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This is a guest post contributed by PRmention, a digital PR Agency.
Whether you are trying to sell a product, increase brand awareness, or garner more leads, SEO is a crucial component in any marketing strategy. It will increase your site’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and bring more organic traffic to your website.
But, as you may be well aware, SEO trends continuously change. To be at the top of the game by adopting these changes early, you need to be well-versed in the latest trends and how to implement them.
To help you get a head start ahead of the new year, we’ve rounded up 5 top SEO trends that you simply can’t ignore in 2021. Let’s dive into the first trend.
SERPs will continue to change
The way in which SERPs work these days has significantly changed and advanced with time. Ad shares are becoming increasingly popular, the answer boxes and featured snippets are getting more clicks, and the “People Also Ask” (a feature that was introduced in 2018) is increasingly gaining importance.
Not only that, you now may see videos appear above some of the text-based organic search results.
As a result, the share of organic clicks has drastically decreased.
Additionally, there has been a surge in the number of zero-click searches. Now, there is no need to click on a link and visit a web page. A searcher’s answers can be found right there on the search results page, making SEO more difficult than ever before.
To gain traffic to your site, you’ll have to diversify and implement a mixture of strategies, including omnichannel marketing and long-tail keywords.
Tools such as ClickFlow will help you test how effective your web page or pages are to increase your organic traffic, build links, or create more content.
Mobile optimization is a necessity
The use of mobile devices has increased over the years. Moreover, mobile is the most favored tool used to access the internet.
As per a study, 60% of searches on Google are done via mobile. If you want to attract search engine users, your site must be optimized for mobile.
The increase in the use of mobile devices to access the internet was one of the chief reasons that prompted search engine giant Google to announce mobile-first indexing. With the implementation of mobile-first indexing, Google indexes the mobile version of your website first prior to your desktop version.
If your site is not mobile-optimized, Google will fail to rank your pages amongst the high competition for your keywords.
To make your site mobile-optimized, start by testing how friendly your site is on mobile devices. Taking a Google mobile-friendly test will ascertain it.
Simply enter your website URL and click on “Run Test.” The tool will analyze your site and let you know if your site is mobile-friendly or not.
The tool will also reveal any possible issues with your site’s mobile-friendliness. Actions taken based on the suggestions will enable you to offer a better site experience for mobile visitors.
The best solution to this is to use a mobile-responsive theme. This means your website will adapt to the screen of any device it’s being viewed on.
Activate Voice search
Another trend you can’t ignore is voice search. Voice search is not new as back in 2016, it accounted for 1 in 5 Google searches on Android. But its popularity will only grow in 2021. It is projected that voice retail will hit a whopping $40 billion in the U.S. by 2022.
One of the main reasons for its popularity is the accuracy of voice transcription. The voice transcription systems built by Google and Microsoft show only 5.1% error rates.
Today, the launch of smart speakers, such as Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomePod, have made voice search even more popular. A study shows that in the US, 1 in 6 adults owns a smart speaker.
To make your website optimized for voice search, create conversational content as voice searches are typically conversational in nature, and also target long-tail keywords.
Need additional help in executing your SEO strategy? Partnering with SEO consultants can help you create content for your website that is not only SEO-optimized but optimized for voice search as well.
Create Long-form content
It is becoming more challenging to get ranked on search engines. Short-form content and keyword stuffing won’t help you achieve success in search performance like before.
In the present day, your content gets the best chance of ranking high if it’s long and detailed. As per Google search quality guidelines, your content should offer the correct information to search queries.
Your content should also show a high level of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It means the author should be an expert on the topic and own authority of the content as well as the site it appears. Plus, the author and the website should be trustworthy.
To put this in action, content authors should devote time, effort, skill, and expertise in creating the content.
As per Backlinko’s study that analyzed 1 million search results, it revealed that the page that ranked number 1 has 1,890 words on average. In another study conducted by Backlinko and BuzzSumo, it was revealed that long-form content tends to get more social shares and backlinks.
Implement Local SEO
Attracting search engine users who live nearby is the key to local business success. Many searches have local intent. As per Google, about 4 out of 5 consumers perform local searches on search engines.
Moreover, these consumers act fast. 50% of consumers who conduct local searches on their mobile phones and 34% of consumers who conduct their search via tablet/computer visit a store within a day of conducting a local search.
To boost your rankings on local searches, you add your business details to local listings across multiple search directories for all your locations and implement a reputation management strategy. It is said that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations made by people they know.
Wrapping Up Our SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2021
The aforementioned are five of the most crucial SEO trends you can’t ignore in 2021, however, new trends may emerge at any moment. Stay in the know by keeping up with Rio SEO’s expansive library of marketing and SEO resources.
As you know, SEO trends keep changing, just like any other marketing trend. Unless you follow the latest trends, your business will fall behind, risk your rank falling, and fail to be seen by searchers in the moments that matter.
Author Bio:
Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.