What Should Business Owners Know About SEO in 2024?

It’s the start of another year once again. Are you ready for the challenges that might come your way in 2024? If you’re keen on producing better results and making your website more search engine-friendly this year, here are some essential SEO predictions, trends, and other valuable information you should know. 

1. Search intent and demand are more fluid than previously thought

Marketers and business owners need to understand search intent. You must know what motivates your prospects to perform a specific online search to ensure the success of your SEO strategy. Having a fundamental understanding of search intent and demand can help you create more relevant content, allowing you to obtain better results from SEO in 2024. 

SEO experts discovered that search intent and demand are more fluid than previously expected. Search volume and interest in a specific query could increase or decrease in just a short time. Also, Google can now quickly adjust its results to match a user’s search intent. 

This underscores a few adjustments marketers and business owners need to make to ensure their SEO success this year. To get better results, you should: 

• Diversify your marketing strategy – consider other ways to promote your business instead of focusing on a single tactic.
• Be flexible – learn how to take advantage of an opportunity.
• Monitor searcher behaviour and adjust your tactics accordingly.
• Pay attention to search interests and where they are headed. Google Trends can help you figure out what’s popular and relevant to your target audience.

2. Local SEO is more vital now than ever

Local businesses often find creative ways to stay afloat and keep in touch with their customers. 

If you have a small or medium-sized business, it is more important now than ever to step up your local SEO game. You can start by claiming your Google Business Profile (GBP) page if you haven’t done it already. If you already have a GBP listing, you should optimise your page and list all the necessary information about your business. 

You can also utilise the new GBP features that Google introduced recently to make your listing more relevant and attractive. They include: 

• LGBTQ-friendly attribute
• Call buttons in the local knowledge panels
• A field for online operating hours (if you offer online services)
• A field for online appointments

3. AI’s more prominent SEO role

With Google introducing RankBrain a few years ago, many experts believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly impact SEO in 2024 and beyond. Greg Corrado, a senior scientist at Google and a member of the team that developed RankBrain, stated in a previous interview that the AI algorithm has a unique ability to learn people’s search habits that only gets better over time. Because of this, AI is expected to become one of the biggest SEO trends to watch out for this year. 

To better optimise your site for RankBrain, you can: 

• Improve user experience.
• Provide web visitors with engaging, valuable, and well-organised content.
• Boost your click-through rate or CTR.

4. Widespread use of voice search

Because of the growing popularity of voice-based innovations such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant, voice search technology is expected to flourish and affect more search queries this year. A report revealed that the percentage of US households that own a smart speaker would grow to 75% by 2025. As voice search becomes an integral part of SEO in 2024, it’s essential to optimise your site for this technology. 

Here are a couple of tips to you make your site more voice search-friendly: 

a. Consider your keywords

Since people use longer phrases in everyday conversations, you should target longer and more natural-sounding keywords.  For example, let’s say you want to rank for the keyword “plumbing service.” In traditional search, you may target the search term “Northampton plumbing service.” But when optimising for voice search, your target keywords should be “Where can I find good Northampton plumbing service.” 

b. Restructure your content

Keep in mind that voice search is more conversational than traditional search. Therefore, you’ll need to restructure your web content to make your site more voice search-friendly. You can do this by incorporating questions and answers into your content. A good example would be FAQs (frequently asked questions) on your blogs or product page since they include question keywords. 

Reinvigorate Your SEO Strategy Today

SEO is never static. It is always changing. This is one thing you should always keep in mind if you want to achieve more success with your online marketing efforts. As such, pay attention to the SEO trends discussed above to craft better SEO strategies that will bring you better results. 

If you need help optimising your site for Google and other major search engines, we are happy to assist you. At Springhill Marketing, we can provide you with award-winning SEO solutions so you can obtain more qualified traffic and leads to your site. Please speak with us today.