The Essentials of SEO Trends for 2021

Google updates its algorithm hundreds of times a year. And although most of these changes are minor, some of them are relevant and should be taken into account in a solid SEO strategy.

We alrealdy covered various articles on Marketing trends and, some are closely linked to the way people search for information and updates on search engines.

For this reason, we will now focus on the SEO trends, that is, the strategies and tactics that will be decisive to dominate the organic attraction this year of 2021.

1 - Focus on user and search intention

This is not necessarily a new trend but something that needs to be considered year after year. This is because consumer behavior and research intentions are constantly changing. Even more, after 2020, a year in which they changed dramatically.

The goal of any search engine is, ultimately, to deliver the most relevant content that matches users' search. And Google has developed its algorithm to optimize the understanding of the search terms used (to understand the intention behind this search).

In this context, it's important to produce content and optimize your website so that it meets a specific research intention. This implies having a more solid knowledge than what are the queries used (questions asked, long tails and expressions, etc.).

2 - Voice search

Technological innovations such as Siri, Alexa or even Google's assistant have stimulated the advancement of voice searches in recent years. Voice search is based on the convenience principle, as it is much easier to talk to the cell phone than to write what we want to look for.

So, you need to start optimizing your content for voice searches. And what does that mean? It means taking into account expressions and words that people can use in their voice searches and that they probably would not use in a written search (when we write we tend to abbreviate).

For example, if we are looking for information on SEO trends for the year 2021, if we write in the Google search bar, it's more likely to insert something like “SEO trends 2021”. Instead, if we do research using voice, we are likely to say “what are the main SEO trends for 2021”.

In practical terms, this may need optimization of your content using the use of expressions composed with words like “what”, “how”, “when”, etc.

And by the way, since voice searches are typically performed on smartphones (but not just for this reason), it is critical that your website is optimized for mobile devices.

3 - Zero-click searches

In the recent years, Google has made changes to the layout of the results page itself to deliver a better (and more effective) user experience. One of these changes concerns zero-click searches.

Zero-click searches are the results that appear right at the top of Google's results page and respond in such a way to the search that the user does not even need to click on the result and enter the page (the content opens directly on Google).

Google identifies a particular excerpt from a page/site content that it considers the most relevant for answering the placed search and displays it directly on the results page.

In this sense, you should optimize your content for the purpose of answering categorically specific and expected questions from your buyer persona. Thus, when someone performs that search, your site can be displayed in Google's zero-click results.

4 - Video inclusion

A video is a tool that no marketer can ignore. The number of users on YouTube (more than 1 billion) and other video consumption platforms proves it, that video has become one of the most relevant, if not the most relevant, content formats.

But, more than creating videos and broadcasting them on your different digital channels (social networks, website, blog, etc.), it is necessary to optimize them for search engines. Please note that video names and channel descriptions should provide users with an overview of their content.

In addition, keywords are very important. Make sure that your videos match what people are looking for (on Google or YouTube) and incorporate those same keywords so they can be found.

5 - E-A-T Principle

It's nothing new that Google works to display results with higher quality content, to the detriment of those it doesn't consider so relevant.

It is certain that the concept of "quality" has evolved over time: if before it was based more on the number of backlinks of a site or the quality of external sites with links to that same site, today Google makes clear what determines the quality of a website.

This quality is based on the E-A-T principle: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These three criteria help define whether or not a page has useful and valuable content.

So how can you optimize your content to comply with this principle? There are some elements you should try to follow in this process:

• Know who your buyer personas are, in order to produce content that meets your needs or helps solve your concerns and "aches";
• Map out your buyer's journey so that content is directed to each specific phase of the purchasing decision process;
• Produce useful content in the most relevant format for your persona (blog posts, eBooks, videos, infographics, case studies, etc.) and make multi-channel dissemination (in the channels where your persona is).

When it comes to SEO (or, in fact, any digital marketing strategy), it is critical to be be aware from all trends and innovations, as they are constant.

Adapting to these trends is absolutely essential to improve your website's positioning on Google and your organic attraction strategy from a more global point of view. At the same time, there are best-practices that must remain unchanged and that concern link building, on-page SEO, and, ultimately, the production of useful, relevant, and original content.

Do you want to make your SEO strategy more solid in 2021? At YouLead we can help you.