Trends and sudden shifts in techniques and what would normally work are not only limited to fashion, pop culture, music, or movies. In the digital marketing scene, especially SEO, things are constantly evolving and changing.
Google and other search engines create updates and make changes in their algorithm constantly, which digital marketers need to be on the constant lookout for. No matter how minor these updates may be, it could have an impact on businesses’ search rankings. This is why most businesses tend to turn to a team of experts in the field, like an SEO agency in the Philippines, to make sure they have a keen eye on these sudden changes. More importantly make sure that their marketing trends are up to date.
The year 2020 has been a spiral of what-on-earth inducing moments and has enforced a lot of massive changes worldwide. From a marketing perspective, the year has highlighted existing trends now more than ever.
The Future is Voice Search
Using voice search has been around for quite some time now, but as the years went by more and more people have become accustomed to using it. The global pandemic has somehow affected people’s productivity and blurred the lines between work and home. Something as simple as using voice search made things a little more convenient and easier for a lot of people compared to typing.
According to Google, at least 27% of the online population worldwide uses voice-activated searches, and about 20% of overall mobile searches are done through voice search. Many progressive-thinking SEOs have been prioritizing this trend and adapting a conversational approach to keywords since voice queries tend to be longer. This is a trend that may have seen a significant amount of use in 2020, but experts predict that virtual assistance will still be relevant for many more years to come.
Update on Context and Searcher Intent Instead of Exact Keywords
Google has made an update that analyzes the context of the words searched and the searchers’ intent, instead of just the exact couple of words typed on the search bar. Recently, it has been present on search engine results pages (SERPs) and even on suggested results by Google.
Google has now a better hold of analyzing the context behind the words and giving suggestions related to the words. This changes the game on the traditional creation of content that uses exact match keywords. There are no clear details on how to optimize these searches, but Google does pay attention to high quality, well-written content, with trusted links and sources to back all necessary information. This new change encourages content to be more information that also solves problems.
Content Attached with Videos (Video Content is Queen)
In recent years, more people turn to consuming content but are more entertained and likely to capture their attention if there is a video that comes along with it. Content that has videos on them are likely to rank higher and appear on SERPs compared to content that contains blocks of texts and words. Embedding an entertaining video are also likely to catch a user’s attention, which is why the search algorithm of Google tend to lean towards websites that have helpful videos on their pages.
According experts, at least 67 minutes is spent online by the majority of users watching videos every day, and at least 96% of people surveyed revealed that watching relevant videos made them learn more about a product or brand. Despite being a new trend, several SEO strategies have started including videos to improve brand and marketing engagement.
More Attention Drawn to Mobile Search
A study revealed that about 87% of online users are on their mobile devices, and at least 40% use it for purchasing and dealing with other transactions. In 2019, Google has started prioritizing mobile-first design or indexing to improve the search experience for the majority of mobile users. This also gives Google information on finding out the ranking of relevant websites and content among all types of devices. As the number of people using smart phones continue to punch up, most SEO agencies now highly consider how website pages or content appear and render on mobile devices.
The year 2020 has heightened existing trends marginally in the SEO industry. While they may seem new and a bit complicated to insert in strategies, a lot of these were already predicted and have been present. It’s safe to say that 2021 is another year to look out for new adjustments on these trends or possibly give birth to new ones.
