Google is currently making changes to the design and extent of the displayed search results. We assume that this is how Google is preparing for the AI innovations towards the end of this year or early next year. These changes partially affect how SISTRIX measures search results. The most important changes:
Interactive SERPs
Google strives to increase the time users spend in the search results. Therefore, especially searches with a high search volume are becoming increasingly interactive and are thus moving away from classic result lists. We already cover 44 different result types and will continue to expand this collection as needed. However, we expect that especially new result types will often no longer contain a link to webpages and only mention brands/products without linking to them. These changes will result in fewer organic results being displayed.
Hiding similar results
For a lot of search terms, Google no longer displays 100 organic results, but points out that these are very similar to the results displayed so far. This reduces the number of top 100 rankings found, especially for domains that often rank further back in the search results. We assume that Google is striving to reduce rather than increase the number of organic results for keywords.
Expansion of Infinite Scrolling
Google is experimenting with automatically displaying further results when reaching the end of the first search results page (“Infinite Scrolling”). These experiments are currently being rolled out in more countries. Likewise, we see them on mobile as well as desktop SERPs. We make an effort to depict user behaviour as best as possible and to capture as many organic results as possible, especially for search terms with a high monthly search volume (more than 1,000 searches). Nevertheless, these changes may lead to a reduction in the number of top 100 results.
No impact on the Visibility Index
These adjustments and changes by Google only affect the number of top 100 keywords displayed in SISTRIX. There is no impact on the SISTRIX Visibility Index. It continues to be historically comparable and measures the visibility of domains in the search results. More about the Visibility Index.
