Changes in technology that will affect the future of SEM

Upcoming changes in technology and the future of SEO / SEM are undoubtedly bounded to one another. The developments in technology are following up each other rapidly and have consequences for the future of SEO / SEM. This blog will guide you through the main expected changes that businesses will face rather sooner than later.  

Picture retrieved from https://orangedotcom.nl/blog/voice-search/

Whereas people nowadays are still searching through text, voice search is becoming increasingly important. The advantage is that it is less time-consuming and easier to find the results you are looking for. However, what difference does it make to businesses? Voice search is different compared to text search as people will use spoken language and complete sentences with voice search instead of key words with text search. This changes the SEO of businesses as you need to focus on spoken language and long-tail keywords (Siu, 2019).

Another upcoming trend that definitely will influence business's SEM practices, is augmented reality. Where Google and Bing make use of ranked search lists, with augmented reality content will be searched for through visuals. People will no longer open the internet browser to look for things, but their camera. So instead of using keywords, businesses now should focus on creating micro-moments, also referred to as critical touchpoints in a customer journey. Expected is local SEO to rise, as augmented reality uses your exact location.

A third development is visual search, which is based on pictures. In other words, pictures are the base for search and not text. How does this work? Imagine walking on the streets when seeing someone with a really nice pair of shoes. You simply make a picture of them and your phone will automatically search for this specific pair of shoes and similar ones. Google already implemented a feature that makes visual search possible, however expected is that this trend will develop even further (Maarten, 2018).

These trends will change the SEM landscape and businesses will need to adapt in order to keep pace. Exciting times are expected for businesses with regards to search and it will be interested to see what trend will be the biggest disruptor in the end.

This blog is written by Bas Uittenbroek, if you wish to comment on this blogpost, please send an email to 0898211@hr.nl