In the age of digital marketing, long live search engines and social media platforms. Businesses across the world are thriving and striving to rank higher, gain visibility and increase sales. Thus, Search Engine Marketing has a very critical role to play, especially when it comes to organic or unpaid search. 

With search engines and social media platforms innovating and advancing to fit the user’s unique needs, marketers need to adapt at an even faster pace to sustain their business’s growth with a consumer centric approach.

Therefore, we are enlisting for you 7 top noteworthy SEO trends you surely don’t want to miss out on in 2021-

1 – Artificial Intelligence enhances Search Ranking

A few years ago Google launched its AI algorithm update called Rankbrain. As a core component, it uses Machine Learning algorithms to assess and evaluate the most relevant results to search queries. The ability of machines to teach themselves from data inputs critically lays the importance of different aspects of a website other than relevant, engaging and credible content. Factors such as CTR ( Click through Rate ), time spent on page, bounce rate and well-organized content contributes to enhancing the search results.

2 – Voice Search impacts Queries

Innovations in Voice Search technology such as Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa have made people switch from typing their queries to enunciating them. According to Forbes, 2019 has been a record-breaking year for the global smart speaker market, with 146.9 million smart speakers sold globally. 

Thus, in order to optimize your content for Voice Search, consider search intent and user queries with interrogative long tail keywords. Imbibing natural language associated with simpler everyday conversation will help in the longer run, which results in your content ranking in the ‘Snippets’ and ‘People also ask’  and Organic Search listings.

3 – Mobile Friendly Sites

Google introduced in 2019, mobile first indexing meaning search engines consider primarily Mobile versions of websites over the desktop versions. With the growing number of Mobile users every year at 1.8%, businesses must focus on optimizing their UI/UX and content from a Mobile user’s point of view. 

Factors that contribute to enhanced user experience for Mobiles are page speed, organized and well-written content, visuals and videos, easier navigation, clickable contact details. Avoid using pop-ups, too many redirects and don’t consider blocking JavaScript, HTML, CSS code.

4 – Content that adheres to Google’s EAT Principle ranks higher

Quality content for Google adheres to the EAT principle; Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. In order to produce more relevant, useful and quality content that matches the search intent of users, start by creating a buyer persona that lets you understand the content your audience resonates with. Second, always prefer doing search intent research for an overview of what the audience is looking for to understand the buyer’s journey. Third, do a competitor analysis and try understanding what template your content will fit well for and easy for users to comprehend and digest. 

Follow EAT Principle and prefer backing up your Content Marketing strategy with facts and statistics from relevant sources so that your audience and Google Search console perceives your content as unique, credible and authoritative in nature.

5 – Featured Snippets are gaining prominence

Featured Snippets are small boxes at the top of the SERPs, showcasing your website content in a short form, considered as credible, relevant and accurately matching the search intent of your audience. This short brief form of content was introduced in 2017 by Google, as a shortcut to gaining relevance on the first page at the top of search, becoming a prominent way to steal significant traffic from the audience.

6 – Predictive Search is set to improvise

One of  Google’s AI-driven tools is Google Discover launched in 2017, and as a content recommendation tool, it doesn’t require a search query. Through its AI based approach, it identifies and learns behavior patterns observed over time and predicts user interest. Thus, Google produces accurate suggestions and recommendations for content based on this information. 

To rank you don’t have to do anything specific, if Google indexes your page, it will be included. However, location history, browser history, app usage, calendars, search history, home and work relations are quite a few behavioral patterns for predicting user interest.

7 – Videos optimized for SERP Ranking

YOUTUBE, hub of infotainment and the world’s second largest search engine after Google, contributes immensely to search rankings for video form of content that has been gaining popularity and viewership over other forms of content. Videos with more personalized, engagingly relevant and credible content have eyes on the prize i.e MORE SUBSCRIBERS! 

According to Youtube, 2 billion logged- in users visit Youtube every month, and every day people watch over a billion hours of videos generating a billion views. However, more than 70% of it is contributed from Mobile users, navigating in a total of 80 different languages. Hence, Keywords have a critical role to play here! 

Optimizing your content in and around videos and descriptions resonating with user search intent can greatly impact your channel or page. Youtube has also come up with features such as stories, premium content and much more, innovating to impact user experience globally.

In a nutshell, SEO is an important aspect of digital marketing. If you are wondering how some brands pop up on your screen with just a few random associated keywords, then this is the power of optimal SEO. It enhances the reach of your brand by empowering SERP Ranking across various search engines. We at id8 media solutions, strive to sustain and maintain your digital presence at all times by offering unique and innovative solutions in the industry. Id8 media solutions as a 360 marketing agency provides structured solutions for all, catering to your brand from web development to digital marketing to social media and public relations, we have got it all!