According to a study from Econsultancy, 87 percent of marketers said changes to Google’s search algorithms have impacted their campaigns. The ways search updates force companies to adapt can vary from business to business. However, frequent shifts in how Google analyzes and delivers search results have forced many to be more vigilant with their SEO strategies.
Thirty-nine percent of companies said the changes have forced “highly significant” adjustments to organic search strategies. Other industry reports suggest many have turned to content marketing to galvanize their websites against rapid decreases in search traffic due to algorithm updates.
Thirty-nine percent of companies said algorithm changes have forced “highly significant” adjustments to organic search strategies.
Brafton recently highlighted data from IDG Enterprise that found search traffic is a primary metric for gauging the success of SEO and content marketing strategies. For many, a sign of an algorithm update impacting a site is a rapid drop in traffic. Based on the results of both reports, it’s likely that Google’s algorithms hit these sites in the past, forcing them to adopt strategies that eliminated the risk.
Other trends that have major impacts on companies’ marketing campaigns include the growth of the mobile web, local search technology and personalization. Each of these developments can result in different search results for users dependent upon on the devices they use to search or where they are when they send a query. The same strategies, mixed with some geographic elements, that companies develop to maintain strong search rankings through any Google algorithm updates can achieve goals even with mobile, local and personalization elements factored into queries.
As more companies develop engaging, high-quality website content to help them navigate the rapidly changing search marketing landscape, they’re finding enough success to warrant more investment. According to Econsultancy’s report, 86 percent of companies plan to spend more on digital marketing moving forward. This mirrors IDG’s finding that content production is on the rise for 84 percent of respondents.
Similarly, the number of employees dedicated to search and other forms of web marketing grew to more than 10 for 16 percent of responding businesses, up from 5 percent in 2010. Fifty-eight percent of businesses, however, still only task fewer than five employees with search responsibilities.
