In 2021, Google accounted for over 70% of all global desktop search traffic, indicating the extent to which SEO is still very much a force to be reckoned with.
Marketing teams are working hard to stay clued into rising demands, including visual searches, ‘right now’ mobile queries, and long-tail keyword searches.
If you are part of a savvy marketing team wishing to impress clients with your knowledge and experience in the realm of SEO, suggest the adoption of one or more of the following trends as part of a wide-reaching marketing strategy.
5 SEO Trends for Marketing Teams to Adopt
1. Zero-Click Searches
Zero-click searches rose to nearly 65% in 2020, with experts predicting that this number will rise even further owing to the increasing popularity of mobile SEO solutions. Zero-click searches indicate that users’ queries are answered on the results pages so that no further action is required.
There are many reasons why consumers may not click on a second page — including the reformulation of queries to find more pertinent information, searches for local business details, and navigation from results directly to an app.
Marketing teams should ensure that clients cater to local searches by building a good backlink profile and setting up a Google My Business account.
2. Voice Search
This search type is one of the fastest rising e-commerce trends, with estimations indicating that around 32% of people use voice-activated search daily instead of typing.
Around 72% of smart speaker users, meanwhile, rely on their devices on a daily basis and it is estimated that this year, smart speaker sales will surpass tablet sales. Around 58% of people look for local businesses via voice-activated search and 43% of people use their smart devices to make online purchases.
When preparing keyword searches for voice search, marketing teams should target question keywords, utilize long-tail keywords, and include filler words such as ‘on the’, ‘for’, and ‘I’.
They should optimize content for rich answers (for instance, those containing knowledge boxes, featured snippets, or knowledge graphs, build an FAQ section with important keywords, and use conversational language when writing online content.
3. Video SEO
Video continues to be one of the major forces to be reckoned with in marketing so if your clients are already investing in this strategy, ensure their videos are optimized for indexing and ranking on search engine results pages pertaining to specific keywords.
Even if clients have their own hosting site, their videos should also be hosted on third-party sites like YouTube to optimize views. Video titles and descriptions should be appealing and contain pertinent keywords, without seeming artificial.
They should also invest in transcription, so as to permit third-party sites to have a clearer view of their content. Finally, they should consider relying on ‘syndicators’ like TubeMogul, which allows them to upload their videos to a number of different sites — including Vimeo, YouTube, and blip.tv.
4. Page Loading Speed
If you haven’t been too concerned with aspects such as how fast clients’ webpages load, it’s time to make them more of a priority. Last year, Google added three metrics (called Core Web Vitals) to better glean the user experience.
These vitals look at three main features: loading, interactivity, and visual stability. As it stands, when search engine bots are going through pages, they prioritize those with optimal Core Web Vitals. Therefore, if your content is very similar to that uploaded by your competitors, their page could rank higher.
Tips to speed things up include reducing JavaScript execution, optimizing and compressing images, speeding up your server response, and using the right dimensions for images and embeds.
5. Catering to Intent Matches
Google is far savvier at interpreting searcher intent thanks to features such as the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) algorithm.
The latter works for practically every existing search in the English language and functions in over 70 other languages. Companies need to ensure that there is no mismatch between content and intent.
To ensure that these qualities are matched on your site, use keyword research tools to find useful keyword modifiers, research the SERPS for your target keywords, and understand that SERPS can be highly changeable. In other words, your keywords may rank highly for one intent this week and for another the following week.
SEO continues to be a top strategy to embrace for companies wishing to extend or solidify their reach. Top trends in the industry include zero-click and voice searches. Video, too, continues to be a strong player, indicating the need to take great care with everything from titles and descriptions right through to transcripts and mass sharing of content.
Conclusion
Finally, you should ensure your Core Web Vitals are outstanding and use the right keywords so that audience searches match the real intent of your pages.
