Online competition is always increasing as new websites launch every day. So you need to reconsider your strategy of content marketing and start investing in SEO. As search engines like Google set requirements, your website needs to make sure that customers find it in the results.
Waves of new websites are launched daily. If you don’t stay with the trends, it’s easy to fall behind and get lost in the current. So read ahead to find out 2020’s top 12 trends in SEO.
1. Featured Snippets
Featured Snippets play a huge role in search engine results. In fact, 54% of clicks from Google come from Featured Snippets. But what are Featured Snippets? They are the thing that appears at the top of the results, even before the organic number one place. This is usually called Position Zero. Most Featured Snippets gain their top spot by clearly answering simple questions. Google evaluates the answer you give to a common question on your website and considers its quality.
So if you can pass their standards of value and convenience, you’ve earned your website a number one position in search engine results. Following this comes a flow of organic traffic and more search clicks.
2. Influencers Helping SEO
Although ads can be great, they feel less natural and genuine than the opinion of a real and trusted singular voice. That’s why influencer marketing has soared. People engage with and relate to a person more than an advertisement. Especially if that person is well-liked and well-known. Many digital marketers have realized this trend and are including influencers in their budget. In fact, 39% of marketers spent more on influencer marketing in 2018 than they did the previous year.
Companies pay tens of thousands of dollars every year to partner with an influencer. And for good reason. Your reach will extend through their associations and provide more traffic to your site. Backlinks might also be an extra benefit, which will improve the ranking of your webpage. Just remember to consider what you want from an influencer. Make sure they are in the same industry and devise a strategy for content creation. If their audience is your audience, and you use influencer marketing wisely, then awareness of and leads to your brand will rocket.
3. Importance of Secure Websites
Good SEO depends on the user’s experience. They must feel safe and secure visiting your webpage. Otherwise, they will leave quickly and your bounce rate will increase, which can lower the position of your sight in search engine results. You must make sure that users won’t see a “Not Secure” warning when they visit your page. If they do, they might not visit it at all.
One way to avoid this SEO mishap is to enable HTTPS protocol. This gives authority to your website and ensures a secure connection. Google encourages HTTPS because it helps block people from intruding and tampering with your content and the browsers of your users. So you might receive a SEO boost if you enable this level of security.
4. Voice Search Optimisation
Keywords were born from people searching specific phrases into the search engines of their desktop computers. But in our modern world of smartphones, times have changed. Voice searches are a rising and popular technology. Especially as smart home devices like Alexa and Amazon Echo become more common, people search for things by asking a question out loud.
If your website is optimised for this type of user then you can receive more organic traffic. To do so, you need to adapt your SEO style to accommodate tis new way of searching. Short, catchy keywords are not so significant anymore, having been replaced by results and answering longer, more specific questions. Seeing as 50% of internet searches are expected to be made using voice searches in 2020, this is a particularly important trend to consider.
5. Mobile UX Design
Your website should have a mobile UX design. If you don’t have one you might lose users as mobile pages are growing increasingly popular going into 2020. Better global connectivity means more and more people have mobiles. That means the mobile version of your page has to be more than adequate. It should be entertaining and attention-grabbing. Not just a second-hand version of your desktop website. Most searches are made using phones more than any other device. The prominence of your page is directly linked to the quality of your mobile version. So make sure it is to a very high standard.
6. Make Use of Video
Video is a very on-trend media going into 2020. Most young people prefer to consume information through video. Whether it is educational or entertaining, it is a millennial trend that watching is a more attention-grabbing act than reading. In fact, six out of ten people prefer online videos over television.
So if you want to raise the standard of your SEO, create dynamic videos that catch and keep the attention of your users. The importance of keywords still exists in the video. Put them in the headlines and descriptions of your videos to reach the people most interested in its content. That way, you can stay on SEO-trend in 2020.
7. More Importance on CTR and Dwell Time
Click-through rates (CTR) refers to the number of users who click on a link based on the number of those who saw it but didn’t click. Dwell time is how long a person spends on the page after they click on it before bouncing back away from it. Both of these will matter more and more to your SEO over the next year.
Both these metrics show significant insight into the actions and satisfaction of your users. How long somebody lingers on your page simply and clearly shows how engaged they are with the content and whether or not they are finding the information for which they searched. The longer they sent on your page, the better. Search engines will place a higher value on this in 2020.
8. Importance of High-Quality Content
As the years go by and more and more content builds on the internet, the importance of high-quality writing becomes more and more important. Online ads, although useful for business, will get more expensive and is often wasted anyway on people only seeing the ad for less than a second of time. Therefore, quality content can be extremely valuable for marketing as an SEO strategy. Google rewards information that is timely, relevant, and helpful to its searchers.
So make sure you create content that answers to questions of your users. Make the structure logical and easy to decipher without overly trying to sell something. Instead, people want information that is easy to consume and not overwhelming or robotic. That’s why videos, podcasts, and blogs can be so effective.
9. High-Quality Digital Experience
Although content is important, your users also need to have a smooth and enjoyable experience of visiting your website. It should load quickly and be simple and easy to navigate. If it doesn’t load within a few seconds, many people will immediately leave and that can come at a huge cost for your business. So make sure your page speed is up to scratch to improve SEO.
Always put yourself in the position of your users. Don’t get caught up in your own cleverness or creativity. Keep the layout and experience of your website simple and easy to navigate. Don’t use unnecessary words of specific vocabulary that might isolate your visitors. If they don’t understand it immediately, they will go backwards and you can expect high bounce rates. This will greatly affect your search rankings.
10. Content-Length Significance
You should always be aware of the trends in content length to know the optimal amount of words for your content. Going into 2020, longer articles are more favourable. Those of 2,000 words or more usually get more readers. Why? Well, people prefer to receive all their information in one place rather than jumping around sources. If your page is reliable, they will get everything they need there, which is a much more convenient experience.
Longer content length trends are even better for your SEO rankings because users will spend more time on a single web page, which Google will reward with organic traffic. So high-quality writing and longer content are important things to consider next year.
11. Artificial Intelligence
Google algorithms will depend more and more upon AI in 2020. Mainly, it is because this technology can create more personalized and unique experiences for users. AI can identify which characteristics of articles makes them valuable. It then classifies, by those standards, a large number of pages to rank them with precision. This futuristic technology is already happening but it will continue to develop even more in 2020.
12. Other Search Engines
Google is undoubtedly the world’s number one search engine. They stay on top of SEO technology and constantly update to improve user experience. But other search engines do exist. And to keep up with an effective SEO strategy, it’s important to understand Google alternatives too. Standards differ between search engines. So you might want to ensure your content is optimised in ways that work for other services like DuckDuckGo, YouTube, and Bing. Your rankings on those sites could also make a huge difference.
Conclusion
SEO strategies are something every business needs to consider, regardless of your industry. It’s not all about keywords but also about ensuring a high-quality experience for your users. As Google analyses the behaviours of users, you can use their assessments to know what people want when they visit your webpage. So keep adapting to the trends and gain more targeted and organic traffic in 2020.
