We have just completed a year in which Google’s news and algorithm improvements have played a significant part in the day-to-day life of SEO. As we all know, Google adjusts its algorithm every week, but there are usually one or two updates that stand out above the others and shake the SERPs. The main updates this year have occurred in March and June, but we have also been aware of many other developments, such as the fact that Google does not take page labeling into account or the publication of the Robots.txt code, with the removal of techniques such as the use of “No Index” in this file.
All of these advancements in the SEO industry may differ significantly in how they act in particular scenarios, but they do not fundamentally alter the picture we confront in 2020.
So, in this article, we create a list of elements that, while we already know they have begun to work in several areas, will play a critical role in 2020.
Table of Contents
- 1 What are the 2020 SEO trends?
- 1.1 SEO Trend Number One: Process Automation
- 1.2 SEO Trend Number Two: Artificial Intelligence in SEO
- 1.3 SEO Trend No. 3: Voice Search
- 1.4 SEO Trend No. 4: JavaScript SEO
- 1.5 SEO Trend No. 5: Structured Data
- 2 SEO Trends for 2020 Conclusions
What are the SEO trends for 2020?
SEO Trend Nº1: Process Automation
Attending conferences or events with a key focus of SEO and participating in meetings and presentations where different opportunities for automating day-to-day procedures are discussed is becoming more prevalent.
We discuss routine operations such as tracking for faults on our websites, monitoring various types of results, beginning Keyword Research processes, reporting findings, and so on.
These processes require a large investment of time, which, if we could save it through automation, we could allocate to better strategic planning or changing applications.
Process automation can be carried out with a little inventiveness and the assistance of a development department for the construction of scripts and functionality, easing our daily lives and allowing us to spend our time on truly vital activities.
SEO Trend Nº2: Artificial Intelligence applied to SEO
It may be premature to discuss the application of artificial intelligence in SEO in general terms, but the truth is that those SEOs that are most interested in this type of development are already working on ways to apply it to better your results.
It should be mentioned that Google has been using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques for a few years, notably with the installation of Rankbrain in 2015, but we are now referring to the use of these by SEOs.
Based on learning from previous data that represent user behavior on our site, artificial intelligence could assist us in optimizing certain positioning parameters, particularly those aimed at ensuring an optimal user experience.
SEO Trend Nº3: Voice Search
Voice Searches have become a classic of this type of post where SEO trends for the coming year are compiled, but the truth is that they do not complete operating as a basic part in an SEO optimization approach.
The emergence of voice assistants for the house has led to the normality of the use of virtual assistants such as Android, Cortana, or Siri. With this influx, these forms of searches have grown and are assuming the construction of a new trend in the way we hunt for information, which is completely different from what we are used to.
This surge in voice searches has radically altered the way SEO is done.
On the one hand, resolving the user’s search purpose becomes critical. Furthermore, when compared to the usual method of doing a search, it substantially broadens the methods in which the search for the same response is carried out and expands the semantic context in which the term belongs.
To work SEO to bring traffic from voice searches, we must promptly and clearly resolve the user’s search intention, assist us in marking data with Schema or JSON-LD, have correctly organized content, and work Local SEO for local searches.
SEO Trend Nº4: SEO for JavaScript
It demonstrates that traffic from mobile devices has been entering computer traffic for years, considerably outnumbering it and monopolizing all attention. For years, we’ve talked about a shift toward responsive web design, faster loading times, and better web performance on these types of devices.
However, we are on our way to enhancing user experience in terms of speed and load: new progressive frameworks designed in JS that serve dynamic information, eliminating the loading procedures that occur while navigating between different sections of a website.
Google has made it a priority to develop rendering technologies that allow you to perfectly track this type of website developed in JS language, thus everything signals that this type of development will be prioritized soon.
Google revealed in early May that the rendering engine used by Googlebot had been updated, moving from Chrome 41 to Chrome 74. This change is a significant step forward in effectively scanning content and eliminating the disadvantages of websites built with JavaScript when ranking in Google, so
With this release, official Google sources assure that bots can render material in the same way that browsers do, although they must still perfect these procedures. Other search engines, on the other hand, are not yet capable of accurately rendering these websites, but they will be obliged to follow the path set by Google, Europe’s largest search engine.
As a result, catching up with SEO applied to this type of programming language will be one of the primary trends for SEOs by 2020.
SEO Trend Nº5: Structured data
Although it has been a consideration for a long time, the usage of structured data has become essential when presenting information in an ordered manner for processing by Google.
Furthermore, as time passes, Google offers additional possibilities for data marking, so we can see it as an opportunity for particular industries or sorts of websites that could not use it previously. Google has its own structured data assistant, where we may manually select the components we wish to mark and receive the HTML code to incorporate into our website.
The most recent advancement in structured data marking has been the addition of a new option for marking FAQS sections or frequently asked questions. This option explicitly aims to appear in the snippet that Google provides in the SERPs before an informative search with a list of commonly asked questions acquired from the websites themselves.
Clearly, using this form of organized data provides us with advantages in terms of visibility. Perhaps not at the ranking levels, but when it comes to attracting more attention to search results with prominent snippets or rich snippets. Furthermore, this type of data tagging delivers information to Google, therefore it values its use.
On the contrary, it may be stated that we are “feeding the beast,” which will eventually turn against us. The ultimate goal of Google in this regard is to show its own rich results that solve the user’s search intention without leaving the SERPs, thus we face a potential loss of traffic that will rise over time, as Google does not appear to settle for a small portion of informational searches.
Conclusions on SEO trends for 2020
In short, we can trust that the four essential criteria we’ve discussed will definitely govern SEO developments in 2020. Furthermore, they are clearly related fields, particularly in cases of process automation and the application of artificial intelligence to SEO, as well as between structured data content tagging and voice searches.
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