It’s been a long time when SEO used to be a set of some old-fashioned tweaks to set up your website. With the search engines’ algorithms evolving and getting more sophisticated with each update, both end-users and marketing agencies need to stay on top of the changes before they lose precious virtual estate on the internet.
The digital world saw an explosive boom with the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything is reshaping for good, from courier and food delivery services to SAAS and online search trends.
In this post, we are going to explore the latter, coupled with prospective SEO trends that going to be all the rage in 2021.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
- Mobile-First Internet
Mobile SEO is no joke; it never was. According to estimates, overall, of the internet users in the world, more than 59% use portable devices to browse the internet. But, with each passing day, mobile phones are getting smarter and people are using them more often than ever to browse the internet. Hence, the need to optimize sites and content according to mobile SEO. There is no denying the importance and relevance of standard SEO practices, but mobile SEO has become the force to be reckoned with and will be so, in the coming days.
2. Zero-Click Search
If you thought local search listings would become obsolete in 2021, you were wrong. According to experts, local SEO is necessary because of the consistent growth in zero-click searches. Since users get the answers to their questions via SERPs, they don’t feel the need to click on a web address and go through the whole web page. Now might be a good time to set up and optimize the Google My Business page and run a backlink campaign.
Think about the next time you are searching for a food joint or a plumber!
3. Voice Search
Since the race has already begun among tech giants to incorporate voice navigation and control, it’s about time the internet catches up with it. Among the hottest SEO trends this year, voice search is topping the charts. The end goal is to make the process of searching and sorting something over the internet more efficient and seamless, there is no end of voice search in-sight, but only a steady rise.
With the projected advancement in this field, using AI and ML, the trends in search and SEO are going to be revolutionized.
There is still some privacy-related controversy surrounding this, but the future is surely bright for voice search.
4. Google’s SMITH Algorithm
The whole point of writing long and short forms of content is to add value to the internet and address the users’ intent. If something falls short of these two parameters, there is no reason for that thing to exist on the internet. At least this is what Google’s SMITH algorithm update says. This time, the update is a beefed-up version of BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) which was the predecessor to SMITH. SMITH, that is Siamese Multi-Depth Transformer-Based Hierarchical, allows the search engine to better understand the intents and rationale of long-form or in-depth web pages.
Another step in this direction is the bundling of related topics on one page, instead of allocating separate pages for varying topics.
5. Core Web Vitals – Make it work with the help of your developer
In May 2020, Google announced its version of Core Web Vitals. These are a couple of metrics that the search engine will employ to determine the health of a website.
If you are wondering for something out of the box, there is nothing fancy here. It’s the same old song with a new tune.
To make sure you do not miss the blessings of Google, here are the things you need to look out for;
- CLS – a smooth experience for users. No layout shifts as it confuses users. Site navigation and optimization for mobiles. Since everything is becoming about people with smartphones, the web should be up to their standard
- LCP - Quick Site Loading Times
- FID – your website must get responsive quickly
The crux of the premise is to entertain the end-users. If you are successful in nailing it down, you are going to be fine.
6. Multimedia Content
The steady rise of YouTube for the past decade has been phenomenal, and so is its relevance and impact on SEO. The overwhelming number of users on YouTube shows that people rely on the application for information and entertainment. So, embedding relevant videos on your web pages will allow you to stand out from the crowd and ace the trends in search. Make sure to optimize a video with proper keywords to ensure SEO impact.
7. Online Listings & Review Management
The pandemic shaped the service and goods providing sector in recent times. The search volumes for businesses have reached new limits. To secure your fair share of the proverbial market pie, it is necessary now to take care of the online listings and reviews.
Local business directory sites are the best source to exploit this trend in search. Sites like Yelp, CityLocal Pro, Yellow Pages, etc., are driving more traffic than ever. By claiming your listing and optimizing it according to the latest trends, your business will get a sure boost in visibility and sales.
Neglecting the importance of reviews can be your biggest mistake. Have a proper review management strategy along with the listing. This helps to survive SEO games, someone agrees or not but yeah search engines are a little biased to well-known brands, and you need to be one that brand.
8. Quality Backlinks
SEO and backlinks go hand in hand, so maybe there is nothing new about SEO trends and backlinks in 2021. The truth is, search engines are tightening the noose to make sure quality trumps the quantity when it comes to backlinks.
According to John Mueller, one authentic, quality backlink from a top-tier website will be worth more than a million low-quality rundown links. It points to the necessity of PR and SEO working together.
The spectrum of SEO is ever-changing with the latest trends and often much-anticipated Google algorithm updates. The reason for writing this post was to give you a heads up so that you know what to expect in the coming future. These trends are backed by experts and you will be better off if you start working on them now.