30-second recap:
- Google launched over 4,000 search enhancements and new features throughout 2020.
- Baidu continued to crack down on low-quality sites with its 2020 updates, its StrongWind algorithm was introduced to monitor malicious site aggregator content.
- Bing has tried to leverage its roughly 2.8% global market share from search engines by adding a Bing app to the Xbox.
- Throughout the year, DuckDuckGo added a number of new features and made updates designed to improve the user experience while protecting privacy.
- GIPHY now serves over 7 billion GIFs per day and is viewed by over 500 miles Daily GIF optimization is a great way for SEO to build awareness and loyalty with the pages of your website.
- Throughout 2020, Yandex has continued to add more human elements to its search engine.
- 2020 has been a year in which research has taken center stage in digital marketing.
- Consumer behavior is expected to continue to be volatile in 2021.
- A list of top SEO trends to watch in 2021 - new channels for visual and image search opportunities , international SEO will increase again, combining PPC and SEO, using marketing technology, and more.
Many SEOs will be huddled around the TV or computer screen this year for the New Years celebrations, muttering: "Don't let the door knock on you" , as we say goodbye to 2020. Despite the publication of several vaccinations around the world, we still find ourselves firmly in the grip of a global pandemic with no definitive end in sight.
In this article,We'll be returning to the major search engines that changed the game this year, and where marketers should be looking as we head into 2021 with lingering uncertainty about the year ahead.
Key Search Engine Updates in 2020
Latest Oberlo numbers show Google reigns as dominant search engine both in the United States and in the world with 88.1% respectively and 92.3% market share. Even so, there's still a lot of traffic on the table if you don't optimize for all the major search engines.
Here are some of the most impactful and notable updates from Google, Bing (which also powers Yahoo! Search), DuckDuckGo in 2020.
1. Google
According to Emily Moxley , Google's product manager for search, Google has launched more than 4,000 search enhancements and new features throughout long from 2020. Among them:
- Google added the Deletions report in Search Console in January, allowing site owners and SEOs to temporarily hide a page from Google search results. In February, they rendered easier data export of almost all the reports.
- March saw the launch of the com / covid19 containing informations about the country or state, safety and prevention tips, and research trends related to COVID-19. Other pandemic-related features rolling out in 2020 include Exposure Notifications API , a system d ' SOS alerts and a list of new GMB features to help businesses better communicate special hours, temporary closures, and other information about COVID-19 to researchers.
- In August, Google confirmed that it had made a number of improvements designed to be "as invisible as possible " to API Search Console .
- In October, the ministry of Justice sued Google and claimed that the search engine is an illegal monopoly. Antitrust charges are nothing new to Google and this case could drag on for years to come.
- Google announced in October that BERT language comprehension systems first introduced in 2019 are now used in almost all English queries.
- The The crawl statistics report was released in November with new features, including detailed host status information and sample URLs showing where on-site requests took place.
- Also in November, Google announced that voice search just got smarter . With new language features and the transfer of context from one voice search to another, Google could gradually 'learn' more about the search. the real intention of dear.
- Google announced at the end of the year that it was " refocusing of the structured data testing tool and migration to a new domain serving the schem communitya.org by April 2021. "Notably, once this transition is complete, the tool will no longer check the types of enriched results of Google search.
In particular, the deadline for mobile-first indexing has been extended from September 2020 at the end of March 2021.
2. Microsoft Bing
Bing attempted to rely on approximately 2.8% global search engine market share by adding a Bing application to the Xbox , adding searchfrom nearby products to local results and introduction of image-based product search .
Microsoft's search engine has also evolved rapidly to provide Information and updates on COVID-19 to consumers with a tally of local and global cases appearing in search results for any coronavirus-related queries.
In May, Bing gave us an overview of its artificial intelligence capabilities and his experiences, stating that:
Examples of AI on The Scale in Bing includes Yes or No summaries for simple questions in the search, extending answers smart to more languages and a new modNLR-based ele to understand complex or ambiguous queries.
Resources
3. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo ' s intense focus on privacy makes it harder to optimize because user data is not tracked. Despite this, 0.5% of the global search market (and 1.7% in the United States) still makes it a top priority.the world's leading search engines.
Throughout the year, DuckDuckGo added a number of new features and made updates designed to improve the user experience while protecting privacy. In October, DuckDuckGo launched private walking and driving routes Provided by Apple 's MapKit JS Framework
In October, we saw the hard-hitting little search engine go straight against Google in its antitrust lawsuit. In an open letter , DuckDuckGo pointedly asked ,
4. Yandex
Yandex, Russia's largest search engine, announced in early 2020 “Vega” as a new algorithm. This included 1,500 improvements madees at Yandex Search. Throughout 2020, Yandex continued to add more human elements to its search engine.
Andrey Styskin, Head of Yandex Search, said: “At Yandex, our goal is to help consumers and businesses navigate better in the online and offline world. With this new research update, RuNet users are helping us do just that ”.
According to a study by Mikhail Volovich and Olga Yudina of Ashmanov & Partners and reported by Dan Taylor Ranking factor differences between Yandex and Google include;
- Less link effects in Yandex compared to Google
- "On mobile, site speed seems to be more important for Google than Yandex, but in Yandex, the number of Turbo pages has increased considerably (apart from the first 3ers results).
- The research also predicted that mobile search will see an increase in AMP and Turbo pages.
5. Baidu
The main search engine in China, controls more than 74% of searches, and since the release of the algorithm in 2017 " Hurricane "continues to focus on the quality of the content.
Continues to crack down on low-quality sites with its 2020 updates, its StrongWind algorithm was introduced to monitor malicious site aggregator content.
Baidu SEO 2020 Update, Content Has Become King of Baidu Algorithm. Baidu Spider is focused on improving user experience. Like Google, Baidu has strongly , and provides dozens of services ranging from maps to cloud storage - and its search engine backs up thewhole ecosystem.
SEO trends to watch in 2021
SEOs care! Google has launched a new blog series in 2020 designed to show the value of SEO to businesses. The first post was an overview of how a Korean business was using SEO to double their web traffic. While Google has historically shied away from partnering with site optimization for its search algorithms, it seems SEO is no longer a dirty phrase. Hopefully this trend will continue.
Here are a few other areas to watch for in 2021 and beyond:
1. Brands adapt to rapidly changing consumer behavior
The first pandemic in our lives changed the way people search, buy, communicate and work. How longThese changes will last or how consumer behavior will evolve over the next year is a giant question mark in business and marketing plans around the world.
Here's what we know: Anxiety, stress and public health issues have resulted in massive changes in consumer behavior in 2020 . We have seen dramatic changes in interest in searches and conversions, with impacts different according to the verticals . And in the absence of historical data to guide marketers through such an event, insight from research data has become our closest approximation to real-time voice of the customer .
While we don't know what 2021 has in store for us, it is clear that this is the best place to track changes in consumer behavior as they occur, and it is in your research data. Business leaders will look to SEOs for their bring this information in understandable and understandable ways that can be implemented immediately to make smart business decisions.
2. Core Web Vitals Gaining in Importance
As Google Has explained, its April 2020 Web Vitals explanation, "Core Web Vitals is the subset of Web Vitals that applies to all web pages, should be measured by all site owners, and will be displayed in all Google tools.Each of the Core Web Vitals represents a distinct facet of the user experience, is measurable in the field, and reflects the real world experience of a user-centric critical result. "
At first glance, Google's CWV update is a reinforcement of what we already know to be best practices for user experience. If you would like to dig deeper into the research and methodology for this update, Definition of Core Web Vitals Metric Thresholds by Google Software Engineer Bryan McQuade is a good read.
Google also promises that Core Web Vitals definitions and thresholds will be stable and marketers will be notified in advance of updates, whichwill have a predictable annual rate.
3. Image and visual research
As brands vie for consumer attention and as an image and visual content optimization continues to gain real estate SERP , new channels are opening up beyond YouTube. Brands that want to stand out in 2021 should use combinations of images and videos to inform and educate customers as they spend more and more time online. Beyond the (non-traditional) Google niches, opportunities for vertical optimization may open up.
Here are two brief examples.
Vimeo
According to Cisco, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic in 2021. While YouTube still dominates, more and more platforms are opening up, offering more opportunities to optimize the coheld.
Vimeo , The video sharing platform originally created by filmmakers is building a large community of creative marketers producing content. While there are fewer ranking opportunities, there are still opportunities for marketers in this niche.
Without a doubt COVID-19 has fueled the growth in demand for more creativity in video production and as IAC (its owner) turns to make it an autonomous public company in 2021, time will tell where and if it is suitable for SEO.
GIPHY
Everyone loves a good picture, especially if it is animated. Giphy allows more and more marketing opportunities to make their content appealing. This is especially true for the younger generations. A full-fledged search engine, Optimization for Giphy presents new opportunities for optimization of intent and ranking on their own site.
now serves more than 7 billion GIFs per day and viewed by over 500 million daily optimization GIFs on Giphy (and in general) is a great way for SEO to educate and keep people engaged with your web pages.
For SEOs, standard image optimization is best practice these may work well on Giphy, but the competition is intense and nuances of optimization exist. For brand marketers (inparticular), Giphy and GIF can be a channel of notoriety in itself.
4. PPC and SEO Converge
In increasingly richer and Successful research teams will work together more transparently in 2021 at monitor profitable and natural results , determining from a more holistic perspective where the greatest opportunities lie in march and what tactics is the key to getting the most visibility and conversion from search. Together, the paid and organic teams will strategize to use tools such as Dynamic Search Network Ads and Discovery Campaigns , auction automation and AI-based content optimizations to increase brand awareness and promote content in both types of results.
5. Brands demand a return on investment and mastery of martech solutions
2020 has provided us " The Great Pause , literally stopping the world in its tracks. It allowed us to slow down, breathe, and take a hard look at what works and what doesn't. Even before the pandemic hit, it was clear that piles of point solutions not designed to fit together were a problem, but the extent of their shortcomings became clear this year.
Consumer behavior has changed so rapidly, and completely, that real-time information has gone from "nice to have" to life or death. Brands that only knew how to rely on the performance of previous months or years found themselves lacking a sense of direction and unable to pivot. In the future, brands are looking for platform solutions that not only automate, but do it intelligently with AI and machine learning. In addition, they are looking for agile marketers capable of getting the best possible result from these martech solutions.
What does 2021 hold for the business world? Only time will tell However, SEOs are among the best placed to lead in the face of uncertainty and should expect stakeholders across the organization to look to them this year for guidance. true both regionally and internally, as the interest in International SEO is on the rise again.
Now is the time to make sure you are set up with the right tools and skills to provide.
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