Every business has been affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, causing many to rethink their approach to marketing and sales. This prompted an interest in digital marketing, especially SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is an essential part of online marketing, which enables websites to be found by search engines like Google. For many online businesses, SEO generates the best ROI in the long run. It can help increase traffic, engagement, and conversion without the need to spend too much money like on PPC. It is a long-term strategy that benefits businesses the most, helping them grow over time.
SEO is a continuous process, especially since Google brings new updates to its algorithm every year, affecting website rankings from time to time. In fact, Google launched a core algorithm update just last year, which caused massive changes to the SERP.
This is why it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends so you can keep up with Google’s algorithm changes. This will help your online business to improve its search result rankings so more customers can find you online.
Let’s check out these 8 latest SEO trends for 2020:
Focus on User-Focused Optimization.
Google launched the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) algorithm in 2019, and since then, experts have been trying to learn how to optimize for this update. BERT will affect conversational queries the most. This is because it was designed by Google to improve its bots’ understanding of natural language.
Build your SEO strategy on a user-focused optimization. This means prioritizing the user experience.
For example, create quality content that matches your users’ intent. Google’s updated algorithm is currently built to consider a user’s intent when providing search engine results. So start by identifying the users’ intention for searching a specific keyword. Are they searching to buy something online or to find a solution to their problem? From there, you can start building your content. If they are looking to purchase something online, then write content that recommends the best products. But if they are looking for a solution, then create content that can provide the answers to their problem.
Google SERPs will continue to evolve.
Google’s search engine result pages have changed over the years, and it will continue to evolve. For starters, answer boxes or Featured Snippets have been getting a large portion of clicks since it was launched in 2018. A new carousel for videos has also been added above the text-based organic results.
All these features have caused a significant decrease in share in the organic clicks. In fact, according to SparkToro.com, more than half of all the searches are now zero-click searches. This means that users can find answers on the SERP, without the need to click on the organic results.
Work on how you can build content that will enable you to appear in the “People Also Ask” box. For example, post articles that answer people’s questions. This type of content is likely to appear in Featured Snippets.
Entity engagement to drive local SEO.
In a report published by Tidings, they stated that engagement will be an important factor for local SEO this year. Your website’s entity engagement is determined by signals on the web, such as your brand reputation.
Do people know about your business? Are there people looking for your business address or location on Google Maps? Does your business have positive reviews on Google My Business?
All these signals will affect your local business popularity or entity engagement. So make sure to optimize your Google My Business listing and double-check the information you posted on your directory listings, especially your Business Name, Business Address, and Phone.
Optimized and quality content will be rewarded.
As stated earlier, Google has become better at understanding the natural language, thanks to the BERT update. The core search algorithm is now built to comprehend the user’s search intent behind his or her query.
With this, content that follows the EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) principle are likely to rank higher. So when writing articles, create content that answers the user’s query. It should be well-written, optimized, deliver value and information.
Mobile Optimization is a top priority.
On July 1, 2019, Google enabled mobile-first indexing for all websites. With most users accessing Google search through their mobile phones, Googlebot now primarily crawls and indexes websites that are mobile compatible. Going forward, your SEO strategy for 2020 should be mobile-driven.
So how can you optimize your website for mobile devices? Start by using a responsive design for your website, this will allow its interface to work virtually on any device or platform. You should also consider the design of your buttons for mobile users. Another tip is to increase the loading speed of your website. You can do this by reducing HTTP requests, as well as web scripts. It will also be better to use CSS to render animation than Javascript.
Use Featured Snippets to reach rank zero.
A featured snippet shows users the summary of answers to their queries. It is displayed at the top of Google’s SERP, above the paid and organic results, which is often referred to as position zero. Due to this, more than 50% of all search results lead to no clicks because users already get the answer they need in the page result.
In a study done by Ahrefs, more than two million featured snippets get more traffic than the first organic search result.
To write content for Featured Snippets, aim to answer question-based queries. Look at the questions present in the “People Also Ask” section and write articles that answer these questions.
To optimize your content for Featured Snippets, start by doing your keyword search and aim for question-type search queries. For topics or ideas, you can look at the results in the “People also ask” box. Another great tip is to write your content using the inverted-pyramid style. Start providing the most important part of the content, such as the answer, and then proceed by writing the supporting details.
Videos will be the best type of content.
Visual content is the new king, and Google proves this by showing their preferences to videos. In a study by Forrester Research, videos are more than 50% likely to appear on the first page SERP than any other type of content. Aside from that, 62% of the entire Google universal searches actually includes videos.
This is why professional marketers encourage small businesses to create and publish videos on Youtube. Optimize those videos, and embed the video on your website. Add content to let Google know what your video is about.
Use Influencer Marketing to rank.
As stated earlier, a website’s engagement metrics are one of the criteria that affect its search result ranking. It involves the bounce rate, dwell time, comments, and social shares of a page. One way to improve your engagement metrics is to use influencer marketing.
Having your brand endorsed by influencers can increase your page’s traffic, social shares, and prolong user’s dwell time. In return, this can have a positive effect on your website’s engagement metrics and improve your search result ranking.
In a study conducted by Adweek alongside Annalect and Twitter, they found that users trust influencers as much as they trust their friends. This makes influencer marketing the most effective form of word of mouth marketing in this digital age.
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SEO is one of the most important keys to success in the world of digital marketing, especially for small businesses. It is a continuous and evolving process that needs time and effort to reap its benefits.
And although 2020 seems to bring more challenges and competition, you can get an edge over your competitors by applying these latest SEO trends to your digital marketing strategy. But if you need any help in executing these SEO strategies, feel free to ask questions or send a message to the best digital marketing company in Los Angeles.