Key SEO Changes Digital Marketers Need to Be Aware of in 2020

Like other things in life, SEO is bound to change. If you were expecting SEO to remain the same in 2020, you might be mistaken.

As a digital marketer or a Top IT firm, you will need to know all the latest developments in SEO to become successful in 2020.

Each year brings a new set of opportunities and challenges for the modern marketer. Skilled marketers can thrive in all conditions.

Is SEO still relevant?

Absolutely. Search engines like Google are going nowhere, and neither are the people that use them. Search engines have become such an integral part of our lives that their importance cannot be understated.

People will still continue to use search engines in 2020. The use of search engines is positioned to increase only. So yes, you can be confident that SEO will still be relevant in 2020.

To stay competitive in 2020, you’re going to have to develop an SEO for growth mindset. You’ll need to think of ways to use SEO to advance your business objectives. SEO, when done correctly, can provide your business with incredible results. SEO is transforming too like new tools like live chat apps for website are playing integral role in getting people reviews.

SEO 2020 will depend on how well you can predict the way people use search engines.

Here are the key SEO trends that digital marketers need to be aware of in 2020:

1. Voice search will become even more important

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular among people.

Voice search is convenient. Most people use voice to search for something when they are either driving or aren’t in the mood to type a search query.

Thanks to IoT and smart devices, you expect an increased focus on voice technologies. Google wants to facilitate its users, and the best way to do that is to make their lives as convenient and easy as possible.

One of the biggest reasons to pay attention to voice is that it may change the amount of traffic you’re getting. Ranking on the first page won’t be enough in 2020. You’ll need to provide value to the searcher, and in a way that is easy to communicate through voice.

If voice becomes the norm for all future searches, the only way to get decent traffic would be to rank as high as possible on the search engine results page. But will that be enough? Probably not.

You’ll also need to make sure that the user’s intent is being appropriately addressed in your content. If your content doesn’t provide value, your website is not going to be used as a voice search result.

The best way to start preparing for the voice search era is to begin using long-tail keywords in your content. Try to answer something your audience would be searching for briefly. If warranted, you can go on explaining the content in more detail.

2. BERT and what it will bring to the table

BERT is the new algorithm that Google rolled out at the end of 2019. When BERT came out, there were widespread concerns among digital marketers and SEO practitioners.

The thing about BERT is that it will impact almost 10% of all searches. It is not something that you can brush off or take lightly. You’re going to have to come up with a strategy to deal with BERT or any algorithm that Google comes out with.

Although it’s been a while now, it’s still a great idea to learn about the basics of BERT.

BERT is an algorithm that will evaluate search queries, not web pages. By analyzing search queries, BERT will try to find the intent behind a search query and try to show results accordingly.

If you want to stay relevant with BERT around, your on-page SEO game needs to step up. You need to focus on long-tail keywords more than ever.

Since Google is trying to focus more and more on providing a positive user experience, you’ll have to make sure that your content is going to help the searcher.

One way to make your textual content more appealing to BERT is to write naturally. What that means is no keyword stuffing (filling your content with a copious number of keywords for SEO benefits). Keyword stuffing used to work way back in the day.

All you need to do now is to write naturally and for your audience. Trying to provide value to your audience and thinking about how your writing will impact them will help you deal with BERT.

3. E-A-T

The digital marketing community loves to come up with jargon. SEO, SMM, EAT, BERT, YMYL, the list of abbreviations is seemingly endless. EAT is one such acronym.

E-A-T is an acronym for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Your website should have a high EAT level if you want to rank high.

Page quality is something that you should look into if you want to rank high on the SERP.

The content on your web page should provide value to your visitors. Without value, your visitors are going to bounce, and Google won’t like that one bit.

The expertise part of EAT means that the content should be written by an expert. If you want to get medical advice or information on a topic, only a doctor or another trained professional should answer your question.

Google advises content creators to write content and use their judgment to create content that they know will help the user.

The authoritativeness part of EAT means that content should be written by someone who has been working in the niche or industry for some time now. The writer or content creator should be a renowned member of the community.

The trustworthiness part of EAT means that the content creator, website, and the content should be trustworthy.

4. The future is mobile and speed

This point is not particularly for 2020, but it is still essential to SEO success.

Mobile has become a new way to use search engines. Everyone has a smartphone these days. And most searches are being done on mobile phones and other devices.

In this scenario, it is imperative to have a responsive website.

Another thing that your site should be is super-fast. If your website is not optimized for mobile, it will take too long to load.

People have dwindling attention spans. If your website takes more time to load, people will bounce and hit up another site.

Ideally, your website should look great on all kinds of devices. And it should be able to load itself in under 7 seconds, and even that is pushing is.

Google penalizes websites that aren’t optimized for mobile and has been doing so for a while now. So, if you haven’t been penalized for having a non-responsive website, you should not be waiting around to get a hit from Google.

Make sure that your website is able to display its content on all kinds of devices properly. Also, ensure that you optimize the content on your site to make it as fast as possible. That way, your customers will have the best user experience possible.

Full Article is originally published at All About Apps Blog titled "Key SEO Changes Digital Marketers Need to Be Aware of in 2020" on 12th May 2020