- 04 January 2019
- SEO
2018 is almost at the verge of year-end, and this is the best time to recall all the past memories. This year was fully packed with the significant changes especially in SEO. These changes have everlasting impressions on the users, resulting the changes will be forwarded in 2019 also. We would like to rewind your memories for the instances that occurred in 2018 related to search and SEO. It has excited end number of users with the update of in numerous “Google Search Algorithm”, Mobile- first indexing, a new version of “Google Search Console” and many more. The major change that people have witnessed is the popularity of Google’s Voice Search among the users with the help of Google Assistant and another device.
In our previous Blog we drag your attention towards “What is Rank brain and how does it affect SEO” and through this Blog, we will provide you with the deep insight about the changes that are taking place in search engine optimization and the result of it in the online market.
Google Tools that Transformed the World of SEO in 2018
Google Search Console: Google updated the name of its analytics tool “Google Webmaster Tool” as “Google Search Console and also added some features and transformed it in a newer version in latest December. This tool actually helps in the understanding of the traffic on the website. But many people stated that they were quite comfortable with the older version.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is another traffic analyzer tool of Google through which multiple users can make a watch on their website’s traffic. This year Google has also come up with some exciting features and better user interface to understand their website in a more better way.
Google My Business: Google my Business is another update by Google in which the companies can list their business in Google’s My Business listing site. The sheer advantage of this feature is that it shows your business at the top when any search takes place near your business location.
Google Voice Assistant: Google launched its Google Assistant devices which were commonly known as Google Voice Search on the internet. This feature has amazed thousands of users in searching for any query over the internet. People are even using this feature just for the sake of pleasure. People are really enjoying it.
Major Updates of Digital Marketing in 2018
Medic Core Update: This update is commonly known as “broad core algorithm update” by Google that has generated massive impact on end number of users. It only took around the time of 1 week to reach at its peak time and in August this update was at the verge of its success. Though it affected many medical and pharmaceutical companies because this update results in a sudden decrease in the rank of their website.
Chrome Security Warnings: This update actually helped multiple users to identify about the secured and unsecured sites with the help of the new update of marking all the non “https” sites as insecure. This update came in the month of July and from that time it stole the heart of many users.
Mobile Speed Update: Speed update was launched in the month of June this year. This update was actually helpful to the slowest sites or in simpler terms to the sites that were not having good ranks in search engines.
Video Carousels: In the month of June this year, Google shifted organic result videos with thumbnails into a dedicated video carousel, resulting a shakeup in the results. Simultaneously the search engine result pages with videos significantly increased.
Snippet Length Drop: Initially, Google was having the feature of longer Display Snippets of up to 300+ characters. And in the month of June, Google minimized most snippets to the limit of (150- 160) characters.
Mobile – First Indexing: In March Google announced that mobile first index is finally coming up. This update wasn’t really impactful in the way like it was expected. Because there are many websites that aren’t optimized as per the requirement of a mobile phone. If the website isn’t mobile friendly then the user can’t open that in their phones and there will be hindrance loading of content and images of the website.
Google Zero Search Results: Through this update, it provides clear and precise information to the users for their queries on the top of the search engine result pages. It normally shows the results related to time, calculations, weather, and conversions.
Conclusion: These updates really played a significant role for the upliftment of the user interface on their websites and on the online markets. Some of the changes are really impactful for digital marketing and SEO activities also. Well, it completely depends upon the user to have a deep insight on which update is fruitful to them.
