If you had thought that the online environment was already very fierce for marketers, you can be sure it will get even more in the next decade with the competition trying new methods to push ahead and more and more brands trying to launch new online marketing ventures. Since a very large part of online marketing success is attributable to the visibility a company achieves on Google search, it is very important to know what the SEO trends of the future are likely to be so that you can formulate your SEO strategy accordingly to ensure you get the maximum SERP visibility. Some of the most important SEO trends for 2020 and beyond:
Domination of Featured Snippets
Google’s continuous efforts to deliver a better search experience for users is leading it to a situation where it is trying to provide answers to the most commonly asked questions by elevating the URL of the website that it thinks is providing the best answer. Featured Snippets appear in what is commonly being referred to as “Position 0”, which is right above the first ranking organic result in the results page. Because of its position, it is more than sure that a featured snippet will attract the maximum number of clicks. This represents a wonderful opportunity for content creators to structure content in such a way that it is chosen by Google over others to appear as a Featured Snippet and grab over half the clicks for the target keyword or phrase.
Influencer Marketing Will Gain More Momentum
Because of the innate need of users to identify credible information, there has been a remarkable rise in influencer marketing. As useful as influencer marketing is for better conversions, it is also very useful in increasing the product reach and organic traffic to the website. Company-sponsored content appearing in the influencer’s social media or blogs also helps to generate valuable backlinks, which is a very important signal for Google for deciding on the ranking of the webpage. Thus, while you are partnering with influencers who are relevant to your industry and audience, it is also important for content developers to create valuable content that has more chances of creating backlinks.
Security
While it may seem that SEO and website security have nothing in common, it is well established that users will not trust websites that are not secure. If they see a warning that a site is not secure, they will not proceed to visit it at all. The resultant high bounce rates will act to drive it down the rankings. According to a leading SEO expert Toronto, you must implement the required security protocols for getting the HTTPS prefix to your website that provides a secure browsing experience to users. Since Google desires to provide its users with a secure browsing experience, the implementation of HTTPS protocol will serve to give SEO a fillip. According to https://searchengineland.com, Google considers HTTPS as a ranking signal.
Voice Search Optimization
With the growing adoption of smartphones, it is no surprise that today over half of the internet traffic is generated by users of mobile devices. As is evident using the keyboard in these small devices to conduct searches can be quite cumbersome, which is why voice search technologies have assumed critical importance to mobile users as well as users using a variety of devices using voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Voice Pod. If your website is optimized for voice search, you will have more users visiting your website. Voice optimization has a major impact on how the content is structured. Not only is the tome far more simple and conversational but also the information flow has to be more logical.
Mobile User Experience
As an increasing number of users switch to using their mobile phones to conduct online searches, it is quite clear that websites that are not optimized for mobiles will lose their audiences. Google has also announced its ‘Mobile First” update that makes it clear that it will first try to look at sites that are optimized for mobiles and then at the desktop sites for allocating ranks. For a mobile website to retain the interest of the users, it is not enough for the site itself to adapt to the smaller size of the screen. It should also have an interface that is easy to use, the contents easy to read, and the navigation simple enough to be used while the user is multitasking. Pages that are properly optimized for mobiles and have a great UX are more likely to climb to the top of the search rankings.
Content Quality
The link between SEO and content quality is undeniable and critical because according to Google’s policy, it continuously strives to deliver to users, content that is most relevant, accurate, fresh, and original. As the cost of advertising online is expected to rise continuously in the years to come, this means that the existing focus creation of high-quality content will deepen further. Google will tend to give better ranking to websites that have high-quality content that addresses the intent of the searcher most competently. This also means that not only should the content be well researched but also written well and laid out in a logical structure that is easy for both users and Google bots to navigate and understand. Content that is thin or with a focus on only sales will be ignored in favor of content that informs, educates, and entertains without the user having to invest too much effort. This means that apart from text, content is likely to be made available in other formats like infographics, images, videos that are more easily understood by the target audience.
Conclusion
The importance of SEO is increasing with each passing day with the competition in the online marketplace becoming more intense. Contemporary marketing managers need to be aware of all the techniques at their disposal for rising to the top of Google search so that the website can attract more traffic that results in conversions. For this to happen, they must be aware of the SEO trends that are most likely to have an impact on the environment. The contexts and trends discussed above provide important pointers to staying ahead in the future.