5 Major SEO Trends You Should Watch Out for This 2020

Are you looking to improve your SEO game to bring in more traffic and attract more leads for your site this 2020? As you may know, search engine optimisation is a very dynamic field. While several strategies remain the same (such as adding relevant keywords to your content and optimising for mobile devices), many things continue to change and evolve.

Capitalising on the latest SEO trends and strategies is key to having a successful digital marketing campaign. If you’re wondering what you should watch out for, wonder no more. Today, we’ll discuss several trends that could make a big splash this year.

Keep an Eye for These SEO Trends

To take your business to the next level, make sure to account for the following SEO trends and adjust your game plan accordingly.

1. Voice search

Instead of typing queries into a search box, more and more people these days are using voice search to look up things online. With the global market for voice search devices growing by 187% just in the second quarter of 2018, it is expected that 50% of all online searches will be voice-based by the end of 2020.

Since most smartphones come with AI assistants, such as Google Assistant and Siri, optimising for voice search should be a priority this year. You should research relevant long-tail keywords and incorporate them in your content to streamline for voice search. Also, think of the exact questions your customers are likely to ask on Google.

A notable difference between voice search and traditional search is the length of the search results, with voice search averaging at only 29 words long. Because Google prefers shorter answers for voice searches, providing concise and clear-cut solutions and information is the key to obtaining more traffic and better search rankings.

2. Zero-click searches

Have you noticed that when you look up something on Google recently, you don’t have to click on a link because the information you need is already on the SERP? It appears to be an on-going trend as more than 50% of online searches are now considered “zero-click searches.”

Is this a cause for concern? Not really. Most of these searches are from people looking for quick answers and information such as your address and contact details. Likely, those clicks won’t result in conversions.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should completely disregard this piece of information. To take advantage of this SEO trend, you should research keywords that can give you clicks. Apart from your Google Search Console account, you can use tools such as Rank Tracker to optimise for search queries starting with “where,” “what,” and “how” amongst others.

3. Evolving local search

Local search is the bread and butter of businesses and marketers that target regional customers and audiences. However, it has seen significant changes over the last few years, and these changes are likely to continue in the coming months.

For instance, a significant number of zero-click searches are local searches. To keep up with the growth of zero-click searches, you must optimise for queries containing keywords such as “address,” “phone number” and “near me.” You should also create a Google My Business page if you haven’t done it already.

You also need to improve your link building strategy. Create an active backlink profile by obtaining backlinks that Google considers as locally authoritative. You can also research your competitors’ backlinks and try to get them for yourself.

4. Highly relevant content

Highly relevant content is essential now more than ever. After launching RankBrain in 2015, not only Google can read a piece of content well, but it can also interpret its meaning.

To survive in a post-RankBrain world, you must conduct thorough keyword research before creating your content. Also, use keywords sparingly, while making sure they are in the right places such as your headings and the first paragraph of your content.

More importantly, to capitalise on one of 2020’s most important SEO trends, ensure that your content is always relevant and provides value to your target audience. If Google finds that your content is irrelevant to its heading or main keyword, you might receive a penalty.

5. Search intent

As you may know, words can have different meanings, depending on their usage. Taking this into account, Google introduced BERT to provide users with even better and more relevant search results. Standing for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, the search giant’s latest major algorithm update is designed to help computers understand language the way humans do.

With BERT, Google seeks to provide better and more relevant search results by understanding the nuances and context of words used by searchers. Therefore, apart from using the right keywords, you must also understand what motivates your target audience to look up specific information online when creating your web content.

Conclusion

As with life, nothing is permanent in the world of SEO except for change. As such, it’s important not to remain complacent because you’ll never know when the rules will suddenly change. To survive 2020, consider the search engine optimisation trends discussed above so you can create a holistic digital marketing strategy that will help you succeed.

At Springhill Marketing, we’re always on the lookout for the latest trends on SEO so we can deliver excellent results to our clients. Contact us today if you need help crafting a modern, efficient, and effective SEO strategy for your business.

Related Posts