As search engine algorithms keep changing, it is becoming more and more important for businesses to keep track of SEO trends and keep their websites optimized in order to meet the requirements set by major search engines such as Google.
If you’re looking for a way to boost your digital marketing strategy and stay ahead of the competition, here is a list of major SEO trends you should watch out for in 2020.
Voice search as a dominant search method
With more users turning to voice search to visit the websites, either by using their smartphones or relying on home voice assistants such as Alexa, VSEO (Voice Search Optimization) is becoming increasingly important for businesses. In fact, the statistics show that voice searches accounted for half of all the online queries made in 2019, so we can expect the trend to continue in the next year.
With the development of voice capturing technologies and the increasing number of users doing their shopping through voice search, businesses are expected to optimize their websites as a response to the increasing number of voice-based queries. In essence, this means that the content that is being published on the websites should be able to accommodate this emerging search method, which can be done by employing long-tail keywords as one of the ways of optimizing websites for voice searches.
Professional SEO is a must
Other than making sure your website is optimized for human visitors and ensuring user-friendliness, you also want to keep in mind your other audience – search engines. To be able to get the desired results and thrive in the highly competitive online market in 2020, you need to ensure online presence, and the way it can be done is with the help of SEO.
Now, you need to keep in mind that SEO is a process that is time-consuming, and if you’re not an expert in the field, it can be quite stressful until you figure out how it works. Sometimes, it can even be counterproductive and you can end up doing more harm than good. On the other hand, by having a reliable white label SEO company and their team of professionals do your SEO, you’ll be saving time and energy, and you’ll also ensure optimal results thanks to an expert-curated SEO strategy.
Technical SEO and UX will be working together
According to SEO experts, 2020 is also predicted to be the year when UX and technical SEO will be joining forces. In the past, most SEO trends were geared towards meeting the requirements set by the search engines.
This year, the digital marketing game is evolving, and we’ll be seeing a lot more trends that focus on providing the visitors with good user experience and high-quality, useful content and then tackling technical SEO afterward. Some of the examples of the two becoming increasingly linked include the emergence of mobile-first design as well as relying on knowledge graphs to enhance search engines’ results. So, for businesses aiming to generate more traffic and get more clicks, there’s no way of ignoring either of the two factors as they’ll be working together in determining the rankings.
Quantity as important as the quality
While the quality of the posts you publish will remain as one of the key factors in attracting the audience to your website in 2020, increasing the length of the articles and posts is what will get you more visibility. The reason for this is the fact that many users search for longer articles (optimally around 2000 words or more) that are comprehensive and answer all their questions, even though they take longer to read.
On the plus side, many individuals prefer to get their information from one single website they deem reliable. This, in turn, ensures more visits to the website, and the longer the users stay to read the articles and posts, the higher your organic traffic will be. Therefore, to please Google’s ranking algorithms, publish consistently and only post high-quality, lengthy content and you’ll have no trouble maintaining the appearance of an active website.
Snippets as a key feature
Another SEO trend for this year will be driving clicks to websites with the help of Featured Snippets. This feature often pops up on the so-called “Position 0”, which is right above the first organic search result. What this means for websites is that, even though they’re not appearing as the number one search result, they’re still able to attract more organic traffic.
Judging by the statistics, more than half the clicks from Google are generated through Featured Snippets. The way it works? The user is able to get valuable information from the Snippet while still wanting to learn more. Aim to answer their question and you’ll be setting yourself up for that #0 position everyone’s trying to get to.
Whether you’re on the lookout for new ways of improving your SEO ranking or you’re trying to maintain your position and prevent your ranking from dropping, keeping up with the ever-evolving SEO trends is key to staying relevant with all the changes and keeping your website up-to-date. Judging by the forecast, 2020 will be quite a busy and competitive year in the world of SEO, but if you manage to stay on top of industry trends, you’ll be well on your way to driving more targeted traffic to your website.
