Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has always been an effective way to drive more traffic to your website. Yet as technology has been evolving constantly, it has bought many changes to how traditional SEO used to work.
If you need to have a proactive approach to optimizing your website to gain better rankings on the search engines and attract consumers to it.
Top-performing SEO strategies always demand paying attention to many metrics, such as backlinks, user engagement rates, social shares, etc.
Along with it, it also requires you to stay updated with the latest trends in SEO and make the right decisions to benefit from them.
Here are some of the most popular SEO trends that you need to watch out for in 2021 and prepare your SEO strategy accordingly.
1. Local SEO
Local searches have seen a massive surge in recent times in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, search engines are updating their algorithms for local searches and are using new methods of filtering data to populate listings on the SERPs that provide more value to internet users. For example, when someone out and about on their phone types “best pizza near me”. This can create a lot of opportunities for businesses to serve local clients and gain a better reputation online.
2. UI/UX
Updating the user interface is one of the major elements of developing a successful website. It leads to a great user experience, reduces bounce rates, and facilitates higher conversions. All rankings of the site further, which is why refreshing the UI and UX will be something to be taken care of throughout 2021 and beyond. For example, “In the above illustration of UI/UX, the UI is based on neutral gray that established scasual and formal atmosphere. It skillfully balances the splashes of other colors”..
3. Traffic
Getting huge waves of traffic was considered to be a good thing in the past. Search engines have now evolved to analyze websites based on traffic quality as well. In order to secure a better ranking on search engines, you need to aim for audiences that will lead to improved conversion rates. This will depend majorly on your content marketing and SEO strategy.
4. Video marketing
Video marketing trends have seen impressive growth in the past couple of years. YouTube alone has over a billion users. Which makes creating video content one of the most essential tactic for business owners. Video content is likely to surpass all other forms of content in the next few years in terms of consumption and engagement.
For example, “It catches viewers’ Eyes with colors, Hook viewers early with music, uses storytelling to connect with viewers” as according to science the brain can understand visual information in 13 milliseconds, and the visual system activates over 50%of Human brain.
5. Voice search
Mobile search is booming and so is voice search. With innovative solutions, voice search will become a mainstream thing within the next few years. It is also predicted that more than 55% of households would have a smart speaker by 2022 which will further feel the voice search trend reach new heights. For example, a user might type “salon near me” but using voice search, they would say “what is the nearest salon near me.”
6. Long-form content
Studies Studies say that longer content with more than 2000 words receives 3 times more traffic than the average content length which is usually around 1000 words. It is also found that they are likely to gain 4 times more shares and 3 times more backlinks.
Because these metrics are important to rank higher on search engines, long-form content will be adapted by more websites in 2021 and further.
7. Data and Analytics
Data is one of the most talked-about trends in the digital marketing industry these days. It allows you to analyze the search marketing campaigns, understand your audience, and also create targeted messages. With proper analytical tools, you can identify referral sources, check redirects, find which pages are doing well, and even discover and fix the flaws before it affects your business further.
8. Predictive search
With the development of certain AI-driven tools for internet searches, the predictive search trend is likely to be growing in the upcoming years. For instance, Google discover recommends content based on the behavioral patterns of the user and learning from the habits over time. It also works by identifying the most relevant websites that will likely interest the user so that they could provide more value. For example, “E-commerce sites can use it to help users navigate their product catalogs, while media companies can use it to help users find relevant news, videos, and other content”.
9. High-Quality Content
Google has always stressed the importance of content quality and even highlighted that they take it as an essential ranking factor. It is expected that the EAT principle- Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness would play a key role in determining if a website has useful and quality content in the coming years. For example, there are forums and support pages for people with specific diseases. Keeping in mind the EAT principle will help you gain a better ranking.
10. Mobile-Friendliness
With half the population of online users looking for products and services on their mobile devices, search engines look to deliver the best experiences by populating results that are optimized for small-screen viewing. For example, “According to a survey 88% of surveyed Indians use mobile devices to make payments, way above the global average of 71%”
SEO is becoming more and more complex by the day. Therefore, you need to stay on top of all these changing trends to optimize your website and reap the most profitable benefits from them.
