With the rise of new businesses, the competition for readers’ attention is getting stiffer each day. Staying ahead of your competition on the PageRank, with the latest SEO practices, will enable your website to meet the specific requirements that Google uses to rank sites.
Google makes numerous changes in its search algorithm almost every year. This year they rolled out the “Broad Core Algorithm Update,” or simply “the January 2020 core update”. Below are some of the most important SEO trends you should expect to see this year.
Google Voice Search
If data from March 2019 is to go by, slightly more than 20% of mobile searches were voice searches. Voice queries are becoming increasingly accurate and popular, and as this trend rises, more people, in 2020, will simply speak into their browsers to search what they need. For this trend, using bullet lists on your web content will significantly increase your chances of ranking high for Google voice searches.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are summaries of content or summaries of answers to search queries. The use of featured snippets in posts will continue to have an influence on search results. Major search engines display the search queries above the paid ads. Featured snippets are a great way to stamp your authority in your niche as they get you more traffic than the first organic search result. To pitch the snippets right, provide relevant, high-quality, question-based search results with the right keywords. If you can, use questions from “people also ask” feature as it provides insight on related queries for more in-depth answers.
Use of Influencers for SEO
Website users are overwhelmed with adverts—in fact, adverts turn them off and make them bounce off websites. When people land on your site, they are looking for credible and reliable information, and if the source of that information is a review from a renowned influencer, they are most likely to trust it more than an ad. Working with an influencer will help your business convert more traffic into customers and amplify our web content.
To make the most out of this trend, contract an influencer who resonates with your target market and knows how to align your products with the needs of your target market. So, what’s the relationship between your influencer and your SEO? Not difficult to tell, the backlinks from your influencer will show Google that your website is offering value and complement your SEO efforts.
A great Digital Experience
Website users want and will continue to want convenient and easy-to-use digital platforms. If your website does not offer users a great digital experience, they will bounce off in a few seconds, and vise-versa. Fast page load speed, user-friendly websites, strategically located call-to-action buttons, and responsive web design are all important ranking factors. More importantly, they enhance the customer experience while on your site. To offer a great digital experience, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and identify all the attributes that cause a poor user experience, and get rid of them. This will reduce your site’s bounce rate and increase your site’s user session duration, and consequently enhance your SEO efforts.
Content-Length
Content is king and will continue to be king this year. Google loves content that people find helpful; if you have such content, you have a gem. However, when you consider quality, you’ll also want to consider the quantity. Recent research shows that most content on the first page of Google has at least 2000 words. Unlike the case in the previous years where only quality was considered, the paradigm has shifted, and today, long-form, high-quality posts receive significant visibility. How? Well, long-form content increases session durations—a major ranking factor.
Mobile Search Will Be on The Rise
Did you know that about 87% of American internet users browse the internet in their mobile phones, and 40% of all transactions are done on mobile phones? If you didn’t know, Google, the largest search engine, adjusted its algorithm to mobile-first indexing of websites to give users the best mobile search experience. So, this year, the mobile phone search will continue to dominate searches.
Parting Shot
Search Engine Optimization is dynamic. Just when you think you are a master, the search engines update their algorithms, and this calls for adjustments on different aspects of your SEO strategy. In 2020, SEO will be holistic and will require that you optimize for both offline and online elements to dominate your niche. No matter the updates, you need to invest in a long-term SEO plan that’s flexible so that you can make adjustments in line with the contemporary trends to avoid being left behind. Be sure to implement the trends outlined in this article, and in a few months, you’ll be glad you did.