We are 3/4 in 2020. Time flies, especially realizing the whole world was on-pause due to the world pandemic. And as businesses worldwide rapidly had to adjust to a new online era, SEO also known as Search Engine Optimization became the focus of interest for many.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your website to get organic traffic from the search services results page. In other words, it makes it easier for potential customers to find your website. Also, thanks to Google, the search ranking will be primarily based on your geolocation and that’s when the local SEO practices step in encouraging viewers to become your customers.
So in this article, we will talk about the importance of SEO and give you a hint on how to stay current on SEO trends. So you probably still have a natural question of…
Why is SEO Important in 2020?
Businesses were slowly moving online even before the world lockdown. For instance, such giants like Amazon had to develop their own eCommerce SEO practices to optimize search only on their platform! That’s how important search optimization is.
The inability of many businesses to continue their operations the old-fashioned offline way forced them to discover online. The search engine traffic was especially high during the lockdown as people were simply forced to give up their other activities. While this is just a generic reason to focus on SEO for your website, there are more technical reasons to look at SEO services:
The search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the search engine results pages. It means you are more likely to drive visitors to your website if your website is in one of the top 5.
Websites with professional SEO optimization function better. Also, a website with good SEO practice usually has a standardized framework for all of the website content. Such alignment usually improves user experience.
At this point, you are probably wondering what are the best practices to achieve the results above. Before we proceed further, it’s important to know that SEO is a dynamic process that is highly-correlated with any changes search engines might implement.
So let’s talk about the current trends in the market.
What are the Top SEO Trends in 2020?
As we’ve already mentioned, SEO is an incredibly fast-paced dynamic industry. Even though the fundamental principle of it is to make the website easy to find and browse, the tactics to make it happen often change dramatically.
So what are the SEO trends to look at in 2020?
Voice Search Optimization
Back in a day people would perform a search by typing the request into a search bar, and that’s how the keywords became big. Now, with the help of such mobile assistants as Siri or Google Assistant people simply need to talk to their device to find the required information. Besides mobile voice command features, it makes sense to pay close attention to the popularity of Amazon Echo, Samsung Smart TV, Voice Pod and other home assistance devices. So most certainly it makes sense to have a voice search optimized website to gain those clients as well.
The main difference in voice search optimization is that people are using a microphone and not typing their search requests. Since people are speaking, their tone of voice most likely becomes more conversational and targeted. That means that the search engines must do a lot of work to source the relevant information, making short and choppy keywords irrelevant.
However, when using voice searches the search engine must do a lot more work to get the relevant information that the user is looking for at that moment, making short choppy keywords not so important anymore. With that information, you should look at a more thoughtful and targeted choice of keywords as more and more searches are conducted through voice.
Technical SEO and UI/UX Factors
Any professional SEO company will tell you that to rank your website as top 5, the search engines will consider how friendly your website’s UI/UX. Here are the basic principles of good-for-the-SEO design:
- Post only related to the content keywords. Piled up random keywords can cause slow loading speed, page errors and, as a result, high bounce rate.
- Optimize the page engagement rate by optimizing its structure. Thoughtful and engaging content placement can motivate visitors to stay longer on your page and, as a consequence, start developing loyalty to your brand.
- Make sure your website’s headings are engaging to the reader. The headings need to motivate the reader to discover the content further.
- Create simple intuitive website navigation and include a search bar. Your website visitors should easily find the information they are looking for.
Mobile Indexing
In 2018, Google revealed that more than half of website traffic in the US was coming from mobile devices. It was a game-changer both for SEO and local SEO practices. So this data forced Google to implement the Mobile-First Index, a technology that makes sure that the search engine primarily focuses on mobile search data when it comes to indexing and ranking the websites. In simple words, if your page is not optimized for mobile, you are sacrificing both desktop and mobile rankings.
Ethical Link Building
Focus on providing expertise and value rather than simply advertising your services. Make sure that whatever link you include helps hold users’ attention for longer and is related to the context of your content.
Website Security
Make sure your user never gets a “Not secure” warning on your website and put all your efforts into making your website as trustworthy as possible. Implement an HTTPS as Google provides those with a minor SEO boost as well. And if you are collecting any data upon your user browsing, always add a disclaimer regarding that.
High-quality content
The user wants to read high-quality content that will eventually help him to solve whatever problem he has. People are typing their questions in a search bar and want you to answer them. And to satisfy these needs, your content must be easy to research and be logically structured as well. And in general, thoughtfully structuring your content is an example of an affordable SEO practice.
Programming
Take the latest SEO trends into account when developing your website. Make sure your programmers are acknowledged how to write generally SEO-optimized source code and pay close attention to local SEO rules.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippet stands for the first organic result appearing on the search page. To make it there, your content needs to provide clear answers to your target audience’s potential questions. Just FYI, 54.68% of all Google clicks happen from Featured Snippets! And the great thing about it is that featured snippets allow you to generate a lot of organic traffic even if your website doesn’t appear at the top of Google search.
Artificial Intelligence
In 2020, high-quality SEO services have to take into account Google’s trending technologies. And AI is currently Google’s biggest point of interest. Google uses artificial intelligence to source better search results to its users – all of the other trends above are checked upon by the AI technology which is way smarter than any human professional could be and you shouldn’t underestimate it. It’s always on guard of your website delivering quality content.
There is much more to SEO services than the trends above. Search Engine Optimization is rather a practice you have to adopt than a one-time solution. Therefore, we highly recommend either hiring an SEO agency or an SEO specialist to make sure your website is easily found in search results.
In Conclusion
The truth is, SEO is essential for every business out there. It makes sense since you make a website for your business to get discovered and might as well work towards increasing its chances to be discovered, right?
If you’re already familiar with the SEO process – congrats! We hope your business is doing awesome. Though if you have any questions left or actually are looking for an affordable SEO company feel free to contact us, we will be glad to help.
