Google Research, 2019 main changes and trends
We just stepped into the new year, but in these lazy days we can still dwell and fruitfully look back at the entire 2019 of both the SEO and Google research: not only to remember those rollercoaster moments that influenced our projects, but also (and mainly) to draw out useful indications for the future. Right after our 2019 list of Google updates on an algorithmic level, now it is the turn to expand our view on the whole ecosystem.
Search results and zero click trends on links
The main element to focus our attention on is probably the increase of zero click researches on Google, meaning all those queries directly solved on Google’s search results page and, hence, of users not clicking on the links placed within the SERP. As George Nguyen reminds us on Search Engine Land, during the entire 2019 this trends reached its historical peak, representing over 50% of Google searches.
The drop in organic clicks has been definitely caused by the changes on the user interface inside Google’s search results page: for instance, in the last two years rich answers are more than doubled among mobile queries, by removing the need for the user to click on a result, and is also increasing the typology of structured data supported by Google in order to generate rich results inside the Research.
Changes the interaction of users with SERPs
These developments and the predominance of rich results influenced the way people navagate through search features, giving birth to what has been called pinball pattern, a kind of interaction in which users bounce their sight and attention among elements in an irregular way.
We are probably still talking about a work-in-progress, but it is already leading to the creation of new strategies to intercept users: as Rand Fishkin suggests (very critical with Google, that he defines as “all sites competitor“), now is the time to invest on brand awareness and optimization rather than on organic clicks, by taking advantage of the visibility offered by Google (with rich results too) so to improve our own visibility and win user trust.
Quality raters, modifications to the guidelines also influencing the SEO
As we know, Google employs a small army of about 10k external contractors to evaluate Research results: even if they do not directly influence charts and ranking, quality raters provide feedbacks helping Google to improve its algorithms. Over the year, the guidelines these human beings have to follow have been updated a total of three times.