SEO is an important part in any digital marketing strategy. No matter if you are trying to increase brand awareness, sell a product or gather more leads. It will surely bring more organic traffic to your website and increase your site’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.
Since SEO trends continuously change, you need to be up to date with them and know how to implement them.
To give you a head start, we’ve rounded up these SEO trends that you can’t ignore.
Table of Contents
Mobile over-optimization will impact search rankings
The use of mobile devices has increased over the years. In addition, the mobile phone is the most popular tool for Internet access.
According to the study, 60% of Google searches are done on mobile phones. If you want to attract browser users, your website needs to be optimized for mobile devices.
The growing use of mobile devices to access the Internet is one of the main reasons why Google is announcing mobile-first indexing. By applying mobile indexing first, Google indexes the mobile version of your website before your desktop version.
If your site is not optimized for mobile phones, Google will not be able to see your pages as strong competition for your keywords.
You need to check how friendly your site is on mobile devices. The best way to do it is to take a Google mobile-friendly test.
Just enter the website URL and click “run test”. The tool will analyze your website and tell you whether your website is suitable for mobile phones or not.
The tool also highlights potential usability issues with your site. Actions taken based on the suggestions will allow you to provide a better website experience for mobile visitors.
The best solution is to use a theme suitable for mobile devices. This means that your website will adapt to the screen of any device on which it is viewed.
Artificial intelligence will play a larger role
For technical nerds, artificial intelligence is not a new term to explain. AI is one of the most important technologies that has changed the way people communicate with online content. In Google’s ranking factors for SERP results the RankBrain algorithm plays an important role.
Experts believe that RankBrain is still taking small steps, but lately it is getting bigger. The algorithm examines different patterns of user behavior. These could include factors from click-through rate to average time spent on any page. To optimize your website for artificial intelligence you can create fresh, original, interesting and readable content that provides users with useful information.
With the help of tools like On-page SEO checker and others, you can measure the strength of your site based on some key metrics such as readability, backlinks, load time, backlinks and more. If you score high on page strength, Google’s AI algorithm will notice and affect your search engine rankings.
Voice search will dominate search queries
Another SEO trend you must pay attention to is voice search. Voice search technology has evolved thanks to innovations such as Google Assistant, Apple Siri and Amazon Alec. It is predicted that by 2024 the percentage of households that own a smart speaker will be 55%.
The accuracy of voice transcription is one of the main reasons for its popularity. The voice transcription systems built by Google and Microsoft show only 5.1% error rates.
Voice searches are generally conversational-oriented and target long-tail keywords as well. To create a website that is optimized for voice search, you need to create conversational content.
Recognize longer sentences that people use in everyday conversations. Voice searches are best suited for longer, more natural sentences. When people write, they usually shorten it.
High-quality content will still be king
As before, Google will continue to favour high-quality content for ranking purposes. Your content should offer accurate information to search queries. The key factors for optimising your website’s ranking within the SERPs will still be expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). Content authors should devote skill, time, effort, and expertise when creating the content.
Backlinko’s study analyzed 1 million search results and revealed that the page that ranked number 1 has 1,890 words on average. Also, long-form content tends to get more social shares and backlinks.
Updating existing content will also become a very important trend within the SEO world.
With this method, those pages that are not ranking so well will allow Google to figure out what your site offers while helping you to identify your audience.
Some tips when updating evergreen content are:
- Add a new video, image, or infographic
- Find broken or dead links and replace them with new ones
- Delete it or place a 301 redirect to pages that are not relevant for your readers anymore
Implement Local SEO
Implementing local SEO practices will ensure that your business is easy to find when users perform local searches. 50% of consumers who conduct local searches visit a store within a day of searching.
Make sure that you are offering a detailed listing for your business. Here are some tips to make the most of your local listing:
- Make the most of your GMB (Google My Business) listing. Put all relevant information from your company. That includes services, opening hours, address, company website, phone numbers, etc.
- Start building local citations. Local citations are any mention of your business’s details. That could be the name, phone number, and address. It will help people discover your business online. Also, they are useful to rank higher for local search queries.
- Promote reviews from your customers. This is a great way to promote your site. Build a relationship with your customers and answer their reviews. Approximately 85% of consumers trust online reviews, the same way they trust recommendations made by people they know.
- Perform local keyword research to find keywords and queries that customers are utilising to find services and businesses locally. Use digital marketing tools such as to discover monthly search volumes, competitors, and those long-tail keywords that are relevant for your brand.
- Optimise your website for voice search. Perform keywords research and identify longer phrases that people use in a day-to-day conversation.
Focus on UX and semantic search
In May 2020, Google Webmaster Central announced that Google will now consider a large number of user experience signals as part of its ranking. These include faster page loading, easy to find pages, and mobile-friendliness.
You should be focusing on the following:
- Avoid including intrusive content such as pop-ups. Users find this kind of content unnecessary and annoying.
- Your site must be accessible on all devices, such as smartphones, tablets, computers and laptops
- Make sure that your website is fast when loading.
Google’s algorithm tries to better understand what users are looking for. That being said, we identify semantic search as to how search engines use all the data that it has available, to offer users the most relevant and precise information.
You should rely on natural, easy to read sentences. Make content that goes straight to the point and is understandable to all target groups.
Add a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to your landing pages. This allows you to answer specific questions from your customers about your business. It is also another way to engage with customers while increasing traffic.
Conclusion
These are the most important SEO trends that you can’t ignore. Like any other marketing trend, SEO trends are always changing and new trends can emerge at any time. Unless you follow the latest news, your business will fall behind, risk your rank falling, and fail to be seen by searchers in the moments that matter.
