Enjoy this week’s guest post from Shawn Byrne, CEO of SEOPhoenix.net, on SEO trends that you need to know for 2020!
Here’s a harsh and often unspoken truth in search engine optimization (SEO): if you are not ranking in Google’s top 10 for the keywords you are targeting, your website might as well be invisible. According to HubSpot, 75% of searchers will not go beyond the first page of the search results!
Fortunately, aside from white hat SEO techniques, there’s no shortage of approaches and best practices available to help you rank on the first page of the world’s most powerful search engine.
SEO Trends You Should Look Out for This 2020
Aside from implementing tested and proven SEO techniques and following the best practices, awareness of the latest SEO trends is also crucial so you can update your current SEO strategy and snag a highly-coveted spot on the first page. Let’s explore some of the SEO trends you shouldn’t ignore this 2020:
Zero-click searches will become the new normal.
Recently, more than half of all the searches are now classified as “zero-click” searches. In other words, the query of the users is answered on the SERP (search engine results pages) itself, without them needing to click anywhere else.
What should you do:
Don’t panic. It is essential to take into account the kind of searches that are done. Are people looking for your phone number or address or just looking for quick answers to a few questions? Similar clicks often won’t convert, so it’s not something you should lose sleepover.
Try your best to optimize for rich and featured snippets.
Now that zero-click searches have become very prevalent, what is shown on the SERP itself has become even more crucial. Two effective ways you can stand out is through rich or featured snippets.
In a nutshell, rich snippets are those that have images, prices, reviews, on top of the title and description. On the other hand, featured snippets refer to an entire block of the information shown at the top of a SERP.
What should you do:
Getting both types of snippets will require structured data. You can use a WebSite Auditor to check if data found on your site is already structured. You can also use a rank tracker to find opportunities for featured snippets.
It would also be a good idea to look for specific keywords your competitors are using that already have a featured snippet as opposed to just researching the keywords you are ranking for.
Brand building will become a priority.
One interesting trend many marketers will notice is that organic social is pretty much a thing of the past. While paid advertising will still work superbly for social, the fact that more and more firms are doing it will create a trend where ROI for paid ads will be minimized.
At this point, it’s evident that paid ads will become more expensive and will become the standard for those who want to grow their business. On the other hand, linkless mentions will also become more important, with Bing and Google confirming they are used as ranking signals.
What you should do:
Nowadays, you need to focus on building relevant mentions. This 2020, you also need to pay close attention to producing quality link profiles and managing linkless brand mentions.
Utilizing social listening, for instance, can help you monitor every mention of your brand as well as the type of product/service you are providing. This will allow you to engage with your clientele directly.
Conclusion
Search engine optimization is ever-evolving, and rules can shift fast. Therefore, it is crucial to always keep your hand on the pulse so you’ll know the challenges you’ll encounter and the adjustments you need to make to steer your SEO campaign in the right direction.
Shawn Byrne is the founder and CEO of SEOPhoenix.net. Shawn started his career in I.T. troubleshooting workstations, servers, and networks then went on to doing SEO as a side project and quickly found success in ranking websites. It was easy for him to grasp not only the algorithms but also the technical side which most SEO strategists miss and neglect because of its complexities. SEO Phoenix then grew based on its own rankings and referrals.