SEO is fast moving and precisely moving at fast pace. Google is consistently working make searches user friendly and relevant. Over the years google has brought in several new technologies and updates to improve the quality of its search results. These updates have resulted in incremental changes to existing SEO practices.
SEO Trends to Watch Out for in 2021
In 2021 we can see several changes to search marketing that will redefine the search landscape. But some ongoing trends will remain unchanged and continue to be on priority for search marketers.
The article covers some of the SEO trends that should be taken into the consideration while preparing an SEO strategy:
Zero Click Search:
Reports say that zero click searches grew overwhelmingly to 49% to 43.9% in just three years. Zero click searches refer to search engine results page which appear on the top of SERPs and answers the query in brief. Users don't need any further clicks to complete the search.
These searches are best at fulfilling user’s search intent. The future of zero click searches is quite bright and0 they will continue to rise in future due to evolving Google algorithms and popularity of Knowledge Graph. If your website constantly appears in these searches you can see sharp increase in brand awareness and brand perception.
Voice Searches:
Almost 50% of users use voice searches to find a product, discover information and shop online. The percentage will further rise as smart speakers will go to be the part of almost 55% of US households by 2022. Google is capitalizing on technologies like Rankbrain, BERT, and the Knowledge Graph to improvise voice search by understanding the meaning of search queries.
To make sure that your website is ready for voice searches, following are the steps you should be taking:
- Create a Google My Business profile
- Make sure your page loads fast
- Get more backlinks
- Add schema markup
- Answer questions people are asking
Mobile Friendliness:
Mobile-friendliness is now ai important ranking factor. Google made in mandatory in 2015 and with mobile-first indexing in July 2019 it became a norm. With mobile first indexing Google started using the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking purposes. A good number of website has already turned to mobile first indexing and by March 2021 rest will come onboard.
To know if your website is mobile-friendly, run an audit using Google mobile friendly test. Even if your website is mobile friendly, check for other elements such as robots.txt, page speed issues, and internal linking too to make sure your website is perfect fit for the migration.
Google’s EAT Algorithm:
E-A-T is popularly known as expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These terms are primarily featured in their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. This is a document used by Google’s human search quality raters to assess the quality of Google’s results. Though it’s significant to ranking, it’s not essentially a ranking factor.
Google uses search signals that align with E‑A-T and then tweaks their search algorithms accordingly. There is no ideal guideline how to align your SEO efforts with E‑A-T, yet there are certain things you can definitely do:
- Update your content regularly
- Get more links and mentions
- Fact-check your content
- Get more reviews
Google Discover:
Google Discover provides users a personalized mobile feed that brings in relevant content as per user’s interest. To fetch the best content stream for users, Google utilizes activity data from Google’s products (search, YouTube, etc.), location data, and topics users follow. If Google is to be believed its Discover features is used by over 800 million users right now.
Image Search:
Images contribute to a good amount of organic traffic to websites. Image searches are growing at rapid pace and offering amazing potential for organic traffic on your blog or business websites. Images search will continue to rise in 2021 as image searches evolve and usage increases. Be on the forefront of image search with image SEO best practices in mind. Don’t forget to optimize images using descriptive filenames, alt text, and product schema markups.
Search Intent:
Search intent refers to a thought process that triggers the buying decision. When a buyer conduct searches it’s their search intent that decides if he is here to buy something, learn something, or find a particular website.
As per Google search intent is a critical aspect of search and the search giant is working hard to develop technologies that help search intent further. Technologies like RankBrain, BERT, and the Knowledge Graph have already been introduced to accelerate the search experiences at scale.
Conclusion:
Search is evolving at a rapid pace. Google is incessantly working to improve the search experiences for end users. This year a lot will be changed in terms of search and many things will remain critical and important for search marketers. We have handpicked some important SEO trends that will remain critical for search engine optimization and keep marketers busy.
Tarun Gupta, CEO of Brainpulse Technologies, is a prolific author and digital marketing specialist. His insightful writings span SEO, content marketing, social media strategy, and email campaigns, offering invaluable expertise to businesses worldwide. Tarun’s contributions continue to shape the digital marketing landscape, guiding success in multiple niches.
