Knowing what the latest SEO trends enables you to make the necessary adjustments and keep up with the requirements of search engines. It is the key to ensuring that you continue to dominate search engine results pages (SERPs) and earn more revenue.

So, for this year, what are the big things that would happen in the world of search engine optimisation? Below are the 3 of the important SEO trends for 2020:

User-Focused Optimisation

Since Google announced the arrival of Search Journeys, “user intent” became the buzz phrase in the SEO world. Last year, optimising for user intent was dubbed as the most important trend. It wasn’t hard to understand why this was the belief as keeping up with this shift was necessary to stay relevant.

Many experts believe that this trend is still going to be big this year, and it’s here to stay until Google comes up with something new.

Furthermore, Google’s new algorithm update – BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) – sends a strong message that the era of intent matching is here. Purely string matching won’t cut it anymore!

What does this mean for your website?

Now is the time to shift to user-focused optimisation (in case you haven’t yet). You must have an in-depth understanding of your users – their journey as buyers.

It is only when you know what the intent is behind their queries would you be able to provide the content they need.

Remember:

Intent matching plays an integral role in the creation of successful content. Providing the best answers to their queries is the key to capturing and converting these users into customers.

Rich-Featured Results

Last year, for the first time, the majority of searches on Google were “zero-click searches”. Digital marketing specialists believe that this is going to be the new reality in the world of search.

What is “zero-click search”? It means that users do not click on any of the links or items on the SERPs.

Why? Does this mean they didn’t get any relevant result? No, it’s the opposite – they were able to get answers to their query on the SERP without clicking on any link.

How? It’s mainly because of SERP features like Local Packs, Rich and Featured Snippets and Knowledge Graph.

The increase in “zero-click searches” may alarm website owners like you as this can significantly impact click-through rate (CTR), traffic and conversion rates.

Here’s the thing:

In “zero-click searches”, users are looking for immediate or specific answers to their queries. For example, a company’s contact details or operating hours. These users aren’t looking for new information to help them decide, for example, what to buy. They already made up their minds. So, there’s a small chance of you converting them.

What should you do?

You need to prepare for “zero-click searches”. This includes knowing what keywords and queries can actually bring you clicks. Another thing you need to work on is to end up on the Featured Snippet as this can increase CTR.

Admittedly, it isn’t easy landing on the Featured Snippet. The truth is that, even if you’re number 1 on organic search results, it doesn’t follow that your entry would be on the snippet.

One thing you can do is to check out if your competitors have snippets, and what they are about. You can work on creating better content or answers to get their spot.

Also, focus on keywords or search terms which are question-based. You can refer to the “People Also Ask” section for some ideas.

Voice Searches

Since its introduction in 2012, voice search has been slowly creeping into the awareness of users, making them realise its value. At this juncture, it can be said that voice search is now a successful project given its newfound popularity.

In 2017, voice search queries reached 33 million. Meanwhile, in March 2019, it was reported that voice searches comprised 20% of voice queries.

Given this trend, experts believe that reliance on this search method is going to increase in the coming years. In fact, it has been predicted that 30% of web search is going to be screenless by 2020.

Suffice to say, voice search is here to stay; it is the future. So, optimising for these search queries is necessary, especially for local SEO.

In a 2018 survey involving U.S. consumers, 74% (of the 58% who said they used voice search) utilise this method to look for local business at least weekly.

It should be noted that voice queries are phrased like a question. They often include long-tail keywords as well. These things should be kept in mind when you create your content.

Staying abreast with the trends and biggest changes in the world of search is essential in the survival and growth of your business. So, make sure you incorporate these things into your overall SEO strategy.

Stay on top of your SEO game this 2020! Let our SEO specialists help you keep up with these big changes! Call us today at 019609023.