Any Orange County SEO company needs to know at all times what Google is doing. That’s because understanding Google’s latest practices will allow them to better help their clients’ websites to rank. 2018 has been a busy year for Google, so let’s take a look at the latest changes to the search engine giant.

Zero-Click Features

Many SEO companies in Orange County have noticed something about Google lately, and it’s worth mentioning.

The search engine seems to be answering more questions directly through its SERP features, which is to say, a person can see the answer to their query without having to click on anything. At the same time, they’re driving up the CTRs for paid listings. So, what does this mean, going forward?

If the trend continues, it means that if the content for sites is being used in the SERP without the Google user having to go there, then websites will be missing out on traffic. In essence, Google is eating up the SERP, and decreasing the CTR for organic listings. This is bad news for lots of websites, though it is far from clear what can be done about it.

The Mobile-First Index

When the mobile-first index was rolled out a couple of years ago, Google said that they would roll it out slowly, and monitor its impact. That has turned out to be the case, but it would have seemed that by this time the new parameters set up by mobile-first would have been the cause of severe fluctuation in site rankings.

However, that hasn’t happened, at least not in a way that’s very noticeable. There are still lots of mobile sites that have poor UX, like those which are infested with popup ads. So far, they haven’t been penalized as badly as one might have imagined.

It could be that those changes are coming, and when they do, the designers of mobile sites will rue the day they decided to ignore Google’s suggestions. For the moment, though, the hammer still has not dropped.

It’s anyone’s guess what Google has planned for 2019. As always, it will be the job of your Orange County SEO company to watch for news of any algorithm updates and to be ready for some quick adjustments to your site whenever they seem warranted. But Google seems to be as unpredictable as ever, and that’s why the job of an SEO company is never easy, nor is the optimization of your site ever truly done.