SEO, or search engine optimization, is an important part of any business. It is the process of optimizing your website and its content so search engines can find it. Then, rank it high on their results. Everything from your content, internal links, and keywords can make a big impact on how well you rank. These things help boost your website traffic and conversions.
To keep your website up to date, you need to keep up with SEO trends. SEO is always changing and evolving. Google and other search engines constantly change their algorithms each year. Sometimes with hundreds of updates!
Algorithm updates help provide users with the best answers. Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” So, webmasters have to work to improve their websites, content, and user experience. That way, Google will see your website matches its mission and rank your site higher. Here are six of the biggest SEO predictions to keep you up to date for 2020 and beyond.
1. Say Hello to BERT
BERT is one of Google’s newly-implemented algorithms in 2020. It helps analyze a user’s search. Once the search’s structure is better understood, it can learn how your keywords get used in context.
With BERT, you will need to have good web content. If your web content does not match the users’ intent in their search, you’ll get cut from many results pages. So what do you do? Use software to see what content is relevant for certain searches. Then, use the results to help you create content associated with your users’ searches. Simply put, answer the question asked. And answer it better than others.
2. Get Accustomed to Zero-clicks
Zero-click searches are results that answer your question without leaving the search results. They are at the top of the page and have information provided directly on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Users do not generally need to click on any sites.
And they are becoming more common. In fact, they now make up more than 50% of all searches! So you need to analyze the keywords you are using in your content. You want to optimize your keywords to help bring in clicks. And if you end up as the zero-click result, you gain authority over your competition.
3. Know Your Local SEO
Another SEO prediction for 2020 is how local SEO is changing. Local SEO is optimizing your site to improve the ranking for users geographically close to you. It helps your company’s visibility in relation to local search results.
Many search results will have zero-click searches, and that includes local searches. They also get shown in Local Packs — the section of a Google search page that lists local-related businesses. Having a Google My Business page can help your company rank locally. But, many searches will still not be in Google’s Local Packs.
To help your ranking performance
- Have backlinks that have local authority
- Continue with traditional SEO practices
4. Try New Combinations of Words
These days, ranking at the top of the SERP does not always guarantee more traffic like it used to. SERP’s contain more ads, snippets and question boxes than it did in the past. And it can affect your website’s traffic. These things can push your site down the page; even when ranked high.
So don’t consume yourself with the idea of ranking number one. Instead, try to focus on your click-through rate (CTR). CTR shows you the ratio between how often people see your link and the number of people who end up clicking on it. Increase your CTR by trying out new combinations of words in your headlines. Also, add meta descriptions.
5. Be Mobile-user Friendly
- 87% of internet users search with their phones
- 43% of product research gets done phones
Google is now looking at new sites to see how they render on a phone vs. a computer. How your site fares on different mobile devices can have a big impact on your business.
So make sure your company site is mobile-user friendly. Perform mobile testing regularly to make sure all users have a good experience on your website.
6. Take a Closer Look at Your Link-building
Link-building is the process of getting other sites to link to your website. It’s an important search ranking factor, and it is changing. Before, companies could build a lot of links to improve their rank. But it’s not about the quantity, but the quality of links you get.
You want your company’s links to be in authoritative sources rather than random sites. And the site you are link-building with should also be relevant to yours. Aim for link-building with a few big publications rather than a multitude of others.
SEO practices are always changing and evolving. They’re meant to make a user’s experience more enjoyable. That also means your business needs to stay on its toes if you want to use SEO to maintain and increase traffic. Keep yourself updated on new and better SEO predictions.
Want help?
Contact Technology Aloha to find out more about how we can help your business succeed. We are a seamless extension of your business — like an in-house marketing team without the full-time commitment. We’ll keep you ahead of the SEO predictions in 2020 and beyond.
