Innovation is the future no matter what line of work you’re in. SEO is not an exemption. It’s not just COVID-19 that created a shift in terms of marketing practices. Marketing is a place of continual transformation.
Every company, CEO, Head of marketing, or content creator needs to follow the latest trend to achieve tangible results.
By following the latest trends in the industry, you will be able to stay on track with technological advancements and serve the needs of your future clients.
In this article, I’ll show you some of the most recent SEO trends that you need to pay attention to.
Following these trends will help you with content creating, increasing traffic, and targeting the right audience. SEO is a vast field that constantly evolves so pay attention to what follows.
Table of Contents
Search Intent
Google is always changing its algorithms. It’s never a good idea to have a fixed strategy that captures only the current rules of this search engine.
Since the algorithms are becoming more powerful, they are focusing more on the search intent. What is search intent? In short, it’s the intention behind a search query. When I type “best sushi restaurants”, my search intent is to find the best sushi restaurants.
Algorithms are becoming better and better at recognizing the search intent of millions of users. The main goal of Google is to get better at giving people exactly what they want.
This means that if you want your webpage or article to rank well you need to become bloody good at matching users’ intentions.
Search intent is the most important step when creating any type of digital content. If you get it wrong, everything else is wrong by default.
Voice Search
Voice search is already here. The data is clear on this matter. It shows that 25 % of global online users are using voice search. The numbers are the same in the USA, where one out of four Americans has a voice assistance technology in some form.
Voice search allows users to search the internet and give commands through their voice.
This technology started on smartphones (which is logical if you think about it). It made more sense to use your phone for searching the web in the same way you were using it to communicate with others (when you call people and talk to them, you know?).
The result of this improvement is speech recognition.
Today, it is quite normal to ask for a song and Alexa will play Tony Bennet (or something else, but Tony is great, right?).
The voice search function is significant because it has an impact on our SEO practices. There are significant differences between a “regular” search (when you type your search query) and telling your app what to do.
Now, we as SEO specialists, content creators, editors, etc should have in mind this function when creating content. We need to optimize our content to make it closer to the actual conversation. We need to use common words, phrases, construct everyday sentences, etc.
If you’re not paying attention to these and similar details, the user may have trouble finding things online which is the last thing you want!
E-A-T
When publishing content online, you should always check for updates and new rules for evaluating content. In 2015, a change of that sort happened when Google released its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
In that document, they defined a metric that separated good content from low-quality. The three main indicators of quality were: Purpose in terms of benefits, YMYL (Your Money or Your Life), and EAT.
EAT or Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness is related to overall page quality. These three parameters were applied to the creator, the webpage, and the website as a whole. Since then, backlinks stopped being the main factor that Google had for ranking websites.
However, for your website to be evaluated it needs to be in a YMYL category first. This means that the content from your website needs to have a positive impact on the user’s happiness, safety, and overall life.
To create amazing content, you need to make sure that it follows under these categories. This is where good optimization comes into play. Make sure you know your audience. If you know them well, it will be easier to provide content that will improve their lives.
Similarly, be the expert for that specific audience. Don’t show expertise on all sorts of things. Keep it simple and focused on a single group. It’s a lot easier to become an expert for a specific group of people.
This goes without saying – Always create top-quality content. This is the real value that you will bring to the table. You may use a dissertation help service to assist you in providing insightful material that your audience will love.
The certainty of success is greater for a brand that publishes high-quality content on a regular basis. These websites are the ones we think of when we want to find the opinions of experts.
That said, don’t be afraid to get creative here as well with your content to establish yourself as an authority. While EAT itself is based on written content, sites that are in these niches typically go through a manual review as it’s hard to determine this metric without doing so.
Take the time to interview experts in the field and post the videos on your site, host webinars
on subject matter that your audience will find interesting, encourage industry leaders to be quoted on your site to establish more credibility. Whatever you can do to align yourself with experts and better establish your expertise through content is encouraged.
Artificial Intelligence
Google has been using AI for some time now to create the best possible experience for its users and show the most relevant results.
In 2019. Google introduced BERT, which is a neural network-based technique that analyses natural language and speech, also known as natural language processing (NLP).
Google uses BERT to have a better understanding of the subtleties of natural language. As a result, search results are more accurate and capture the intent behind queries to a larger degree.
In short, search algorithms like BERT are making search engines more human in terms of how they process information and what they decide to show to users.
Understanding artificial intelligence can help content writers as well to optimize their articles while they work. There are many tools like CopyAI which can help you with writer’s block or Wordtune that can rephrase your words and help you to express yourself. You may also run your content through a plagiarism checker database of millions of websites to ensure that your text is completely unique.
If you’re an editor, you can use an author box for giving credits to your writers. The author box is customizable and can be placed anywhere on your website.
Video Content
It shouldn’t be a surprise that video content dominates the internet. From short TikTok and Instagram reels to longer YouTube videos, it’s clear that the majority of people need the information to be visually represented.
If you decide to create videos and promote them on social media, your website, etc, I would advise you to create a Cross Channel Marketing strategy first. It will help you to plan things out and have a consistent flow of content.
A good brand strategy is to promote your brand by providing video content to your audience. Stats are showing that an average user spends 88% more time on your website if there is a video there.
Video content is great for raising awareness, which is why it should be used as the first step of your marketing strategy.The main media and most common content in 2021 is video content.
Videos are only now starting to matter in terms of analytics and data. For example, YouTube is influencing the development of SEO in a big way. Rules from written content are being applied to clips and videos.
A YouTube video needs to have a target keyword and should be optimized for search in the same way as SEO articles.
You can create different types of content for not just B2C but B2B as well. Google now allows ranking of podcasts. Your company can use this space and create interesting podcasts that can reach the right audience.
User-Experience
User experience is never out of date. Take two similar websites in terms of functionality. Which one is going to have more success in terms of visits, clisk, time their users stay there, etc? The one that has a better user experience.
Every platform, social media, or website wants its users to stay as much as possible. If users spend more time on your platform it sends the signal that your content is relevant, that you are a trustworthy content creator, and your authority increases.
If users leave quickly from your website, it’s marked as irrelevant by Google and its ranking decreases on SERP (search engine results page). To be relevant and create a user-friendly website, you can think about a couple of steps.
Think about navigation and where are the key buttons. Make sure they are visible and simple. Always make sure that everything goes smoothly. There is nothing worse than a slow website.
Colors and fonts are also important. Visual aspects are the first element that users notice. Play with its functionality and make it interactive.
Conclusion
This is the end of the article but the beginning of your journey toward the improvement of your SEO practices. 2023 was and still is full of uncertainties but SEO is a never-changing game.
Try to create something new. Use videos and build trust with a consistent approach that radiates expertise. Always be on the lookout for new technologies and try to use them to your advantage.
Stay safe in these turbulent times and good luck with creating a cutting-edge SEO strategy. I hope these trends were helpful and will inspire you to dig deeper and find more value for you and your business.
If you have some comments or you think that there are new trends that I haven’t talked about, please share them in the comments section. I will appreciate your feedback.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the significance of search intent in SEO?
Search intent is crucial in SEO as it represents the user’s intention behind a search query. Understanding and aligning content with search intent is vital for ranking well on search engines, as algorithms aim to provide users with precisely what they are looking for.
How does voice search impact SEO practices?
Voice search is a growing trend, with 25% of global online users utilizing it. SEO specialists and content creators need to optimize content for voice search by using common language, everyday phrases, and constructing content that mirrors natural conversation.
What is E-A-T, and why is it essential for online content?
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. It’s crucial for evaluating the overall quality of content. Following these principles helps content creators establish credibility, authority, and trust, contributing to better rankings on search engines.
Why is video content important for SEO?
Video content is dominant on the internet, influencing SEO strategies. Platforms like YouTube impact SEO, and videos need to be optimized for search, similar to written content. Videos play a crucial role in user engagement, raising awareness, and improving overall SEO.
