From artificial intelligence to keyword phrases, here are eight search engine optimization trends worth watching.
By Nachum Langsner
Attracting visitors to your site can be an uphill task without an effective site optimization strategy. Statistics show that Google has approximately 3.5 billion searches daily. Every website competes for the top position, but only the effectively optimized ones make it to the top search results.
For your site to generate the much-needed traffic, it needs to rank on the first page. That brings us to the importance of search engine optimization and current SEO trends.
SEO Trends Worth Watching
For your site to have top-ranking SEO performance, there are many metrics you must pay attention to. These include backlinks, traffic, social shares, and others. However, these SEO elements are constantly evolving, thanks to Google algorithms. What works today may not tomorrow.
This guide offers insights into useful SEO trends to help your site obtain a dominate presence online.
SEO Trend No. 1: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is affecting many aspects of business and how people interact with content on online platforms. The reason behind the transformation AI provides is the personalization it delivers to users. Google is making use of AI to deliver the exact results searchers look for. The success of the tool is in its unique ability to learn.
Experts believe that by using AI, you can create more powerful content for your site. You also can augment your keyword research, optimize all digital platforms, and maximize link building.
>> RELATED: 5 Reasons to Invest in SEO
SEO Trend No. 2: Original High-Value Content
Content plays a fundamental role in SEO and ranking, but quality is of utmost importance. Authentic content plays a more significant role than just branding. Producing content similar to what already exists on Google reduces your chances of ranking highly.
Ensure your content adds value in your own language and brand voice. Most importantly, it must adhere to Google’s EAT principle. This refers to Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—factors that Google uses to determine the quality of content in a webpage. This can be accomplished by backing up your content with facts and statistics, linking to reputable and authoritative sites, and constantly updating your content with the most recent perspectives.
SEO Trend No. 3: Video Content
If ‘Content is King,’ video content is the crown. Currently, YouTube has over 1 billion users and counting. Cisco projects that video content is set to take over all other forms of content in traffic and consumption.
Optimization of your video content is crucial. The description should be more than just a collection of keywords. It needs to provide a clear overview of the channel. Get some inspiration from your chosen platform’s auto-complete feature.
SEO Trend No. 4: Featured Snippets
Featured Snippets appear in a rectangular box at the top of the SERP. Snippets are useful for websites and help in ranking. Unfortunately, you can’t choose the content that appears in the snippet as it all depends on the Google Algorithm bots.
It’s not clear the exact approach one can use to get a webpage in the Featured Snippet, however, SEO experts suggest a few helpful strategies. First, answer a specific question in bullet form or well-structured content for better chances of success. Properly format your content using the proper header tags in a well-organized hierarchy. Summarize your article into bullet points at the beginning or end of your content following the header tag hierarchy we mentioned above. Then, make sure you mark up that content in Schema to improve your chances of getting your content to rank.
RELATED: 12 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence
SEO Trend No. 5: Image Optimization
Images influence people’s purchasing decisions. Google insists on the importance of optimizing images and it’s important to make this part of your long-term strategy.
Incorporate high-quality, relevant images in your content marketing strategy. Ensure you customize the file name by labeling the photo file. This makes it relevant to the corresponding page’s content and helps it rank. Using alt tags will also be helpful since crawlers use them to classify images. Make sure to minimize the pixel density without compromising image quality for quicker load times. Lastly, incorporate images in your site map for easier crawling.
SEO Trend No. 6: Structured Data
The use of structured data helps search engines to better understand your content. Google provides a tool for Structured Data testing to help you familiarize yourself with the idea. Using structured data for your landing pages and website will significantly help your site rank highly.
SEO Trend No. 7: User Intent Keyword Phrases
Primary keywords, secondary keywords, and long-tail keywords should all characterize your content creation strategy. Long-tail keywords (keywords or key phrases that are more specific – and usually longer – than more commonly used keywords) account for approximately 70% of all online searches. They can significantly help you outrank the competition as they have a 36% conversion rate. The more relevant and suitable your keywords are to your audience, the better placed you are to rank highly—so make sure to create content specifically tailored to your audience needs.
SEO Trend No. 8: Core Web Vitals & Good User Experience
Core web vitals are three measures Google has chosen to reflect real-world page experience metrics. Google sees loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability as important to a good user experience and have been incorporated in their algorithm as a ranking factor. It is imperative to reduce the coding bloat and structure your website elements in a way that improves user experience.
SEO trends – Final Thoughts
Search engine optimization is a complex but crucial component for businesses looking to compete online. The above SEO trends only make this clear, and you have to think about them critically. If you want to beat the competition, ensure you implement these strategies effectively.
An expert in SEO and Digital Marketing can help you get tangible results with your SEO strategy. Contact us today.
Nachum Langsner is the Co-Founder & CMO of LocalBizGuru, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Cleveland, OH. He has over 10+ years of experience in the SEO industry and is a frequent presenter and instructor of digital marketing and SEO seminars for entrepreneurs and small business owners in the Greater Cleveland area for organizations such as COSE, Jumpstart, the Better Business Bureau, Score and the Ohio SBDC at CSU.
