SEO promotion of Internet projects continues to develop at a rapid pace, introducing new optimization strategies. Even if SEO specialists do not offer something fundamentally new, they improve old, still working methods. In this article, we will talk about 8 trends in search engine promotion that have a serious impact on the development of the SEO industry.

1. VOICE SEARCHES ARE GAINING MOMENTUM

Did you know that voice search accounted for about 48% of all queries in 2019? And the percentage of voice queries to text queries is constantly increasing. To improve the relevance of search results for voice queries, Google has begun to invest in projects such as BERT, RankBrain, and Knowledge. RankBrain and BERT technologies are designed to improve the search engine’s “understanding” of voice queries. As for the Knowledge Graph, this online service is necessary for establishing relationships between various entities, such as objects, geolocations, and others. The question is, how can you use this trend in search engine promotion for the benefit of your online project?

First, you should understand that you won’t be able to optimize your site for the new Google technologies mentioned above directly. However, you can optimize it for voice search. Here are some tips to help you with this:

• Register for Google My Business if you don’t already have an active account;
• optimize the loading speed of your website pages;
• get as many backlinks as possible (link building);
• add sitemap markup;
• provide answers to frequently asked questions;
• Try to keep your answers short, as the average voice query length is 29 words.

Use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool to find out what kind of questions people are asking via voice search. By analyzing queries of a question nature, you can optimize your site content specifically for voice queries.

2. IMAGE SEARCH WILL BE IN HIGH DEMAND

As we know, images play an important role in search engine optimization. Using optimized images, you can attract more traffic to your website. Surprisingly, this already quite old SEO tool is still relevant, as the number of image searches is constantly increasing.

So how do you optimize SEO for image queries? Let’s start with the fact that the basic image SEO strategies haven’t changed much. However, image SEO opens up even more opportunities for webmasters, as the number of search queries has increased significantly (especially with Google Lens, a technology that allows searching using a smartphone camera). For example, if a potential buyer points their device’s camera at a product, they will have access to detailed information about it.

Google also uses images of products published on websites to find information about them. For example, if you search for “baseball cap with horns,” the search results will mostly show images taken from online retail sites. Using image optimization strategies such as adding alt tags, proper image file names, and product markup schemes, you can increase your chances of ranking high in search results for queries related to your niche.

3. SEARCH INTENT STILL PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN QUERIES

Search intent is the actual reason for searching for a particular piece of information. To better explain this term, let’s give a few examples. Let’s say the query “how to tune a piano” is entered into the Google search bar. This query has an educational search intent. If the query were “buy a piano,” the intent would be purchasing. However, if the user enters the query “map generator,” it will be difficult to determine the search intent, since this query does not contain a keyword that clearly indicates the search intent.

On the one hand, such a request may have an educational purpose, as some people want to learn how the map generator works. On the other hand, there are people interested in purchasing this tool. In any case, the search intent plays an important role for SEO. To follow this trend in search engine promotion, you must create quality content that fully meets the search intent. Figure out how to optimize your existing content for a specific search intent. To do this, analyze the search results and pay attention to what type of content the search engine ranks for certain queries. Draw conclusions and create content based on them.

4. THE NUMBER OF ZERO-CLICK QUERIES IS CONSTANTLY INCREASING

Zero-click search queries have both positive and negative features. The positive side is that people can get instant information in the form of a text fragment. Therefore, there is no need to go to a particular page. The negative aspect of zero-click queries is that they do not increase traffic to the site. It is noteworthy that the number of such queries will gradually increase. This is explained by the desire of Google and Yandex to provide the simplest and most convenient search for information on the Internet. That is why popular search engines are gradually increasing the efficiency of search engine algorithms aimed at highlighting the required fragments of content from site pages and displaying them directly on the search results page.

What are the prospects for using this trend in SEO strategies? You cannot influence the fact that the number of zero-click queries will constantly increase. However, we have effective advice on the use of keywords that you should avoid when optimizing the content published on the site. In simple words: do not waste your time on keywords that do not bring clicks. For example, if Google highlights a piece of content for a keyword, it will not bring you any benefit. However, this is true only if the snippet completely answers the user’s query. If the snippet highlighted by Google and Yandex gives only a partial answer, and for more detailed information it is necessary to visit your site, then such a keyword has some benefit.

5. MOBILE COMPATIBILITY WILL BECOME CRITICAL

Google began using mobile compatibility as one of its key ranking factors back in 2015. In 2019, Google began to give preference to sites optimized for mobile gadgets. Statistics show that at the beginning of 2021, 70% of indexed sites use the “mobile first” approach.

How can you take advantage of this SEO trend? First, make sure your site has switched to mobile-first indexing. You can find this out using the Search Console tool. Go to the Settings section and look at the Indexing Crawler report. If the Google Smartphone indicator is displayed, then your site is set up for mobile-first indexing.

If your site uses responsive design, you can easily enable mobile indexing. However, if it has a complex structure or was specifically designed for mobile devices (an additional version of the site with a dedicated subdomain), then you need to check if there are any differences between the main and mobile versions. In addition, check the robots.txt file for alternative rules, site navigation, page loading speed, and internal linking.

6. GOOD UX WILL BECOME AN IMPORTANT PRIORITY

Google ranks only pages with content that provides user satisfaction. The search engine uses certain metrics to assess how well the site and the content displayed match the user’s request. These metrics include the following: the presence of SSL encryption (HTTPS protocol), compatibility with mobile devices and ease of viewing content on small displays, the absence of intrusive advertising. An additional metric has recently been Core Web Vitals – a set of three indicators that allow you to evaluate the user experience. These indicators include:

• First-time input latency – the response time of a website page to the first interaction with it. On average, this should be around 100 ms.
• Cumulative Layout Shift – how often unexpected layout shift occurs (no more than 0.1 times).
• Largest amount of content (how much of the main content of the page is displayed on the device screen).

To check the values ​​of these parameters for any page on your site, you can use the PageSpeed ​​Insights tool.

Review the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console to see which pages need optimization.

7. INCREASED TRAFFIC THANKS TO GOOGLE DISCOVER

Google Discover is a personalized mobile feed that displays content that interests the user. It is populated with information taken from Google services, such as search results and YouTube. In addition, Google Discover takes into account location data and topics that interest the user.

This SEO trend is beneficial for web project owners because Google Discover can generate large volumes of traffic. Especially if you have done quality SEO for your website to get traffic directly from Google search results. You have spent a lot of time and effort implementing on-page and off-page SEO strategies, developing optimized content, writing attractive page titles and link building. However, you can increase the effectiveness of your website promotion campaign with a few tips on using Google Discover:

• Please adhere to Google’s rules regarding the use of the Google Discover service;
• make sure that mobile indexing is enabled for your site;
• check the loading speed of website pages;
• create attractive page titles;
• publish quality and relevant content;
• use optimized images;
• stick to the “EAT” principles.

8. COMPLIANCE WITH EAT PRINCIPLES WILL BECOME A NECESSITY

EAT is an acronym formed by three English words that sound like “expertise”, “authority” and “trustworthiness”. Keep in mind that EAT is not a ranking factor. However, Google checks sites for compliance with these principles in three stages:

• evaluation of search results by search quality experts;
• establishing feedback to identify signals that comply with EAT principles;
• making appropriate changes to Google’s search algorithms.

To ensure your site complies with EAT principles, follow these steps:

• update content regularly;
• check the published content for the veracity of the information contained in it;
• cover topics that you understand 100%;
• try to get as many views as possible;
• Generate as many backlinks and mentions as possible.

CONCLUSIONS

Always keep up with the latest trends in the SEO world. Since this industry is evolving at a rapid pace, you risk missing out on important changes and being left behind your competitors. Follow the 8 trends above to continue ranking high in search results.