SEO Trends to Take Your Company to the Next Level
In 2021, Google was used for 70% of all global desktop searches, with its closest rival, Baidu, coming in at 13%. That makes some 360 billion searches and the year isn’t over yet. It is apparent that any business – regardless of size and type – can benefit from appearing in one of the top results of searches. What trends can help you achieve this aim as the year comes to a close and your company gets ready for a brand new one?
Purposeful Links
Link building continues to be one of the most important ways to raise the bar for SEO – so much so that low authority links can cost as much as $150 each while high authority ones can cost $1,000 or more. If you have invested in link building by hiring an SEO agency, then they will undoubtedly recommend the creation of purposeful links that genuinely solve your audience’s problems. Your links should take audiences to a useful solution provided by an expert or person in authority if possible. This will ensure your site remains credible and increase the likelihood of new audiences bookmarking your page for future queries.
Voice Search
Nielsen reports that a quarter of all American homes with WiFi owns a smart speaker, which is leading to the vertiginous rise of voice search. Voicebot.ai reports that over 50% of adults have used this type of search, with a large percentage doing so monthly. This means that companies will have to work on converting written text to conversation content. In order to meet their goals, they can try question-and-answer-based websites like Reddit or Quora, look up their competitors’ FAQ sections, and learn how to target existing keywords to the type of phraseology used in conversation. They should not forget the importance of long-tail keywords when doing so.
Accessible Content
Website accessibility – which is centered on making your website usable by all people (regardless of their abilities, skill at using technology, or education) – boosts your SEO in both direct and indirect ways. The more accessible your content is, the better the experience will be for your users and the more likely they are to return to your site. Well-designed websites should be screen reader compatible, have an easy-to-follow structure, have descriptive alt text that describes all images used, contain video transcriptions, and have good title tags.
Fast Loading Times
Google’s new algorithm has made it much harder to rank highly if your page load speed is slow. Ensuring your page speed is optimal is key because when loading times increase from one to three seconds, the probability of your audience “bouncing” off your page increases by 32%. To offer your audiences a speedy experience, use the Pingdom Website Speed Test or GTmetrix to gauge your page speed. If you find that there is room for improvement, approach the problem from a multifaceted perspective. Rely on a performance-focused hosting service that guarantees a speedy experience, make sure your images are compressed, and avoid unnecessary redirects. Use tools like the Redirect mapper tool (which lets you know if duplicate redirects exist) and Screaming Frog (which makes it easier to discover redirects ‘without a cause’).
Achieving a top ranking on Google should be an aim for any company – including those that do not rely on online sales. Top trends being employed by savvy marketing teams include purposeful link building, voice search, and improved accessibility. Fast loading times are also vital if you want to reduce your site’s bounce rate.