How to adapt your business to the new world of search

Google isn’t the most popular search engine in the world by accident. More than 2.3 million searches are conducted on Google every minute, in large part thanks to new and evolving features that prioritize the user experience. Over time, the company has transformed the way we access information and find answers.?

For example, we often find answers directly on Google’s search results pages, then close the browser tab. By offering immediate answers to people’s questions without users having to click on specific results, Google has evolved from a search engine into an answer engine.

This is great for users - but it complicates things for businesses. With fewer people clicking through to official websites, it’s become harder for brands to be visible to their customers. It also means brands are losing control over the content displayed to consumers, since the information that appears on Google’s results pages is usually a mix of several sources.

To succeed in the new world of search, companies must adapt their strategies to maximize brand exposure - otherwise, they risk being unclicked upon and left behind.

From search to answer engine

Before we dive into best practices, let’s take a closer look at Google’s transition from search to answer engine. In recent years, Google has designed a variety of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features offering direct answers to queries.

Prominent features include:

• The Rich Answer Box, a feature that provides a direct answer to a search query at the top of the first page of results.
• The Entity Carousel, a row of interactive visual search results that appear at the top of the first page.
• The Knowledge Panel, an information box that appears on the first page when users search for entities like people, places, organizations or things. It’s meant to offer a quick snapshot of all the information available for that search.
• People Also Ask, a feature that answers additional questions related to a user’s search query. Each answer comes from a web page and is followed by a clickable link.

With all these helpful additions, why would anyone bother to keep clicking? Increasingly, they’re not: From 2019 to 2021, the percentage of people finding information on Google’s SERP without clicking on results rose from 50% to 75%.

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Five ways your business can maximize search exposure

So, how can your business increase its search visibility and provide relevant answers to customers, anytime and everywhere? There are five key practices to follow:

1) Combine paid and organic search efforts

First, initiate a combined analysis of paid and organic search for budget efficiency. Then create an automated custom dashboard that merges data sources from search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA) to optimize your media spending and increase your overall click-through rate (CTR).

2) Think local to reach global

Make sure your brand has a strong online presence, including (when relevant) profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and TripAdvisor. Update all information about your business on those channels - how else will thirsty visitors know your bar does happy hour all day on Thursday?

You should also foster relationships with other local businesses (this will send positive signals about your business to customers) and build citations. Mentions of businesses and their contact information make up almost 13% of ranking factors on Google’s Local Pack, a feature that appears on the first page of results of a search query with local intent. Also, keep encouraging customers to write reviews and give ratings. Bumping up your business’s score by one star can help boost revenue by almost 10%.

3) Integrate social and search efforts

Almost 43% of users say they research products on social media before buying them. Joining online discussions will help customers discover your products and services, and your brand should also produce content on trending topics. What better time to promote your restaurant’s fried chicken sandwich than on National Fried Chicken Day?

4) Boost visibility on digital commerce sites

Did you know that 56% of consumers say that if they could buy products from a single store, it would be Amazon? Strategies to increase your brand’s visibility on digital commerce websites like Amazon include keyword optimization, creating customizable stores and boosting product popularity through incentivization and outreach tactics.?

5) Prioritize voice and visual search

Voice searches for information about local services and businesses are becoming more popular. But because the voice assistant only reads aloud one result of the SERP (what’s found in the Rich Answer Box), businesses must provide content that Google can easily use to generate an answer box. Make sure to target keywords and questions that are frequently posed by users.?

Visual search - technology that enables users to search using an image instead of text - is also gaining popularity among Gen-Z consumers. While visual search depends on the technological advancements in AI, your business can prepare itself by understanding your customer’s needs, creating a robust site map, choosing the right images in the right visual formats and following the best SEO practices.

Ultimately, being discovered online through search is as much about using tried-and-true strategies as anticipating emerging search trends. And, in doing so, it’s critical to provide a seamless experience across all channels. All companies, regardless of vertical or size, must implement a robust search experience optimization (SXO) strategy to successfully promote their products and services lest they go unclicked upon or, worse, undiscovered entirely.