Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the oldest, but also one of the most powerful and necessary marketing methods available. The nature of customer behavior has altered over time, as has the SEO environment. Staying on top of the latest SEO trends will allow users to optimally design their site’s content and architecture and rank higher in natural search results on search engines like Google and other platforms in this highly competitive world, where readers identify what they want and don’t want to engage within less than 8 seconds.
We anticipate that by 2020, the impact of Google Bert on search engine optimization will be widely debated and evaluated. Zero-click searches will also become the new norm. Let’s look at the seven key SEO trends that will affect marketing efforts in 2020.
1. Impact Of BERT
In October 2019, Google published BERT, its most significant update in five years. Google launched this tool to comprehend the intent behind search queries and do a better job helping end-users find helpful content by applying it to both rankings and featured snippets in search. It is an acronym for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.
As a result, SEO specialists will need to concentrate on user-centered optimization, clear website architecture, and content distribution. Because the trend in search inquiries will shift away from keyword stuffing and toward more intent-based optimization, the SEO team will need to actively monitor how search engines like Google discover, crawl, index, and serve web pages in a variety of search settings.
2. High-quality Natural Content Will Win
In close succession, this tendency parallels Google’s BERT trend. Google has often said that the best approach for SEO practitioners to make the BERT algorithm work in their favor is to create fantastic content.
“There is nothing to optimize for with BERT and nothing to reconsider. The fundamentals of our efforts to recognize and reward exceptional content remain intact. My response was that BERT does not change the fundamentals of what we’ve long advocated: write content for users,” said Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, in a series of tweets.
As a result, 2020 would be devoted to generating information that is useful and beneficial in natural English for readers by comprehending the nuance of the words used in a query.
3. E-A-T Rating Will Continue to Matter
When it comes to SEO ranking in 2020, your company’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) score will still be important. Companies having a poor reputation will suffer a negative impact on their organic visibility.
In the future years, the emphasis will be on weeding out fraudulent material, examining a company’s reputation (as well as the persons allowed to post content on the company’s behalf), and showcasing outstanding content that indicates true experience and qualifications.
An accurate, authentic, and convincing online depiction of your company will contribute to a favorable Google E-A-T score and help SEO specialists successfully conduct marketing activities in 2020.
4. User Experience and Technical SEO
SEO specialists should concentrate on the user experience, whether it is the initial interaction in the SERPs, the website loading speed, or the complete landing page experience. Connecting with people who have previously interacted with your website or mobile app through retargeting and tailoring content for returning users is also part of it.
The fundamental goal of this trend is to focus all efforts on addressing two questions: how can you give the best user experience in the most efficient way AND what value you can bring to your visitors when they visit your site.
From investing in strong technical practices to strengthening your site’s technical underpinnings, technical SEO will outperform all other SEO techniques in the coming year.
5. Mobile SEO
Mobile SEO is a major trend that will emerge in 2020. Companies who adopt a mobile-first strategy will triumph, while those with bad mobile sites will struggle to obtain visibility in search engine results. According to SEO experts, providing a great user experience through mobile SEO should be a top focus for every firm.
Instead of constructing a desktop site first, SEO pros can capitalize on this trend by building mobile-first sites and then making them desktop-friendly. This would make the process of optimizing website speed easier. Given that 84 percent of smartphone users discover products via a browser or mobile platform, it is critical to remember that the majority of customers will access your website via a mobile device.
Make mobile performance insights a part of your online reporting in 2020, visualize mobile user journeys (and fix pain spots), and research mobile SERPs.
6. Optimize for Voice Search
Without voice search, the discussion of Mobile SEO would be incomplete. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, announced during the Google I/O keynote that voice search accounts for 20% of mobile queries on Google.
As the popularity of voice search grows, SEO practitioners will need to concentrate on strategies to improve voice search optimization in 2020. Businesses will be compelled to optimize their websites for voice search due to the impressive voice search adoption rate and BERT’s intent-based search algorithm.
It can improve their voice search optimization by concentrating on featured snippets, user intent, long-tail keywords and inquiries, page speed, structured data, and local SEO.
7. Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are a trend that began in 2019 and will continue to grow in 2020 as zero-click searches gain traction. Despite its newness, the trend has already caused havoc on the search page ranking ladder. As a result, in the coming years, the website with the most real estate on a Google search will win.
Sharp SEO professionals that use the best On-SERP SEO strategy will be able to boost brand awareness and click-through rate.
Summing Up
The 2020 SEO landscape will be distinguished by significant changes as a result of recent Google initiatives such as BERT and search snippets. SEO specialists can increase their company’s organic ranking by prioritizing mobile experience, optimizing for voice search, translating user search intent with technical SEO, and focusing on outstanding content. However, we predict that can break the search snippets code will be able to secure the top spot.
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