7 SEO and Content trends that will dominate 2020

When it comes to SEO, it pays to be on top of your game.

12:04 06 November 2020

You need to be ahead the curve when it comes to trends, or you’ll find that you’ll be left behind by your competitors. No longer does the old saying build it and they will come apply, you have to make sure that you are constantly updating your strategy and making it work for you and your clients. When it comes to dominant strategies there are an array of opinions about what are the leading trends and dominant tactics are, here we give you the top 7.

 

Hyper Targeted Content

 

No longer can you get away with content that isn’t hyper targeted. In the realms of social media, consumers are used to having ads that match their needs and wants, so you can’t put up content that doesn’t fulfil their needs. Before you start generating content or outsourcing content, you need to assess who your target market is and what data points they hold before you start creating. This way you can be sure that anything you are putting out will be read by the correct market. You might think that hyper targeted content isn’t the way to do it, but mass marketing is no longer applicable in 2020.

 

Mobile Websites

 

Gone are the days of having to jump on your laptop when you are trying to find an answer to the question that has caused the family to argue. Now, most internet searches are conducted on mobile devices and tablet, so for this reason, Google and other search engines priorities these over others. When you are developing a site for yourself or a client the first thing you now need to do is build the mobile version. This will be the one that is ranked rather than the desktop version, so this needs to have your full attention.

 

User Intent

 

Google are forever updating how search engine optimization works and one rather controversial opinion is that keyword searches may well become redundant sooner rather than later. Keywords have been the backbone of SEO for years, so we are due to move away from this, however, some practitioners may not be so happy about how quickly this may occur. The reality is Google has been working behind the scene to develop and understand natural language processing and deep learning research. The end result of these innovations is understanding the nuances of user intent when they are searching. So instead of ranking sites based off keywords and what taking the search as a literal, the NLP assess what is meant by the search and what else could the user mean. The fundamental aspect of this is understanding the consumer journey from start to finish. It may seem like a long way off, but the reality is, this development is just around the corner.

 

User Focused Optimisation

 

So many businesses set up their websites without considering the usability for their customers. This is something that needs to be considered otherwise you risk falling flat on your face. Customers want the full experience they would expect to have in a bricks and mortar store, and they need to know that you are on their side. If you only optimise your site for the sale aspect of the transaction rather than optimisation from the moment your customer enters the site, you’ll very quickly find that you won’t get the sales that you anticipated.

 

Video Content

 

We’ve all heard the saying a picture says a thousand words. That was before the development of video and video content is booming and not something that should be ignored. It is estimated that the value of one video is as much as 1.8million words. Not only can you get your point across far easier, you can also do it in a creative way that show cases you and your business. Video is changing the game of SEO and it is something that practitioners need to adopt in 2020 or you will be left behind by others.

 

Long Format

 

This isn’t a new trend, but it is something that should be put at the top of your SEO strategy. Long format ranks far better than short format and it can make all the difference with your ranking across all the search engines. Instead of investing in short blog posts, aim for pieces that are 2500 words and up. This way you can be sure that when your content is crawled it will be boosted.

 

AI

 

We can’t write an article and ignore the elephant in the room that is AI. AI is already well established in our everyday lives, but in 2020 and into 2021 we are expecting it to pick up the pace. Machine learning is being integrated into SEO now so that they can better understand user intent and a lot of marketing agencies are now investing in this to make sure they can better understand their customers. This is something that is worth investing now, before it takes hold.

 

Wrap Up

 

When it comes to dominant trends in 2020, here are the top 7. These are the ones that will take your SEO game to the next level and beyond. These trends may well be difficult to input into your strategy at this point in time, but it is worth being aware of them so that you aren’t left behind by your competitors.