 20th anniversary, Google celebrated its anniversary
                 this September by announcing a slew of changes to the Search
                 experience, which will be rolled out gradually over time. As the
                 leading internet search engine, these changes set precedent for
                 the landscape’s evolution.

Google Updates Search
Using the core principles of focusing on the user by
providing the most relevant, highest quality information as
quickly as possible, and providing Search effectively through
an algorithmic approach, Google shared three fundamental
shifts driving these changes:
1. From answers to journeys
2. From queries to providing a queryless way to get to
   information
3. From text to a more visual way of finding information

Search Journey must-know updates:
•   Retracing a user’s steps with activity cards: To help users
    retrace their online steps, a new activity card helps users
    pick up where they left off in Search. Ideally this will help
    connect users with information they’ve already
    discovered and found useful.
•   Keeping track of searches via Collections: Collections in
    Search already helps users track content they’ve visited
    to get back to it later. Now users can add content from
    an activity card directly to Collections to better track and
    organize where to revisit, as well as get content
    suggestions based on content saved.

                            “Providing greater access to information is as core to our work
                            today as it was when we first started. And while almost everything
                            has changed about technology and the information available to us,
                            the core principles of Search have stayed the same.”
                            - BEN GOMES, VP, SEARCH, NEWS AND ASSISTANT

•   Dynamic organization of Search Results: By dynamically
    organizing search results, users can have an easier time
    figuring out what to check out next, thanks to new
    subtopics shown based on search relevancy.
•   A Topic Layer in the Knowledge Graph: The Knowledge
    Graph, designed to understand connections between
    people, places, things, etc., got a new layer - Topic Layer
    – which understands topic space and how interests can
    develop over time as familiarity grows, making it easier
    to explore interests in the future.

Discover must-know updates:
•   A new name/look: Google renamed the feed Discover,
    and now offers topic headers explaining why a user sees
    a specific card in Discover. Users can also tap to “Follow”
    a Discover icon on any specific topic to see more about
    it.
•   Evergreen content: Discover comes with new types of
    content, including visual content and evergreen content
    (i.e. content that isn’t new to the Internet, but new to
    users).
•   More control & context: Discover can be customized in
    a slew of ways so that users can control what they see
    and engage with the topics they care about.
•   Multiple languages: This is a critical update for those
    who speak multiple languages.
•   Discover is coming to google.com on all mobile browsers:
    This gives users the chance to access Discovery across
    nearly any device and for Google to be there whenever,
    wherever inspiration hits.

Visual content in Search must-know updates -- designed to make discovery more
visually interesting:

•   Immersive visual content with stories: Using AI to create AMP stories (an
    open source library making it easy for anyone to create a story on the open
    web) and surface it in Search. The format enables users to tap for more
    information and provides a new way to discover content.
•   Visually preview topics with featured videos in Search: Using computer vision,
    Google can understand the content of a video and help users find the most
    useful information in an experience to get a better understanding of what’s
    available on the topic.
•   Visual journeys with Google Images: Google now shows more context around
    images (e.g. captions showing the title of the webpage where an image is
    published)
•   Explore within an image using AI with Lens in Google Images: Lens is coming
    to Google Images to help users explore the visual content found during
    searches. Lens’ AI analyzes images and detects objects of interest within
    them.

What this means for marketers

These three changes, while significant in how search plays a role in the consumer
journey, are congruent with Google’s missions of delivering the greatest range of
relevant results as quick as possible. Most of these updates are in fact more concrete
updates that align to where we have seen Google going for quite some time now.

The increased personalization of search results means that it’s more important than
ever for brands to bring consumers into branded environments earlier in the
consumer journey. Brands need to focus on delivering answers on category-level
questions, higher up in the funnel prior to pushing elements that align with its direct
commercial interests. By introducing users to category level content earlier in the
consumer journey, they increase the likelihood of appearing in the search results for
related follow-up searches.

Proper contextual copy and image optimizations coupled with UX continues to be a
best practice, and one that Google is now committed to aligning to, in an effort to
improve the relevancy of their image searches. Marketers should know that UX and
landing page recommendations need to have an SEO driven strategy to ensure that on
page assets are working as hard as they can to not just convert users but also
maximize volume of organic search visitation.

Overall, these changes do not require shifts in paid search strategies, but they
continue to emphasize content and organic optimization. Two things to keep in mind
moving forward are:

1. Stronger alignment with SEO on design and landing page recommendations to
continue to push the best consumer experience while maximizing organic traffic. It’s
not only about having the right images, its about making sure they are distinct and
aligned to the page content, and placed prominently on the page

2. Continue to focus on “Help” content. This is something we always recommend, but
the value of investing here is growing.

Other reading

Google Blog: Improving Search for the next 20 years

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Drew Meresman
Wavemaker US
Drew.Meresman@wmglobal.com