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The Age of Voice Assistants: How to Get Noticed

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You might have gotten used to calling Alexa for your every waking need, but Google is still trying to figure out how to rank these searches properly.

Voice searching is on the rise with gadgets like Alexa and Google Home. Searching is a whole different ball game than it was five years ago, and SEO is changing because of it. Elements like search terms, keywords, and mobile-friendliness change how people are searching with their voice, and therefore, how Google indexes those searches.

One of the biggest changes, is in picking up on human’s natural speech patterns. Typically, when a user searches for something on their desktop or mobile device they are using different syntax than they do in their normal language. For example, say someone is trying to find out if Domino’s is open on Thanksgiving. If they are typing in the search they might try, “Domino’s hours,” but, if they were to speak the search, they are more likely to use full sentences, “Hey Google, is Domino’s open today?”

Because of the need to pick up on varying syntaxes and search words, things are changing for SEO rankings. To appear in a voice search now, it’s important to be featured on the first page, and it helps if you’ve got a featured snippet. Featured snippets look like this:

And they sit at position zero on a search page. This featured snippet would be the first thing a Google Home would read out to its user in an answer along with the website name.

Along with featured snippets, elements like long-tail keywords, mobile-friendly sites, and including a question/answer format in web pages are growing increasingly important with the rise of voice searching.

One thing is for sure — with changing technology comes changing SEO practices.

If you or your organization need help staying up to date with SEO trends, reach out to Cabedge! With years of experience and an understanding of how swiftly SEO practices are changing, Cabedge can help with it all. Contact us today, and we can get started on a plan personalized to your needs.

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Google’s Mobile-First Index to Launch in 2018

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Over the last decade, more people have turned to their mobile devices to perform searches than ever before. In 2017, mobile searches accounted for 55 percent of all traffic. With the increased use of mobile devices to find answers to user’s questions, Google is working to release its mobile-first index in 2018- an index that has been highly anticipated for years.

According to Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst working for Google, at the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle in June the mobile-first index should launch sometime in 2018. This index is different from how Google is currently indexing content in that it searches mobile sites first, therefore if a website gets searched a lot from a desktop, but doesn’t have a mobile website, this index might hurt its rankings. The good news is that if you’ve got a responsive website design, mobile-indexing shouldn’t affect your traffic all that much.

Illyes emphasized that Google is committed to making this transition as seamless as possible, so it may take a bit of time for the index to be fully completed. He even noted that Google is trying to create this index without hurting non-mobile-friendly sites — a feat that seems hard with a mobile-first index, but time will tell. Google is also being very thorough in its communications with publishers about the launch so there are no surprises when it’s finally released.

No matter how prepared Google or publishers are, this mobile-first index is sure to shake things up for SEO rankings in 2018.

If you’re organization is looking to compete in this mobile-first era of indexing, reach out to Cabedge. With years of experience in SEO trends and responsive website design, Cabedge can help with all your needs.

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The Knowledge Box Takeover

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Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are constantly changing — becoming smarter to show users exactly what they are looking for. When this happens, it means fewer people are actually clicking through to websites because they can find the answer they are looking for right on the SERP.

In 2012, Google introduced what are known as Knowledge Boxes.

Knowledge Boxes (also known as Knowledge Panels or Knowledge Graphs) are quick blurbs of information answering search questions from users. Typically, these excerpts come straight from Wikipedia pages and make searching easier and faster for users. These knowledge boxes are increasingly taking over for Featured Snippets.

A featured snippet is an excerpt of information from a website other than Google and serves as position zero on a SERP.

Featured snippets used to be a great way for websites to increase their click-through-rate, but with the takeover of Knowledge Boxes, they are slowly becoming a thing of the past. To improve SEO rankings in the age of the Knowledge Box, users need to be working earnestly to link build, promote, and ensure their sites are on page one or two of the search results.

Knowledge Boxes are not the end of the SEO world, but they do mean users need to adapt. While Featured Snippets haven’t gone away entirely, content creators need to work with intent to ensure their content is seen around these large information boxes.

If you’re looking to improve your SEO in the age of the knowledge box, contact Cabedge — a digital marketing firm that understands the intricacies and trends of SEO to help your organization get to the top of the rankings.