Top SEO Trends to Look Out For in 2021

When launching a website, one of the most important things to consider is attracting the masses. The whole purpose of your website is to attract customers and perhaps the best way to do it is through SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and as the name suggests, it is the method to increase online visibility and traffic by making changes to your website. These changes can be minute or could be an overhaul on the entire website, depending on the previous implementation of SEO.

SEO is almost always evolving and you should keep an eye out for emerging trends. As much as it might be a tedious task to keep updating your website, the returns that will be seen in the form of visitors and conversions will eventually be worth it. There is also the matter of monitoring the right trends. You should pay attention to important metrics like traffic, backlinking, and social shares. As the year winds down, we shall take a look at emerging trends for you to use. 

AI

One of the biggest trends of the last two years, artificial intelligence has come into its own in 2020. The coming decade is tipped to the ‘decade of AI’ and its influence in SEO is prevalent. Google’s RankBrain algorithm has been in use for the last few years and its prominence will only increase. While Google will not reveal how users can optimize websites to get on search results, experts have theorized that focus on the user experience is key.  Metrics such as click-through rate and time spent on the page are important. Another way to improve user experience is by using well-organized content. Your website should also be constantly analyzed for readability, backlinks, and more.

Voice Search

Last year was a revelation for voice-operated smart speakers. Each tech giant has its AI-powered speaker solution and the competition will only get stiffer. From the Google Assistant to Apple’s Siri, each AI assistant has made tremendous strides in the last couple of years. 55% of households are expected to own a smart speaker by 2022. Voice search is all set to become a powerful tool and is something you must harness accordingly.

For voice search optimization, you can start by identifying longer phrases that people use in conversation and adding them to your content. Neutral sounding and longer phrases do well in voice searches. This is because people abbreviate when they type out searches and do not do so when using speech.

Mobile search

Last year Google decided to flip the switch and roll out mobile-first indexing, which meant that the search engine will prioritize the mobile version of your website. This heralded a change towards a new vanguard of mobile search. The change comes after various statistical studies and analyses. These studies predicted that almost 73% of all internet users will be from mobile devices. Google itself has a “mobile-friendly site test” as well as a “mobile usability” report in the search console.

Optimizing your website for mobile devices can be slightly different from desktop optimization. The first step is to ensure that the Googlebot can crawl your website URLs. You can do this by removing the ‘disallow directive’, which is usually in place. The bot also does not load pages that require swiping and clicking; hence you have to fix this ‘lazy-loaded content’. The final step in the checklist is to ensure that the meta robot tags on both desktop and mobile are the same. There are many detailed steps you can take to make your site mobile friendly.

Google’s EAT principle

Quality of content has always been the hallmark of all search engines and by thoroughly applying the EAT principle your website visibility will increase drastically. EAT stands for Expert, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Adhering to this is important if your website is under the finance or healthcare category. There are a few steps you can take to ensure that your website sticks to this principle.

• Create buyer personas: Doing so will help you understand the kind of content your clients wish to see.
• Research: Primarily, search intent research so that you can understand what is the thought process of your clients
• Deliver the content: Using the information at your disposal you can then tailor the content to deliver what your client expects from you.

Final words

These methods are just some of the ways to get your website optimized for the upcoming year. As is everything else in technology, the importance of these SEO methods is subject to change. However, that being said, these aforementioned trends are sure to catapult your website to the top of search rankings and give you increased website traffic. Keep in mind that upon seeing the results once you should not slack off. It is critical that you remain on top of trends and are continuously optimizing your marketing strategies.