SEO is always changing. If you pay attention to websites like Search Engine Journal, you’ll notice that nearly every day there is a new tactic or warning of a Google update. Which makes sense, search changes fast. However, that means that marketing managers and business owners alike are always trying to ‘stay above water’ with their SEO strategy.
In this article, we’re going to strip out the noise and connect you with 4 trends that will define the landscape for search engine optimization in 2020 (and beyond).
Rich Featured Snippets
Ever noticed those dropdowns that say ‘People also ask’? These are forms of rich- featured snippets. They were put in place by Google to assist users in their search and leverage voice services like Google Assistant. The trend to expect now and moving forward into 2020 is voice search. The more you can optimize your website and content for voice search, the better. The best way to do that is through rich-featured snippets.
Read this blog to learn how to easily implement them on your site. If you need help implementing this, turn to a company like Direction Inc who has a proven rate of success and highly trained devs.
Content Updating
For the last ten years, people have had the idea that the more content they create- the better they will be. Which in these days, is not the strategy you want to focus on. Instead, focus on making your content the best it can be. Use the ‘People also ask’ tools to make sure that your content is speaking to the needs of your users and covering all of the common questions.
In the same light, audit your content. Are there pieces on your website that could be combined to create a better piece of content? Chances are the answer is yes. Review all of your content. Identify the pieces that are bringing you the most traffic and see how you can get even more from them. In fact, big marketers like Neil Patel are actually spending more time updating their content than writing new content!
Chatbots
Chatbots, chatbots, chatbots. The modern consumer does not want to call your office phone or submit a contact form and wait for a response. They want answers right away. The best way to give them that instant gratification is to implement chatbots. Chatbots can be programmed to connect your users with the FAQs they need to find their answers. Likewise, you can actually have your employees (or an outsourced team) manage your chatbot and provide answers to your users in real-time. Most users like to talk to a real human being, but if you can’t afford to hire that staff at the moment- an automated chatbot will still help improve the customer experience. More importantly, it will direct them to a lucrative URL.
The main benefit is that the help is RIGHT there. Instead of navigating to your contact form or searching for contact information, the chatbot is available anywhere they may be on your website. This improves SEO by improving the amount of time your users are spending on an individual page.
Conclusion
Are you ready for SEO in 2020? With these search engine optimization trends in mind, you will be. Sure, you will want to work on other areas of your search engine optimization strategy but these three trends will help you keep up with the competition and user demands. Make a plan to implement them as soon as you can. So what are you doing with your SEO strategy in 2020?
