Every business and entrepreneur knows that SEO is important for their survival in 2021.
Whether you run a blog or operate a brick-and-mortar business, SEO remains a focal point of discussion for getting more customers and earning more profits.
In this post, we are going to offer an overview of some of the most effective SEO techniques for this year.
UX Will Be At the Forefront
Making your business website look unique among millions of websites is not easy. That’s why every single pixel matters and every millisecond counts.
Although designing intuitive user experiences has always been important for triggering conversions, UX will become more prominent this year. Research reveals that design is one of the biggest drivers of mobile land web users’ positive first impressions.
UX or user experience includes the end-users’ interaction with software, app, or website. The aim of exceptional UX is to solve the problems of users in the most efficient way. Great designers always think ahead and break rules for unleashing their creativity and designing mesmerizing user experiences.
Here are some of the biggest UX trends to follow this year:
- Custom 3D/Realistic Graphics and Animations
- AR-enabled apps
- Full-screen Backgrounds
- Rule-breaking Typography
Semantic Search Will Become More Important
What is Semantics? It refers to the study of words and their relationship, as well as the meaning of these relationships in specific contexts. In terms of Google, semantics refer to the information, answers, and content users are searching for online. In simple words, Semantic SEO is the practice of developing content that is optimized around topics, not just keywords.
Developing content that answers the questions of your target market is critical. You can either adopt an FAQ format or base an entire piece of content on a specific question before diving into more detail. The key is to write for people and not search engines. Here are a couple of tips for writing better content.
- Remember to develop easy-to-understand, concise, and to-the-point material.
- Make sure you include lists and bullets that make it easy for everyone to find the information they need.
Search Intent Will Be More Important Than Keywords
Search intent is a part of semantic search. But, we believe it deserves a dedicated section. Google launched its BERT update in 2019, after which, the search engine became much more ‘conversational.’ That means with this new update, the Google algorithm is capable of interpreting intent.
In simple words, Google became our favorite chatbot. This amazing update made it possible for the search engine to accommodate the increasing popularity of voice search and voice assistants.
Just as people speak naturally to Alexa or Siri, people prefer searching on Google as if they’re asking questions. Google reveals that search intent will continue to redefine the marketing funnel.
Today, people are searching with four different ‘intents.’
- Find information
- Buy a product
- Compare different products
- Visit a certain website
For that reason, businesses must focus on crafting content that revolves around these intents.
Location-based Search: Google My Business
Let’s suppose, someone in San Diego is searching Google Maps for ‘hot dogs,’ he gets results within his geographic location. From the user’s perspective, such a search engine experience is quite simple. However, there are many factors that come into play for providing accurate and relevant results. Google My Business is one such opportunity.
Coming back to our example, if someone is searching for ‘hot dogs’ in San Diego, he will get a complete list of vendors and shops selling hot dogs in the area with relevant information. This information includes:
- Business hours
- Phone number
- Address
- Company website
- Reviews and Ratings
- Services
Users can easily find this information on Google My Business. People are searching out for local options, especially during the pandemic, because of the lockdown restrictions. Some consumers want to support a local business during these difficult times.
People are using Google to see if businesses are open during the pandemic or whether there is a change in the business hours. Google My Business is an incredible way to communicate all these updates to new and existing visitors.
If you are a business and you want to increase your visibility, registering on Google My Business will help your official website get more eyeballs to help you survive during this challenging time.
Content Is Still the King
While many conventional SEO trends and techniques are likely to disappear this year, content continues to rule in 2021. Marketers and content creators love throwing this phrase around.
Create buyer personas to understand your buyer’s perspective. That way you can identify the needs, wants, and pain points of your audience to formulate targeted content. Hire strong copywriters who can adapt to your brand’s tone and style. Writers who promote our brand must understand your marketing funnel and your buyer personas.
Optimize Your Images
The importance of image optimized cannot be overstated. Obviously, you will be using some form of visual content on your website. Keep in mind that Google will consider the images that you add to your site when determining the ranking. Therefore, you have to optimize the images.
Many people perform searches via Google Images, and if they see an image from your site, they are likely to click on it. Otherwise, you are losing out on potential traffic, which you can leverage. The bottom line is that optimizing images is as important as optimizing written content.
However, before you get around to optimizing the images on your site, you have to be mindful of a few things when adding images. Here are some tips that can help:
A picture speaks a thousand words, but when it comes to the limited attention spans of internet users, an image can convey a million words. Therefore, when mentioning stats, you can add an image. And you can go the extra mile by adding infographics and other forms of visual media, instead of adding large blocks of text. In fact, you shouldn’t hold back on GIFs either.
Write alt texts for each image that you add to your site, but the important thing is to make them descriptive. Descriptive alt texts tell visitors what the visual is about, in case the image doesn’t load quickly. Also, don’t forget to incorporate keywords in the alt text and caption.
Fix SEO Issues
Have you been posting content on your website for some time? If yes, then you have to fix any technical SEO issues that might exist on your website. Search engine crawlers will index all the pages on your website, and therefore, if there are any issues, your site might not rank well.
You have to get your website ready for crawlers. A simple SEO audit of your website can go a long way towards enhancing the performance of the content that you post. Otherwise, you will not get any significant value, even from high-quality content. For example, if your website does not load completely on HTTPS, Google will consider that a red flag.
Mobile Matters
Over the past few years, mobile has been outpacing conventional devices when it comes to search queries. A majority of internet users are using mobile devices to perform online searches. And this number seems likely to keep growing in the future as well. This reason is why you have to optimize your website for mobile.
What this means is that if a user loads your website on a mobile device, it should render perfectly. Regardless of the screen size and the operating system, users should be able to view each and every part of your site without any lag or other issues.
A key factor in this regard is the code you use. HTML5 works ideally for mobile sites. At the same time, you should avoid Flash. The simplest way to go about this is to improve navigation for mobile so that users can find what they are looking for without any hassle.
Review Your Competitors
An effective way to understand what you need to do to boost your rankings is to check what your competitors are doing. In other words, review your competitors, successful ones of course, and perform a competitive analysis. A good place to start would be identifying the content that works best for them. You can get an idea of what you need to be working on to boost your content.
You can also check out their best-selling products as well as the way they showcase them, which results in success. A quick overview will give you an idea of any changes that you can make to your content and overall website.
Final Thoughts
Use these actionable SEO techniques and you will be able to boost your rankings, leading to a boost in your organic traffic. If you want to achieve success, improving your SEO can be the best way to start!