And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the world changed and we became caught in a seemingly endless loop of adapting to what we now call “the new normal.” The crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just affect the way we live our lives – it also did major damage to some businesses, leaving them helpless while simultaneously changing the way the masses eat, think and act.
COVID-19 has waged a massive war on the global economy, forcing countries to initiate lockdowns and disrupting multiple supply chains. Many businesses were thrown into a spiraling limbo that eventually left them at a grinding halt, reliant on government aid packages to pay their employees and maintain something of a cash flow. Where some businesses have stayed strong through the storm and made it out alive, others have faced an incomprehensible challenge that hasn’t shown signs of slowing down.
Regardless of how much your company may have suffered in the darkest hours, no business owner can ignore the importance of a strong strategy to help hit the reset button on your business as we continue our journey on the road to normalcy. One of the most overlooked factors of this strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). If you’ve been neglecting SEO, you may be seeing a dramatic impact on the bottom line of your company as it stands today.
It’s Never Too Late to Reevaluate Your Strategy
Even if you suffered during the corona crisis, it’s not too late to hop back on the bandwagon and try harder today for a better, brighter tomorrow!
With more people working from home and turning to Google for answers to their long list of questions, it is more important now than it ever was to stay relevant and have all the information readily on demand.
Businesses, specifically, need to have information available that will help their customers as they continue to research their purchases and needs.
SEO is the best way to throw your name out there in a sea of people searching for the right answers. This is the time to let your customers know you care for them and you’re all about business! To achieve this goal, all you need is a strong SEO strategy set in motion and you’re good to go.
6 SEO Trends to Look Out for in 2021
1. Social Media, I’d Like You to Meet SEO
With the number of intrusive ads all over the internet these days, it’s only normal that a vast majority feels rather overwhelmed and sets out in search of a source with information that can be trusted. This is what caused influencer marketing to rise dramatically.
It’s simple: You know your favorite social media influencer is a real person with emotions, reactions and feelings just like any other. You see them engaging in their day-to-day life and hear them speak up about the things that matter to them. What better source of trust than that?
Users, in general, feel a lot more comfortable and are more likely to engage with a respected and well-known person than an ad.
How does this help in SEO?
It can be of great value to hire or partner up with an influencer that fits your business best because it allows you to boost the content reach of your site massively, all while generating and driving a greater amount of traffic to you. At the same time, it will assist you in building backlinks that act as a key feature for Google to increase the ranking of your web page.
All you need to do is consider the content type required to push your influencer to market, and how it can all link to your website at the end of the day. Be sure to choose an influencer that is suitable for your target audience and industry and not to pick one that will not benefit you.
This strategy will help to boost your rankings as it improves your brand awareness and generates leads.
2. Speak Up! Voice Search Optimization Takes Over
Once upon a time, when innovative smartphones weren’t in the picture much, people could only search for answers to their questions in the search box. As technology advances and the way we search for information changes, voice search will start taking over.
However, these searches aren’t only conducted over the phone – with advanced home assistants like the Smart TV by Samsung, Amazon Echo or Google Home, finding information with a simple voice command has never been easier!
What effect does voice search have on SEO?
Voice search changes the way questions are asked in the modern age. Voice search has become an effortless way to get simple tasks done or give you the answer to a lingering question in seconds.
It may be easy for the user, but this does require more work from search engines. Now, they must pull through relevant and accurate information that meets the requirements of the user’s search at that very moment.
It is predicted that by 2021, we are expected to have more than 50 percent of our internet searches to be fully taken over by voice integration.
Guess it really is time to switch things up, no?
3. Ask Yourself: How Accessible is Your Site?
As mentioned above, our mobile devices seem to have become one of the biggest parts of our lives. We want everything within the convenience of our palms, all day, every day!
That’s why, if a website isn’t advanced enough to integrate a mobile version in 2021, you may as well be from the Stone Age – and you’re about to lose a massive chunk of users. With our ongoing advancement of technology, it’s no longer sufficient to just have a mobile version of your website: You need to make sure your website is fully optimized for mobile.
Google is rolling out mobile-first indexing of all websites in 2021, which means a mobile-responsive website is more than just a nice-to-have – it’s a necessity. Perfecting a mobile interface involves several factors. A web page must be easy for users to read while also grabbing their attention, and also must possess the power to answer their questions or, at the very least, keep them entertained.
Studies have shown that searches on mobile phones are up to 88 percent – who even has the time to pull out a laptop to get their questions answered, right?
So the real question is, if not now, when?
4. A Personalized User Experience? Sign Me Up!
Today, the most important technology is arguably artificial intelligence (AI). It is widely being used by various industries to create a unique, personalized experience for consumers around the world.
Google, for example, uses AI to produce better search results for its users.
But how is AI working?
AI has learned the characteristics of what makes a published article valuable or not. This allows it to be able to classify these web pages accordingly and determine their rankings with no less than perfect precision!
5. Content Is, and Forever Will Be, King
High-quality content creation has always been an essential element to ensure effective SEO. Every user wants relevant, helpful, snappy and timely content, and is only interested in the content that has these characteristics. Google is expected to graciously reward such content with high rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Your content must be well-planned, thoroughly researched and follow a sensical pattern and structure to make sure it is easily read and comprehensible by your users. In an ideal world, the type of content to survive through to 2021 will be informative, top-quality articles.
All people want is educational content that is easy to digest in the form of blog posts, videos, podcasts or even infographics – educational yet time-saving options.
6. Above All: The User Experience
No-one cares how well planned, structured, researched or educational your content is if the web page is too heavy to load any of it instantly or has a non-friendly user interface with complex detailing.
These days, where time is money, it has been proven that internet users are bound to leave a web page almost instantaneously if it doesn’t load within a minute or less. Even a one-second delay may be a major problem that could end up being the reason your business suffers a loss.
More and more, Google is placing user experience on a pedestal, and it’s something we’ll be seeing more of in 2021 with the Page Experience Update scheduled for May. Soon, a bad user experience won’t just affect your visitors – it will affect your rankings.
Final Words
If anything, SEO is the most essential key to success for today’s businesses, irrespective of the industry. A common misconception is that it is only the usage of keywords. But more than this, it also entails optimizing your content for the ease of your users.
If you’re already familiar with these trends, that’s great! But it doesn’t end here. It’s time for you to up your game and generate more traffic today for a more successful tomorrow!
