Important SEO Trends You Need to Know in 2020

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most prevalent marketing trends among online businesses today. That’s why digital marketers need to pay special attention to the tactics that have proven to be the most important SEO trends of 2020. We may be nearing the end of the year, but these trends have the staying power to be highly effective well into 2021.

Besides digital marketers, brand and website owners should be just as aware of SEO trends if they hope for their websites to be present among search results displayed in different search engines. You can believe without a doubt that by implementing Google SEO best practices, a website can earn visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

In this article, we’ll be sharing some of the top SEO best practices for 2020 that every website owner should know about.

Top SEO Trends in 2020

Without wasting any more of your precious time, let us get on with the most effective SEO trends of the year 2020.

1. Consolidation of SERPs

One of the most important SEO trends in 2020 is the consolidation of SERPs. This means you should consider updating or removing website pages that aren’t getting any traffic and optimizing your pages for organic growth. With an increase in the percentage of ad share, most of the clicks are now being received by featured snippets and answer boxes, and organic clicks may not even be provided to the original posts. 

2. Keyword Research

Another SEO trend to keep in mind is finding and applying the right keywords. Google has evolved over the last few years and has become one of the best answering machines for a variety of user queries. The relevance of keywords might have changed; however, the pattern of keyword research is the same. There’s no doubt that proper keyword research needs to be done before releasing or publishing any piece of content. Keyword research should never be ignored because, with proper implementation, optimization is guaranteed.

3. Voice Search 

It’s expected there might be more than one billion mobile devices that feature voice assistants by the end of 2020, and more than 50 percent of all searches may happen through voice. This prediction makes voice search one of the best SEO ideas for the year 2020 and is something that should not be ignored. We’re seeing the shift in real-time. Among younger generations, more than 55 percent of teenagers are using voice search.

In any discussion about Google SEO trends, the importance of optimizing your website for voice-based search can’t be overstated. If you want to show up at the top of search results, it’s a good idea to make use of long-tail keywords, as most voice searches are in the form of a question or a statement.

4. Videos as an Information Source 

Similar to voice searches, video searches are becoming more and more popular every day. Many studies indicate that the majority of people prefer to watch online videos rather than television. The number of videos on the internet is exponentially on the rise. Today, it’s almost as if YouTube has become the new television.

Most of the current internet users, especially the younger generation, prefer to get data and information through online videos, whether for entertainment or academic purposes. This means it’s vital for businesses to incorporate online videos into their SEO strategies. A high-quality video can easily attract a huge number of users if it’s dynamic and interesting.

In order to reach out to more people with your videos, you need to optimize them according to search users. You can achieve this by using appropriate keywords in the headline as well as the description of your video. This guarantees that your video reaches a larger number of people who are looking for information or are interested in your particular subject.

5. Search Intent

Search intent is the purpose of a search query – the reason a user is searching for a particular topic online. Search intent has become a major factor in determining a website’s SEO ranking. In the past few years, search engines have become better at understanding the search intent of the user. Search engines, especially Google, rank web pages higher if they fit with the search term and match the search intent of the query. 

To optimize your website for search intent, you need to analyze the SERP in detail. You can also hire a digital marketing agency to help you optimize your website according to the user search intent.

6. Structured Data

Although the search engines might have the content of a website, they might not be able to correctly understand the website and what it wants to convey. Search engines tend to look for specific terms to match them with the search query of the user. Schema markup, or structured data, is code that allows search engines to have a greater understanding of your website content, helping your content be better represented in search results.

With the help of structured data, search engines can tell explicitly what a website is all about. This also makes it easy for a search engine to display specific and relevant search results for a particular search query. FAQ rich snippets are important examples of structured data and hold more importance in today’s SEO world. 

7. Brand Building

According to a recent survey, fewer people are clicking on the top search results. More than 40 percent of the results do not get used and are, in effect, wasted. Why? Most people tend to click on the link of a brand or business that they recognize. If this tells us anything, it’s that brand building and brand awareness have become an essential aspect of SEO that can’t be overlooked.

8. User Experience (UX)

In 2020, the experience of users on a website has become one of the most relevant factors in optimization, and digital marketers and website owners need to place even greater importance on this growing SEO trend. The benefits of great UX are multi-faceted: When users of a particular website, product or service have a smooth, seamless experience, they tend to promote it, which results in positive SEO for the website. A customer also tends to recommend a business to friends and family if they are happy with the products or services, resulting in more sales and a positive reputation.

9. Knowledge Graph Optimization

On the internet, gaining information is of paramount importance, and it’s a ranking factor search engines look out for. That’s why the top search results are mostly replaced by results that are relevant and needed by the users. This is one SEO trend that is expected to remain active throughout the year 2020 and for many years going forward. Website owners as well as digital marketers need to focus on creating useful information in their content if they hope to be displayed high on the SERPs.

10. Mobile UX 

With studies showing that about four in every five consumers do local searches on different search engines with the help of their mobile devices, mobile web pages are a growing trend in today’s market and are expected to grow more in the coming years. In fact, Google’s algorithm will shift to mobile-first indexing in March 2021. When this update takes effect, websites that do not have a mobile version of their site will disappear from search results entirely. 

Today, technology and the way people find information through a mobile device is becoming more advanced, and it’s simply not enough to have a desktop version of a website. It’s equally important to ensure that your mobile website’s interface is easy to read and can grab the attention of visitors, while simultaneously answering their questions (or at least keeping them entertained). 

More people in today’s world are searching for information from their smartphones rather than from a laptop or computer, and a mobile responsive website is a foolproof way to reach an audience interested in your product or service.

Remember: These web pages should be optimized for mobile devices to keep up with competitors. The higher a business website or web page is on the Google mobile page index, the better and more prominent the web page will be.

Conclusion

The above article was a glimpse into some of the top SEO trends that digital marketers and website owners need to follow for being successful in the year 2020 and beyond. These trends are guaranteed to bring positive organic SEO growth for your business, so make sure you include them in your strategy today. Alternatively, you can always utilize the services of a professional digital marketing agency for an immediate boost in the SERPs.