Google Lessons Learned From New SEO Trends

new seo trends google lessons learned

Effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are always changing. Google can be a fickle mistress indeed. 

At the beginning of every new year, there's an onslaught of articles written about what's hot in search engine optimization. It can be tough to keep up. It feels like as soon as you implement one strategy, something better takes its place. 

But you have to stay on top of the trends if you want to get the organic Google traffic your site needs to thrive. Luckily, there's a way to make it a little easier on yourself. 

As with fashion, you can often predict what will be hot by looking at the trends of years past. If you want to seamlessly adapt to evolving SEO trends, a great way to do that is to look back on what was big the year before. 

Studying the past will always help you learn about the future, and SEO is no different. 

Are you feeling retrospective? Want to know what this past year really taught us about SEO? Check out the newest SEO trends we were talking about this past year.


SERP Features 

SERP stands for "search engine results page," and for a while, everyone's goal was for their site to be at the top of it. 

That was true back in the day when everyone was on a level playing field on a SERP. What users saw when they searched for something was just a list of links with the title of the article. Often those titles weren't even that descriptive.

Your best bet was to just click on the first few links and go from there. 

But now, there's so much more happening on a SERP. Landing at the top of the page won't guarantee that you'll get the clicks you're hoping for. You need even more to entice people to visit your site. 


What it Taught Us About SEO 

SERP Features include videos, pictures, Twitter mentions, shopping results, and more. The goal for sites is to rank for one of these features on the first SERP page. 

How do you do that? Try a tool like Rank Tracker or something similar to see how your pages rank. They'll give you some keyword possibilities that might help you improve your feature ranking. 


Mobile Website Rankings 

It's been known for a while now that your site's mobile capabilities will impact your SEO ranking. 

In years past, your site just had to look good and be responsive to mobile use. This was in addition to its usability for desktops and laptops. 

But now, more people are using their phones to surf the internet instead of their desktops. Google took this into consideration and changed their SEO algorithm to "mobile first." Meaning, the usability of your site on mobile devices counts for more than it's usability on computers. 


What it Taught Us About SEO 

You can no longer ignore or put off your site's mobile responsiveness. You have to get on board or be left behind. If you want to race to the head of the pack, your site can't just work on mobile devices, it has to thrive. 

The first step of getting this taken care of is to use Google's mobile audit tool. It will help you locate your mobile problems and tell you how to fix them.


Voice Search Optimization 

As if dealing with regular search optimization wasn't hard enough, now you have to take voice searches into consideration! 

People aren't just looking for information through their fingertips on their laptops. They're driving down the street and asking Siri for directions. Users are baking and asking Alexa to find the right oven temperature for chocolate chip cookies. 


What it Taught Us About SEO 

Voice search is yet another amazing advance in technology that you have to adapt to. Instead of just choosing keywords that people would be likely to type, you have to consider what keywords people are likely to say. 

How can you begin to figure out the nuance between spoken and typed keywords? The Rank Tracker tool can also help you figure that out. 


Intent Optimization

Google has updated yet another algorithm. This one takes into consideration what a user is intending to search for in addition to the words they use to search. 

This helps users find the most relevant information they're looking for. This is especially useful since some searches can have more than one meaning. For example, "windows" can be something that is a part of your house or a technology brand. 


What it Taught Us About SEO 

Intent optimization is a new concept that also ties in closely voice searches. This is a trend that you should keep a close eye on in the years ahead. Strategies related to it are sure to evolve rapidly as research and technology change. 

For now, you can use some SEO tools to help you adapt. Answer The Public, Buzzsumo, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Keywordtool.io are all good places to start. 

Another way to compete in this new landscape is to research what keywords your competitors are ranking for. Visit this site to discover more ways you can use your competitors to your advantage.


Faster Page Load Speeds 

When the internet first became popular, it was exciting just to have that kind of technology in your home. Now, users are a little more jaded. They have no patience for slow load speeds. 

Like mobile optimization, having fast page load speeds have been important for a long time. But, they were made even more important in the past year and will continue to be important ranking factors.


What it Taught Us About SEO

Google now expects your load times to be around 3 seconds or less. That's pretty fast! How can you keep up with speeds like that?

Use a tool like Google's PageSpeed Insights. This will give you an audit of your page speeds so you can work on fixing them.


These Were the Newest Trends In SEO

In the world of SEO, what's in vogue is always evolving. These strategies are still hot this year, but it can change at a moment's notice. By reflecting on what the new SEO trends were in the past year, you can better predict how SEO will shift in the coming year.

Want to learn about what the experts are predicting for the upcoming year of search engine optimization? Then check out this article to discover more SEO strategies. 

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