If you are a digital marketer, you may be familiar with Google’s Core Updates.
For those who aren’t, these are periodic updates Google does to its search algorithm with an objective to improve the quality of search results. However, they’ve often been met with frustration, as each update introduced new ranking parameters, forcing website owners to adjust their strategies. This adaptation takes time, during which businesses witnessed a drastic drop in rankings and traffic, negatively impacting their revenue.
Anyhow, these updates aren’t going to stop. In fact, it is only going to evolve and get sophisticated-especially with the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This means, SEO will witness a major shakeup of SEO, which will make your online presence irrelevant, unless you learn and adapt. The strategies that worked for you last year-or even last month-will go obsolete.
So, what does the future hold in store for SEO? Will keywords become irrelevant? Will AI take over completely? What can businesses, marketers, and content creators expect over the next five years? One thing’s for sure: SEO is evolving faster like nothing we’ve witnessed before.
The Changing SEO Landscape
Remember those days, when stuffing your content with volatile keywords was all it takes for a higher SERP ranking?
Well, SEO has now come a long way from the days of keyword stuffing and link farming. Search engines, especially Google, now prioritize things like content relevance and user intent over spammy tactics. And with the adoption of AI, voice search and mobile-first indexing rising ever more than before, SEO is on course towards a revolution like we have never witnessed before.
Let’s now delve deeper into what the future holds and how you can stay ahead of your competition.
- AI & ML Will Take Over Search
Well, they are already here. Search engines are now getting smarter than before, thanks to automation technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. RankBrain and BERT-Google’s AI powered algorithm that ranks web pages and the ML model that helps Google understand text, respectively-are already improving the way search queries are processed and delivered according to the user intent.
What to Expect in the Next Five Years?
- Advanced Search: With AI, Google will better understand user intent based on factors like behavior, preferences and user history.
- AI Content & SEO: The rising adoption of AI-tools like ChatGPT and Gemini means one thing-Google will adapt its ranking parameters to suit AI-generated content.
- Voice/Conversational Search: Broken search queries like “Best Chinese restaurants in LA” will soon become a thing of the past. Instead, conversational queries like, “Where should I dine in LA for the best Chinese food” will become the norm as Google chatbots and smart assistants will understand and deliver results accordingly.
As an end-user/website owner, prioritizing content on user intent, conversational queries and natural language would help to stay updated and ahead of the curve.
- Featured Snippets and Zero-Click Searches
Almost 60% of Google searches now end up in zero-click searches. The users are now getting information on the search result page, without having to click any links and go through the website. How?
- Featured Snippets (boxes that appear in the right-hand corner of search results)
- People Also Ask (FAQ-type questions that appear just below search results)
- Google’s AI Overview (AI-generated section that appear right at the top)
Optimizing content that answers most-asked questions directly and for featured snippets, are ways to get Google to pull your content into the search results.
- Search Everywhere Optimization (SEO 2.0) – Optimizing Beyond Google
Google is still the undisputed king of search, but people (especially younger audiences) are slowly diversifying their search beyond Google. The concept of search everywhere optimization or multi-platform SEO is slowly taking shape.
- YouTube and TikTok SEO are as important as traditional SEO, especially if you’re looking to attract younger audiences.
- Amazon SEO has already grown to be an indispensable tool-as users are now searching e-commerce platforms for products than on Google.
- AI-powered search (Bing Chat, ChatGPT) are changing the way people look for information online.
- Rising Significance of E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), a long-standing ranking criteria Google uses to rank websites based on content, and not keywords.
What to Expect in the Next Five Years?
- More emphasis on credibility of the author.
- Ranking hike for brands adhering to the guidelines.
- Harsher penalties for low-quality or AI-spammed content. .
Writing content, in an attempt to manipulate algorithms, without focusing on content value-won’t work anymore. Priority would be given to those who regularly publish authentic & expert-driven content, secure credible backlinks, and strive to build authority in their niche.
- Video SEO to Dominate the Rankings
Video traffic is estimated to be a whopping 82% of all internet traffic according to a report by Cisco. Video platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok will have more influence on search rankings than before.
Google is already making changes and that means:
- Short-form videos (Reels, Shorts) will influence online discoverability
- Adding transcripts, subtitles and video SEO techniques will be vital
- Video content will get the nod over plain text
Therefore, investing in video content & marketing, optimizing video content and YouTube SEO will boost search rankings and help your brand stay on top.
- The Rise of Local & Hyperlocal SEO
Did you know that over 70% of customers who search for a local business, make a visit within the first 24 hours? With mobile searches fast becoming the norm, local SEO will decide if your brand is worthy enough to be at the top of regional searches.
What to Expect in the Next Five Years?
- Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) will become more important for local rankings.
- Voice search for local queries is already on the rise and will continue to dominate and dictate rankings.
- Augmented Reality (AR) might play a role in local map search experiences.
If you are a business owner and have a physical store, it is important to optimize your local SEO, Google Business Profile and focus on hyperlocal keywords.
- SEO Will Be More Automated and Sophisticated
SEO is now rapidly moving away from the notion of depending upon just keywords, as your dominance will also depend upon how skilled you are on the technical side as well:
- Core Web Vitals (CWV): A website’s experience – speed, interactivity and visual stability will directly have an impact on rankings.
- Schema Markup: Google will understand and prioritize structured data and well-written content to rank accordingly.
- AI SEO: Expect automation to influence rankings with widespread adoption of more AI tools automating keyword research, link-building and content research.
How to Win the Future of SEO?
Looking at the immediate future – the next five years – it will be less about manipulating SEO and more about providing value for users. AI, voice, video, UX will all rise to prominence, if your objective is to rank higher and stay competitive. SEO will evolve to be more technical, AI-driven and diversify to other platforms. Follow these to stay ahead:
- Focus on content, user intent and natural language,
- SEO 2.0 – optimize for multiple platforms (Google, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon),
- Craft content to appear on featured snippets and zero-click searches,
- Build authority by creating content to E-E-A-T guidelines,
- Gain expertise in technical SEO and automation,
- Prioritize video and local SEO.
Future of SEO — Leveling the Playing Field
SEO is evolving and moving forward at lightspeed. If you’re still relying on outdated strategies, then it is high time to level up your game.
MedResponsive, a leading search engine optimization company has realized this and developed cutting-edge SEO strategies that can be tailored to align with the future of advanced search. Here are a few reasons why you should collaborate with us:
- SEO 2.0: We are the future! Now, dominate Google, YouTube, TikTok, and AI-powered search engines with our proven strategies.
- AI-Powered SEO: Surge ahead of your competition with our advanced, AI-driven search strategies.
- Technical SEO Experts: Our SEO team is skilled in optimizing speed, structure, and data for improved rankings.
- E-E-A-T Authority Building: We work on to build a trusted brand that Google (and your audience) will love.
