10 SEO trends you should know about
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is extremely important for your marketing. This is done on your web pages and other platforms to better rank high in search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, or Baidu.
Search engines like Google use the algorithm to analyze your website structure, content, images, videos, titles, and more.
So how can we define SEO?
I simply define it as the results of your website in search engines, preferably on the first list. If your website shows up at the top of the list, then your SEO is great, and you have done a great job.
So if a user is looking for a service or a product that your website provides, then your SEO has helped you rank well. This has one important result: getting traffic, which in turn leads to conversions.
There is something noticeable in the last decade: search engine algorithms change regularly to make sure that content writers and website designers provide high quality.
Now it is not enough to place your keywords in the text of your content. Instead, SEO needs more than that to rank.
Here are some of the steps you have to take if you want to rank well, in brief:
Do on-page SEO:
- This means you have to work on keyword density throughout the text you write.
- You have to check for grammar mistakes, which is done with so many free tools like Grammarly
- Readability is also an important factor. Most search engines like human-friendly content. If the content is hard to read, it won’t be beneficial for the end user.
- Content should include images and videos. If people find the content interesting but without images or videos, they won´t keep reading. Images are illustrative, and videos elaborate on the content.
- Titles and meta tags are important for search engines. If you have a title that contains your keyword, search engines understand the topic and deliver it to whoever it concerns.
Do you know why you need SEO today more than ever?
You might say you don’t need SEO because you use paid advertisements like AdWords, Facebook Ads, or other advertisement platforms.
I should tell you that you should reconsider this. SEO is as important as those advertising tools. Since search engines are more intelligent now, you should follow the trend of SEO to keep up with the flow if you want to rank first.
SEO is like a helping hand for crawlers. When people search for the topic of their interest, whenever they type the keyword, search engines recognize it and serve the right websites from millions of websites with the same keyword.
If your website has good SEO, then you might have a chance to rank for it and then get more clicks than others.
We have a new year now, and there are new trends you should know about before writing your next blog post:
10 SEO Trends You should know about
#1 Schema Markup
Schema markup is simply a tool that helps search engines analyze your content elements to provide questions and answers to the user right on the search engine page.
If you use Schema markup on your website, you tell search engines what your website elements are through different tags. As if you are talking to the engines, pointing to what you have inside the website.
If you want to use this SEO trend, you can visit Schema.org. My recommendation is that you implement this SEO tactic this year in order not to fall behind and be the last one on search engine pages.
#2 Mobile SEO
People tend to use their mobile phones to search for their interests on the web. It is widely used because it is comfortable and fast if they don’t have a computer at home.
More than 62% of international internet users get access to information in searches through their phone devices.
Because of this reality, you should make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Search engines have also implemented techniques to check for your website’s responsiveness.
If you don’t have a responsive website, be sure that you will be put in the back row when it comes to ranking in search engines.
You can use so many online tools to check for your SEO problems, especially mobile friendliness. I recommend this website: https://seositecheckup.com/ It is free to use, but they also have premium features if you need more checkups. I believe that the free version does the work you need, and you don’t have to go for the paid ones.
#3 Content with Videos
I consider this trend new if you haven’t used it before. If you have not used this method before, you should take it into serious consideration.
I am sure you agree with me that you watch videos more than read something if you want to learn a new skill. Website content that includes enough videos tends to have more readers than others.
Include more videos in your content, and your SEO will boost your ranking in search engines.
#4: Longer content is better
We have been taught that quality content matters more. Long, useful, and beneficial content tends to rank better than short ones.
If you want to rank well in search engines, you have to write at least a 2000-word article. Not mentioning the quality and previous SEO trends like video content and illustrative images.
#5 Long Keywords
They call them long-tail keywords. What is this anyway? Is it new? It is actually when your keyword contains more than three words.
We notice so many blogs and content writers tend to write longer keywords in their URLs. Why? This helps search engines detect a variety of keywords to better serve the right website for users.
I will give you an example: this article you are reading right now is talking about SEO trends. A normal Keyword would be for example, mysolutionsinbox.com/seo-trends This is good, but it is recommended to include more keywords in the URL: mysolutionsinbox.com/10 SEO Trends You Should Know About, which is what this article has. It is a long-tail keyword. Please try to use long-tail keywords to better rank first.
#6 SSL PadLock: Security
All browsers now detect whether your website has an SSL certificate or not. They have gone far from just displaying a small notification on the left side of your screen when someone visits your website. They have created warning pages that inform visitors that your website is not secure.
This is bad for your credibility and also bad for search engine ranking. If you haven’t installed SSL on your website, please do so now. Most hosting providers provide free SSL when you sign up. If you haven’t activated it, do so today to avoid the low performance of your website.
Our website is proudly hosted on NameCheap. We get FREE SSL for the first year. Then we pay only 3 dollars a year to keep all our websites secure.
#7: Dwell Time
Have you ever visited a very good website with stunning design and content and kept browsing its content for more than 5 to 10 minutes? That is what we call DELL TIME. It is the time a user stays on your website.
If a user stays longer on your website, it means they found the information they were searching for. To your knowledge, Google and other search engines like Bing and Yandex rank websites with longer dwell times more than those without.
Many factors can help visitors stay on your website longer:
- Dynamic design
- Quality content
- Elaborations and easy explanations
- relevant images
- Video Content
- Simplicity
#8: User Experience
User experience matters a lot. I call it user browsing comfortability. When users stay longer on your website, it means that they like it.
So it’s not only good content that matters, but also how fast your website loads when the user makes a search query.
Design is also another SEO trend. So make sure your website design is clean, catchy, and clear for the user to navigate through your entire website.
#9: Content Tables
As you can see in this article, there is a content table almost after the first or second paragraph of the content. This serves to make it easier for your readers to go to the points that they are interested in.
Content tables are a new SEO trend, and it is a good practice because it serves the benefit of users and eventually tells search engines about the elements you have in that article in a more organized way.
There are so many beautiful WordPress plugins that can help you create a beautiful content table, just like the one you see under the first paragraph of this article.
#10: Structured Site Map
It is not a new trend, but still, I want to mention it in the 10 SEO trends you should know about. If you haven’t known about this, a well-structured site map for your website is even recommended by Google.
A site map tells the search engines about the exact links you have on your website and makes it easier and faster for crawlers to index. This will rank you quickly. You should consider including a site map on your website soon.