Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the driving force behind digital marketing. SEO is a tactic used to improve a website’s ranking in online search results. Ecommerce SEO is also one of the most rapidly changing parts of online marketing owing to regular algorithm modifications that influence everyone.
You must be prepared for additional developments in the future year in order to capitalize on your internet presence. Creating an SEO plan for your website will affect how you portray yourself to the internet at large.
Whether you are a beginner or an expert, there is always something new to learn to increase your search engine ranking (SERPs). These 11 pointers will put you ahead of the curve in 2020 and beyond.
1. Focus on The User-Experience
Google unveiled its new BERT algorithm in 2019, capturing the attention of many SEO specialists. To prevent making SEO blunders, one must stay current with trends and ensure that their approaches are up to speed with the most recent advances.
BERT provides a special emphasis on optimizing content delivery technology. The user will be accustomed to this new, enhanced, and accurate content delivery by 2020. In other words, people will be able to find exactly what they are seeking rather than simply keyword fluff.
Incorporating BERT into your strategy will not only improve your content but will also ensure that your ranking is search-relevant and responsive to user intent. As user demands grow more important, focusing on keywords becomes less and less relevant.
Users choose content that is honest and speaks to their needs, thus keyword research may become obsolete by 2020. Instead, natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning research take the lead; as a result, you must tailor your strategy to intent research.
It might be difficult to keep up with all of the changes, but focusing on what Google is working on is critical to knowing the complexities of SEO. User intent is likely to generate conversions and assure the expansion of your online business.
2. Solve User Problems and Improve The User Journey
As the buyer’s journey becomes increasingly important to any sustainable digital strategy, SEO is no longer about putting material on visitors. You must pay attention to the issues that develop during the buyer’s journey and make an attempt to solve them ahead of time for the next customer.
Your 2020 SEO strategy must cover a variety of user needs, such as community development and assuring relevance for future transactions. Because your user is always first in the journey, you must ensure that they are impressed with what they find on your site.
Users are looking for genuine solutions to their difficulties because this is the cornerstone of a trusted relationship between you and them. This means that SEO has progressed to the point where it respects its users and provides excellent results rather than an optimized answer to a search phrase.
Gaining insights into consumer behavior and responding with a plan that improves their trip while securing their confidence is becoming increasingly vital.
You must conduct surveys and hold talks with your users about their needs on a regular basis. Every decision you make should be founded on research rather than assumptions about what the user requires. SEO has evolved from a supplement to an online strategy to a critical component of the overall business plan.
3. Develop High-Quality Content
Content drives SEO, something you’re undoubtedly already aware of because it’s the backbone of every website. In 2020, content must simply provide important information based on the structure of your website and your link-building plan.
Your content should be crafted in such a way that it provides the user with good value for their time. This means that your content generation will necessitate the use of expert writers who are familiar with, or eager to learn, the intricacies of SEO.
Despite the fact that Google’s editorial function is far from ideal, real people interact with your material. People can tell the difference between a fluff item and an intelligent essay. In 2020, your strategy should center on creating the best content in your sector, which will also keep you ahead of Google’s innovations.
Responsive content ensures that you can compete in long-tail searches, increase site authority, and protect your website from Google’s new advancements.
The fixation with keywords is fading, and content is increasingly focusing on subjects and what visitors are looking for. Here are five questions to ask yourself when you create content for 2020:
- Who is your target audience, and what do they look for?
- What specific issues do they need to address?
- How can you help them address their concerns and make their travel more enjoyable?
- What is the experience you want them to have?
- How can you offer solutions in the form of high-quality content and an excellent user experience?
In 2020, quality content will be significantly more important than keywords in SEO, which means your business must maintain consistency across all online media channels.
4. Improve Your Online Reputation
It appears that Google will continue to assess a company’s Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) based on third-party content. This refers to user-generated content such as reviews and other online feedback on your brand.
Companies who are battling with their internet reputation will have to work considerably harder to earn the user’s or potential customer’s trust. Another growing concern is the rise of false news and phony reviews, and quality material is gaining center stage in order to combat the rise of fake content.
You may combat negative reviews and fake news by establishing authority for your own website through content that includes valuable credentials such as references, quotes, and connections to current events.
Building a solid internet reputation necessitates material that is convincing and does not in any way misrepresent the company. Your offline reputation comes before your digital reputation, and it can be defined by your customer service, turnaround times, and responsiveness to inquiries.
SEO has evolved to include experiences outside of the digital realm, and this will play a role in the development of your 2020 campaign.
5. Focus on The User Experience and Technical SEO
The user experience is at the forefront of 2020 SEO advances, which means that professionals should focus on the complete user experience. This should take the form of establishing a high-quality landing page experience, clever drip marketing, and tailoring content for returning customers. Setting up a technical practise will ensure that you can keep up with Google’s innovations.
Your own website must have a fast loading time and follow solid SEO principles. This means that developers must implement a method for creating fast-loading templates, and content authors must avoid clickbait content.
Your technical staff must prepare for a transition into a more technical SEO ecosystem that necessitates JavaScript frameworks, PWAs, and SEO automation. These components of development are expected to become increasingly essential in 2020, taking centre stage in the development of online strategies.
6. SEO For Mobile Devices Becomes More Important
If your firm still treats mobile as an afterthought, you’re making a significant error in 2020 because mobile is a critical platform. Because the majority of people access the internet through mobile devices, most experts recommend creating for mobile-first and then moving on to desktop.
Having a desktop-only strategy is out of date and limits your SEO reach. It is critical to undertake extensive study on mobile searches and gadgets.
7. Create Well-Structured Content
Despite the fact that algorithms do not fully understand context, high-quality material is expected to become more important in 2020. You should approach your work with the idea that search engines employ clues to give more relevant results to the user. This means that your material must not only be well-written but must also be arranged in such a way that it returns results that are relevant to searches.
Each website post must assist search engines in comprehending the elements on the page. Aside from Google, the customer should be able to find your material via other channels such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and AI chatbots.
Structured data has evolved into a significant marketing layer, allowing you to optimize your content for more exposure on SERPs, mobile devices, voice assistants, and other interactive search engine software.
A solid SEO strategy will enable you to measure analytics in order to obtain insights into content design, product improvement, and user needs. Furthermore, if you rank high in a given search, you should always be up to date with new algorithms and one step ahead by carefully arranging your material.
8. Focus on Entity and Knowledge Graph Optimization
Google is working on ways to boost the value of entity-related knowledge by creating augmentation queries. In 2020, it will be increasingly easier to optimise your firm by offering results based on what it does.
This is performed by optimising your content for Google’s Knowledge Graph so that it appears in knowledge panels. Localized SEO has always been entity-based, allowing any firm to rank – even if it does not have a website.
Google is updating its search tools to increase the quality of results, which means that website material with solid content and structure has a decent chance of achieving a high ranking.
Obtaining a good Google result includes writing (in context) about an object, which allows it to rank in accordance with what the user searches for.
9. Write Journalistic Articles for Link Building and Branding
Because of the increased emphasis on providing a better user experience, it has become vital to create high-quality material that is both informative and journalistic in nature. You can develop a content strategy that includes annual holidays and events, seasonal/themed topics, and editorial article writing.
Link building will also move its attention to branding in 2020, therefore link building efforts will need to be brand-focused. This is a significant because it is less about increasing the exposure of your link online and more about developing great content surrounding the link.
10. Incorporate Visibility into Your Strategy
Your content can be excellent at times, yet no one reads it. This is why SERP SEO is becoming more important. By focusing on brand marketing rather than your website alone, you will be able to prevent zero clicks in 2020.
Your content writers will need to create clever meta information that will appear in search snippets and attract people to your website. Snippet optimization, tutorials, image-targeted content, favicon optimization, and FAQs are all wonderful SEO agency software tools and simple strategies for increasing visibility.
You must do more than merely provide a link; your link must be accompanied by valuable, high-quality content. Informative content also helps you rank higher in Google’s knowledge graph and in localized search results.
11. Always Modify Your Content
Google’s algorithms are naturally becoming smarter as they are supported by AI. As a result, you must constantly edit and update your content. You can do this monthly or every two months; you can also go back and edit old stuff with fresh information.
You should stay up to date on SEO improvements so that you can make appropriate changes to your content. As algorithms change, you can constantly update your material. Updating your material also allows users to rely on you for up-to-date, high-quality content that they can rely on.
You must also acquire suitable skills to program your website because good programming ensures that your site is functional and meets your SEO requirements.
Conclusion
SEO has surely grown at a breakneck pace over the last decade, and it is now critical to investigate the true user experience. You can develop an immersive SEO strategy that includes your branding, customer experience, and storytelling to sell your product or service if you have the correct tools.
As we get farther into the world of AI, you must recognise that clients prefer an experience that is not robotic, but rather attentive to their human needs. SEO will undoubtedly continue to play a more vital part in developing sustainable digital marketing strategy in 2020.
Need help with getting your business found online? Stridec is a top SEO agency in Singapore that can help you achieve your objectives with a structured and effective SEO programme that will get your more customers and sales. Contact us for a discussion now.