SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a popular buzzword these days. The main reason is that this marketing strategy has become mandatory in today’s growingly competitive market. Nowadays, online visibility, awareness, exposure and credibility are all essential for business success and SEO more than able to help you achieve all those things, if not more.
Ranking well on search engines such as Google and appearing on the first page of search results is a huge benefit. Not only do consumers find it trustworthy but you’re also visible to the broader consumer base. However, getting as high as the first page of search results is a challenging effort. It takes time, dedication and careful planning to reach such heights. That’s why many companies give up on SEO altogether, believing that it’s not working at all.
But SEO needs time and for those who wait, it can bring a significant advantage. Therefore, let’s have a look at the latest SEO trends and how to get on top of Google’s search results.
Mobile-first indexing and voice search
Mobile data and traffic are dominant today. People mostly rely on their mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, to conduct online research and Google recognized their needs. For that purpose, mobile-first indexing was introduced as an important ranking factor. In other words, websites and content must be optimized for mobile so that you can favor good rankings. Here are a few factors regarding mobile optimization.
- Test your website’s mobile-friendliness.
- Implement a responsive design.
- Improve page loading time.
- Eliminate or restructure pop-up ads.
- Structure content for mobile users.
With mobile devices reigning supreme, a new trend called “voice search” was also born. Instead of typing things down into a search bar, consumers will simply say what they want. Another reason why voice search is becoming so popular is because of the voice assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana and others. That being said, Google’s voice search isn’t new but it recently experienced a great increase in usage. It’s estimated that in 2020, 50% of online searches will be voice searches. Therefore, here’s how to optimize for voice search.
- Focus on fast search results, website speed is still essential.
- Implement proper security.
- Focus on featured snippets and local SEO.
- Optimize content for voice search.
Top-quality and well-optimized content
As you may already know, content is the number one ranking factor alongside quality backlinks, according to Google. With content being the essence of SEO, you can do a lot of things with it. However, creating and publishing original and relevant content has always been a challenge. Today, the trend is to create a consumer-centric approach when it comes to content. In other words, user-focused optimization is a must and it means that that your entire content must be optimized towards user intent and not just a few features, such as meta descriptions, for instance. Therefore, to bring your content closer to your audience and also closer to the first page of search results, here are a few things you should consider.
- Know who your target audience is and what they’re searching for.
- Try to understand the intent behind the questions they have or problems they’re facing.
- Make your content authoritative and provide users with answers and solutions in their preferred format.
- Repeat the process for every stage of the buyer’s journey to create an amazing experience.
- Make sure you iterate because things may change fast and often.
Structured data
Although top-quality content is of the utmost importance, search engine algorithms aren’t fully able to understand the context, which is why you must help them out so that they can understand and provide better results based on user intent. Structured data is, therefore, an ideal way to provide search engines with adequate hints. This is especially true when it comes to promoting products and services, as well as wanting to help your audience familiarize themselves with your offers.
So what does it actually mean? Simply put, you’re structuring data so that search engines can understand what’s on your page and how elements of the page relate to elements on other pages, as well as how these pages ultimately relate to other pages on your website. You may also consider opting for a white label SEO service in this endeavor. The main reason is that with the right partnership, data structuring can be done in a way that will help you become understood, easily found by customers and well-positioned in the online landscape.
Technical SEO and UX design
Customer experience is an important ranking factor for search engines. That’s why SEO optimization is focused on improving the overall customer experience on your website. If you want to rank high and appear on the top of Google’s search results, you’ll have to meet your customers’ expectations and needs, beforehand. This is where UX design and technical SEO come into play. The necessity for technical excellence and a seamless user experience isn’t new but it’s becoming more important in 2020, mainly because the market is constantly growing with more apps, more JavaScript files and so on. Therefore, if you’re to single out one crucial factor, it would be speed.
Site speed and page speed will be more focused on not just by search engines but also by consumers themselves. Even now, consumers are not fond of sluggish websites in any way. And since website speed is essential for user experience, search engines are becoming more alert towards website speed as well. Here are a few facts regarding site speed that should interest you. A single second delay in page loading time results in a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, an 11% decrease in page views and a 7% decrease in conversions.
- The average loading time of mobile landing pages is 19 seconds.
- 64% of consumers expect a page to load in less than 4 seconds.
- 40% of users will abandon the page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
By following the latest SEO trends, you can create a strategy that will help you achieve your business goals. What’s more, it will also make climbing to the top of Google’s search results a lot easier.
