Remember April of last year? Yeah, me neither. I guess that's what Facebook’s “On This Day” is for. But just to refresh your memory, that was when Google rolled out its requirements for all websites to have a mobile or mobile friendly site or risk being punished in the search engine rankings. Google recently announced that the April 2015 changes in ranking signal were only the beginning.According to a recent announcement from the company, “Beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.”For a while now, we have been talking about how the future of the web is mobile. More and more people are searching and “snacking” on the go during intent rich micro-moments, and Google is urging brands to make the experience more user-friendly.Meanwhile, this is not the only big announcement that Google has made relating to search recently. It comes at the same time that Google’s SVP of Search, Amit Singhal, is retiring and their head of Artificial Intelligence, John Giannandrea is taking his place.What does that mean exactly?Google has been working in the realm of AI and machine learning for quite some time now, a clear indicator that this is where they believe the future is taking us. This includes deep neural networks, layers of algorithms that approximate the web of neurons in the human brain. By analyzing vast amounts of digital data, these neural nets can learn pretty much anything, like identifying photos, recognizing voice commands, driving a car, and, as it turns out, responding to Internet search queriesSo what does all of this mean for brands? Well, primarily that your website might need a makeover if it still has a clunky mobile experience. With 48% of consumers beginning their research on a mobile device, brands would be remiss to fail to include mobile strategy in their marketing efforts, not least of which should be a mobile friendly site.As far as the move to machine learning goes, the only thing to be concerned with is just making sure you are telling an authentic story about who you are and what you do. If you are still packing your website with repetitive keywords just to rank for them or using deceptive alt image tags, your days are numbered. The whole purpose behind integrating AI into search is to improve the user-experience - to anticipate what people want based on how their brain actually works as opposed to signals coming from your website.More than anything, it is time to get comfortable with change, because it is about to start happening dramatically and quickly. Hopefully, one day soon, my dream of having a robot that can wash and fold my laundry will come true - leaving time for much more important activities like saving the world and binge watching the newest season of House of Cards on Netflix. You know, priorities.
Remember April of last year? Yeah, me neither. I guess that's what Facebook’s “On This Day” is for. But just to refresh your memory, that was when Google rolled out its requirements for all websites to have a mobile or mobile friendly site or risk being punished in the search engine rankings. Google recently announced that the April 2015 changes in ranking signal were only the beginning.According to a recent announcement from the company, “Beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.”For a while now, we have been talking about how the future of the web is mobile. More and more people are searching and “snacking” on the go during intent rich micro-moments, and Google is urging brands to make the experience more user-friendly.Meanwhile, this is not the only big announcement that Google has made relating to search recently. It comes at the same time that Google’s SVP of Search, Amit Singhal, is retiring and their head of Artificial Intelligence, John Giannandrea is taking his place.What does that mean exactly?Google has been working in the realm of AI and machine learning for quite some time now, a clear indicator that this is where they believe the future is taking us. This includes deep neural networks, layers of algorithms that approximate the web of neurons in the human brain. By analyzing vast amounts of digital data, these neural nets can learn pretty much anything, like identifying photos, recognizing voice commands, driving a car, and, as it turns out, responding to Internet search queriesSo what does all of this mean for brands? Well, primarily that your website might need a makeover if it still has a clunky mobile experience. With 48% of consumers beginning their research on a mobile device, brands would be remiss to fail to include mobile strategy in their marketing efforts, not least of which should be a mobile friendly site.As far as the move to machine learning goes, the only thing to be concerned with is just making sure you are telling an authentic story about who you are and what you do. If you are still packing your website with repetitive keywords just to rank for them or using deceptive alt image tags, your days are numbered. The whole purpose behind integrating AI into search is to improve the user-experience - to anticipate what people want based on how their brain actually works as opposed to signals coming from your website.More than anything, it is time to get comfortable with change, because it is about to start happening dramatically and quickly. Hopefully, one day soon, my dream of having a robot that can wash and fold my laundry will come true - leaving time for much more important activities like saving the world and binge watching the newest season of House of Cards on Netflix. You know, priorities.
