Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results. Generally, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page) and more often a site appears on the search engine’s results page, the more visitors it will receive from search engine users.
To what extent a company can improve its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) depends on several factors, such as the proportion of keywords relevant to the company’s products and services, the competitiveness of those keywords, and the presence of identities within the content.
This article will look at what I predict will be the most essential search engine optimization trends in 2021. I should probably mention that we have already been implementing many of these SEO services over the last few years, but we expect them to become even more prominent as time goes on.
Here is a quick layout of the top 18 SEO trends to look for in case you want to jump ahead.
I’ll begin with…
Voice Search
In 2021, voice search will become increasingly important. As SEO is becoming much more sophisticated, it is important to develop targeted content that corresponds to search intent and includes all search forms when optimizing for featured snippets.
A report by Adobe Analytics shows that “Mobile phone users are 3 times more likely to use voice search.” Optimizing for this type of search means making the right content available at the right time, using the right words. In a nutshell, optimizing for voice search means answering questions rather than following a keyword formula. For instance, if someone asks, “What’s the best place to eat in town?” a restaurant website should have a section that includes a map to the restaurant, hours of operation, and a menu.
We need to ask and answer questions that send commands to compatible devices such as smartphones or smartwatches that voice search uses for speech. The searcher will speak to the computer, and the order is fulfilled by the system or answers the query.
But that’s not the only user-first changes that we must make.
The Core Web Vitals Update
Google announced in May 2020 that it would introduce a change to its search algorithm, which will focus on what they call ‘Core Web Vitals.’ The Core Web Vitals Report includes metrics such as page load time and mobile usability. Google will reward websites with better organic rankings with great user experience. This is likely to be a huge shift, potentially affecting millions of websites worldwide.
This is an inspiring change, as users are the biggest winners here, as, theoretically, from a technical point of view, web design will be in a better place. Metrics related to speed, responsiveness, and visual stability are Core Web Vitals that were introduced. Google defined these as Largest Contentful Paint: The time it takes to load the main content. An ideal LCP measurement is 3 seconds or faster.
It’s all about the user experience.
UX Optimization
Increasing user experience is one of the key trends to be expected with SEO in 2021. This will be consistent with the guidelines released for 2021, which Google is implementing with updates. This will rely heavily on the site’s speed and measurement variables, such as First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Change (CLS).
So, in 2021, fast hosting, caching, and optimized on-page content will be among the biggest ranking factors. Improving user experience is important because it can improve retention. You can avoid losing users by enhancing app satisfaction and user satisfaction due to a poor user interface. Also, improving UX helps improve your conversion rates, helping you drive higher sales.
Optimizing for user experience will also help with the next trend.
E-A-T Improvements
In 2021, Google will continue to monitor the overall reputation and E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) of that company and those who publish content on its behalf. Companies struggling with a poor reputation, customer service problems, or other trust issues will have a tough time competing.
Our ability to form an accurate and convincing online representation of our offline world will become a significant differentiating factor with an entity-based search, a Knowledge Graph, and an E-A-T increase. Google uses these factors to measure how much trust it should place on a brand or website, as mentioned in the search quality evaluator guidelines. Google wants to give its customers (search engine users) the best possible experience, so it only wants to promote websites that it fully trusts.
With E-A-T being a huge factor, we must consider doing some…
Content Maintenance
An increasing SEO subject is “content maintenance.” This will become an important topic in 2021, in addition to Google’s daily algorithm adjustments. The concept of deindexing, updating, or combining thin content pages is content consolidation. It can also be extended to all non-ranking or otherwise obsolete pages more generally.
The aim is to increase the overall importance of the website while decreasing the number of pages. Increased relevance enables Google to describe what your website stands for and therefore help understand your target audience. It is easier for Google to compare your website to other pages with a more specific description of your target audience and rate it for the right searches.
Due to site replication and thin content, this is in line with Google’s goal of resolving ever-expanding crawling efforts. By now, these pages make up a quarter of all Google-crawled pages. This is in stark contrast to the search results’ low value as the pages are generally omitted or ranked in the search results in deficient positions. Consolidate your content if your site has loads of thin content pages. This should be a priority for webmasters in 2021.
SEOs are beginning to realize that it is easier to compete with…
Local SEO Strategy
Local SEO refers to the process of optimizing your online presence, so that relevant local searches attract more business. On Google and other search engines, these searches take place. As people begin to rebuild the economy, they are likely to be very important in 2021.
As seen somewhat during COVID, the focus will be specifically on helping local businesses thrive again. With many individuals wanting to help those from their local community by using their products and services as a priority, it will be essential to ensure that you are part of that search.
Local SEO is a strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) that helps your business be more visible on Google in local search results. Local SEO services will benefit any company with a physical location or serve a geographic area by optimizing their Google My Business page.
In 2021, you will need to prove what you are saying with…
Content With Statistics
I think we will continue to see more content based on statistics. The SEO trend for 2021 really does seem to be this. It can easily track this type of content from what we know about how Google’s algorithm operates. Google loves statistics: Google will see the content as authoritative if you can include statistics in your content.
Many variables obviously come into play. Many individuals have attempted to decode the Google algorithm and work out all the various variables considered, but no one has succeeded. By creating statistic-based content about your clients and their buying behavior, you can take advantage of this trend.
There’s a chance that you’ve created a large subscriber database for email marketing if your business has been around for a while. You can create this information and data that Google loves if you can survey your email database.
This means going back and…
Optimizing Older Content
An increasing trend that I have recently begun to practice is content optimization for older content. For a period of time, I used to build content once, publish it, and forget about it. While there is evidence to suggest that search engines value new content, I believe that marketers have misunderstood that.
If you have an excellent 2019 article beginning to lose traffic, you can update it with new content and optimize it for CTR. This can revive your content and rank well again.
Plus, as you know, creating new content takes a lot more time and resources, so updating old content can be beneficial. Consequently, it’s difficult to compete with the major blogs out there if you have a small team or do all of it yourself, so why not update and create longer articles packed with information that will attract more traffic.
To rank higher, you must consider…
Mobile-First Indexing
I feel that the biggest trend this year will be mobile-first indexing. Several websites have low mobile speed ratings, and some websites are also not mobile-friendly. We know that Google transitioned to mobile-first indexing; however, when all the pre-existing websites are indexed based on the mobile versions, it is still uncertain.
We expect that websites that currently rank well but have a bad mobile version will fall down the rankings, and the demand for mobile optimizations in the SEO sphere will increase. Remember, mobile-first indexing implies that when ranking your pages on the SERPs, Google algorithms use the material from your site’s mobile site instead of desktop. This is because more people are using mobile phones now more than ever.
You can check the performance of your mobile site with Google’s mobile-friendly test.
This brings us to the next trend.
Optimizing For Mobile Shopping
Mobile optimization of websites will be one of the main SEO developments predicted in 2021. Since over 80 percent of internet searches are performed from mobile, eCommerce business owners were hit last year. As such, the largest segment of online shoppers is also smartphone consumers.
We should also expect to see more mobile-optimized eCommerce platforms, such as faster loading of mobile pages and building mobile-friendly websites. This will simplify the shopping experience for smartphone consumers, which has expanded due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But no matter what, new trends happen…
Content is Still King
High-quality content is one of the most critical SEO trends that will continue in 2021. If you create relevant content, it would be literally impossible to stand out from the rest. The algorithm is now much more accurate and capable of reliable knowledge identifying and boosting websites.
Note that the competition will be fierce if you want to pitch your posts to various websites, then you need to have enough value and get website managers to pick your piece. It takes time and effort to produce quality material, which is difficult if you don’t have real writing experts working.
Besides quality, make sure that you publish…
Long-Form Content
Quality content development does not always require keeping it short, but it should always be sweet. In fact, more recent views have been attracted by longer content (1500 words and above). These longer pieces appear to be detailed guides to common topics, and they become a one-stop-shop for viewers if they are well written.
Long-form content provides many details on a given subject and/or a great depth of detail. The minimum length should range from 800 to 3,000 words. The upper limit depends on many variables, including emphasis, distance, objectives expected, and audience.
But make sure that your long-form articles are…
Topic-Focused Content
Instead of individual keywords, I think 2021 will see a greater emphasis on subjects. SEO experts have taken this approach for years now. Nevertheless, lately, the knowledge used by major keyword analysis tools has become less accurate.
Search engines are still getting better at interpreting large topics rather than one-off words. Try to take a step back to consider the semantic search if you want your content to do well over the next couple of years, not just one keyword for which you expect to rank.
Instead of keyword tools, SEO experts will be turning to…
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence will be a big trend that will move forward. For users, AI may create extremely tailored content and bring those results to the top of a web search. A few years ago, Google launched BERT, a bidirectional language model that can find knowledge more in-depth and more meaningful than a traditional one-directional model. It brings the terms surrounding it into perspective.
To make their content SEO compliant, this tool has made it so that companies do not need to rely on one or two keyword phrases. With changes like E-A-T and BERT, when producing content for SEO or considering SEO content, it was a big change away from just keyword emphasis and more of a topical focus.
Smart marketers understand the importance of…
Omni-Channel SEO
It will be a big SEO trend in 2021 to extend the marketing efforts to multiple consumer acquisition methods with omnichannel SEO, whether via Youtube, podcasts, social media interviews, paid ads, etc.
The more often your content is posted, or other websites reference your name, the more authoritative and trustworthy Google would consider your website. Omni-channel is about genuine reliability, providing a consumer with a consistent experience, online or offline or on a desktop or mobile computer.
We must optimize our content to reach users no matter where they are. By presenting a client with exactly what he or she wants, omnichannel marketing fosters brand loyalty.
Speaking of optimizing for every platform, we might have to consider the…
A New Search Engine On The Block
The challenge of forecasting patterns for next year is knowing if Apple’s reports may be planning to launch its own search engine are real. Obviously, for SEOs everywhere, it is going to be a catalyst of some changes. Optimizing for Google is always thought to be enough to rank on other search engines, but Apple’s algorithms can vary.
Either way, like all good SEOs, already understand the difference between desktop, tablet, and mobile optimization, we think there is reason to expect businesses to start adapting their strategies to consider future competition from Google and how to ensure the content is optimized for all.
Some expected trends can change the game, such as…
Nofollow Links
Recent Google comments have reported that nofollow links (links that use the nofollow attribute) can actually transfer some SEO meaning, which I believe will alter the approach that many SEOs take towards 2021.
We will unexpectedly begin to see SEOs working with websites that use the nofollow attribute only for all external connections, such as Forbes and Wikipedia. Whether this will be a positive move for the sector; nevertheless, I believe it will result in more spam on sites such as Wikipedia and lead to more sponsored articles on websites such as Forbes.
Nofollow links are links added to them with a rel=’ nofollow’ HTML tag. The nofollow tag informs search engines that the connection should be ignored. Since Nofollow links do not pass PageRank, they probably do not affect the rankings of search engines.
Although backlinks are still an important factor, the approach of getting them will change with…
Strategically Acquiring Backlinks
Webmasters are bombarded with SEOs asking for backlinks every day; however, this offers an amazing opportunity to stand out from the crowd and obtain links without sounding like a “link builder.”
The best way to do this is to provide value without specifically asking for something. Reciprocity is also the secret to establishing relationships and receiving ties in a specific way. Offer to help strengthen a piece of content, conduct an audit, give a free trial/product, something to separate yourself from the masses.
If you are strategic about it, in the process, you can create lots of authority ties. Being strategic implies from the very beginning that you set a specific target. Your guest blogging efforts should be aimed at blogs that will give you traffic instead of aiming for the backlink.
Those are the main trends that I see in 2021, but there could be others.
SEO Trends for 2021 and Beyond
Remember that, like 2020, it is impossible to know exactly what we can expect in 2021 when it comes to SEO and the strategies we can use. But for those who tell you that SEO is dead, don’t’ understand that it’s not dead; it’s just changing.
For SEO experts and marketers alike to stay on top of the latest Google updates and best practices, we must closely examine the user experience. We must ask ourselves, “what would someone expect when searching.”
What should have worked but didn’t 10 years ago is now becoming a reality. I mean, SEOs have had to come up with a bunch of tactics (some not-so-white hat) to rank even if it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. But with the direction that Google is taking, we can now optimize for the user’s best experience in mind.
SEO trends are constantly changing, and it’s important to stay on top of the latest changes. If you’re looking for help in ranking your website online, then contact our digital marketing agency today! Our team can provide expert advice about how to get found by customers searching for your product or service so that they’ll find you first. We’ve helped our clients rank their websites at the top of Google search results pages even with tough competition from other businesses. Get started now by contacting us to discuss what we can do for you!
