SEO is Changed but not Dead
Since its foundation in 1998, Google has come a long way from a small garage based company to a multinational corporation generating billions of dollars. It is no secret that most of Google’s revenue (about 97 %) is derived from AdWords – paid search results. Organic search results do not bring any profit to Google and are meant to provide the user with relevant information placed objectively. Although Google representatives frequently state that their main priority is to provide the users with great search experience – the fact stays unquestionable – whenever entering a competitive query paid search results are taking over the page leaving almost no space for organic results in which more than 90 % of Google search engine users are interested according to the survey results.
Several articles have been posted recently which proclaimed the death of Google’s organic search. A personal research conducted by Aaron Harris, business owner from New York revealed that it is only 13% of real estate that is left for organic search results. He checked the structure of search page layouts for different search queries on various devices and came up with a conclusion that “Google has killed organic search”. Following his estimations, there is no doubt that if compared to the times when there were 7-8 organic search results per page, today’s search page layout looks completely different.
Online advertising has been changed by both business owners and customers. Being at its highest peak of popularity, it is the most effective tool that helps companies to reach their target audiences. That’s why online advertising has become part of many big and small businesses. With so many companies that want to be visible online, competitiveness of the search queries is at its constant growth. It is the main factor that determines number of organic search results displayed. Many companies also make their ads bigger than the standard size including sitelinks and ad extensions. Some of the today’s used devices’ screens are also much smaller than typical computer screens what provides even less space for unpaid results. Taking all of it into consideration, should we still blame Google for modifying its SERP? My personal opinion is that we shouldn’t. Google is not a charity fund but a corporation interested in maximization of its profit as any other business. Companies are ready to pay for advertising that Google is able to provide. And taking an objective look at it, changes that Google introduces seem fair even if they do not always seem positive for companies.
Even though SEO has been modified it still exists and companies may get use of free online advertising. It just takes more for companies to be visible in organic search results for competitive search queries rather than having a catchy title tag including the main keywords. It is in the interests of Google to provide its users with relevant information that they will find helpful. You might have noticed that when entering any search query Google provides you with informative content sites in the first rankings. Try to make your site look worthy for Google so that it will reward you with a good position. Invest in customer service, well-developed design of the website, catchy content and make sure to provide great user experience for the visitors of your website. Put your thinking into the changes that you can make to adapt to new rules and get use of the available opportunities left.
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