Top 5 SEO trends in 2021 – For those who did not already know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and it is one of the most effective ways to bring customers to your website. The key to SEO though is that it needs to be done the right way or your efforts will be for nothing. There is an average of 3.5 billion searches made on Google every day, of those searches only 0.78% will click onto the second page of results.
So, what does this mean? If your website is not ranked on the first page of search results your customers just will not find it. Therefore, you need SEO, though it is a moving goalpost constantly changing with the digital landscape. To help you make sense of it all and ensure SEO success here are 5 trends to focus on:
How to leverage SEO trends in 2021
As mentioned earlier, one needs to keep updating one’s SEO strategy as Google updates its own algorithms, below we are going to look at some of the bigger trends for this year which you can use when putting together your SEO strategy:
1. Core Web Vitals as a Google ranking factor
Last year in May, Google released three new key factors that are measured on your website when it comes to user experience, Loading, Interactivity and Visual Stability. These all connect directly to your page speed. How fast it loads and becomes usable and how stable it is while doing so.
These vitals need to be paid close attention to if you want to get your website listed on the first page of search results. This comes to the forefront when Google comes upon two similar websites, the one that offers a better user experience will be given a higher rank.
2. Google’s BERT looks for intent matches
Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers or BERT uses Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to better understand searches and what people are looking for in each search. This system has been updated to better interpret what a user is searching for, and this better understands what they are looking for.
The result of this is that websites that have mismatched content will be ranked lower, it is worth noting that this is not a system that de-ranks websites its focus is on prioritising results for each search. Ensuring you are constantly publishing valuable content that satisfies your users intent will keep a steady flow of customers coming to your page.
How to optimize for Google’s BERT
Each time a user creates a search, they are doing so with specific intent. Are they trying to find the answer to a question? A list of options? A how-to-tutorial? A listing of products or find product reviews? As one can see this represents quite a wide range of options so one needs to make sure that the content you post to your website and keywords you use within it matches this intent.
As a practical example if one searched for “SEO” this would be interpreted as the user wanting to know about SEO as a concept. If you search for “SEO services” it will be interpreted as you are looking for someone for these services. So “SEO” is the informational keyword and “SEO services” is a commercial keyword.
Some keywords can be classified as multi-intent, if one searched for ‘SEO expert’ it could be interpreted as if you are looking to hire an SEO expert or it could be you want to be an SEO expert.
3. Keyword research will become more important
Recent statistics indicates that 50% of searches made end without a click to a website, these are known as zero-click searches. This is because of the results gathered are so rich in data that the user gets the information they are looking for without even having to click a result.
This only works when your website, ads, business profile and blog content has keywords that match your customers search intent. This further emphasises that you need to take time to research keywords that can help you drive more traffic to your business.
How to do it
- You need to find long-tail and targeted keywords for your business. To source these you will need creativity and skills. A trick is to use Google Search Console to find unique keywords for your business.
- Understand the intent. Every keyword you use needs to have a purpose and be backed up by specific keyword research. If this is done correctly you will find that even a low-volume keyword with 10-20 searches per month can still generate thousands of dollars in a month.
4. Google still wants original content
Never forget the main goal that Google wants to bring with your website and to the public is new and unique content. The more unique content you publish the higher your ranking will be.
This is quite simple to understand, why would you buy a hat that is the same colour and design as the one you already have? In most cases there will be thousands of pages with similar content to what you are publishing, you need to make sure your content has its own unique spin and add value to what is already out there. It is a good idea to source case studies, experiments, customer testimonials and company milestones to use for your content. This will result in something that is authentic and that Google likes.
5. Voice search
In a recent report, Google found that 27% of the world population use voice search on their phones.
Most voice searches are processed at long-tail and specific searches. Usually, users are looking for a specific answer to a query when using voice search. These users are in the consideration stage of the funnel and are very likely to convert to a sale in the immediate future. Voice search optimisation is thus growing quickly and will be a big focus going forward.
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