The Future of SEO: 2020 Predictions

Did you know that approximately 75% of people who use an online search engine don’t go past the first page of results? This is very important information, especially if you have an online business and you want to sell products or services.

Naturally, the next question would be – how to get my website on the first result page? To do that, you need to get familiar with the concept of SEO or search engine optimization. SEO allows your website to rank higher in search engine result pages, so you stay ahead of your competition. Keep reading this article to learn the upcoming SEO trends in 2020 and be prepared to boost your website rankings!

1. Video Content Will Take Off

There are multiple types of content used online such as written content, visual content, and video content. Written content usually refers to articles, forums, messages, tweets, etc. Visual content might include images, animations, etc. Video content refers strictly to videos shared online.

Many people are used to reading written content, but statistics suggest that video content will become very popular in 2020. That’s because a lot of people love to watch a video about a cooking recipe rather than learning how to do it from a blog article. How does this information help you? Well, you could start to increase the amount of video content you produce, so you keep up with SEO trends.

2. Visual Search Becomes More Popular

More and more people are using visual search tools as well. How do they work? It’s simple. You look for more information about an object or landmark by taking a picture of it. This picture is scanned and analyzed using complex online databases. In a few seconds, you get more information about your object such as its price, type, where you can find it, etc.

One of the most popular applications that can be used to perform visual searches is Google Lens. You can use it for virtually anything, from finding what type of breed a dog is to finding directions in a foreign city. Although visual search still needs a lot of work and refinement, it becomes very popular and can help with SEO.

How can you optimize your website for that? Make sure that you put descriptive text to all the images and videos posted on your website. These texts will be used by Google to return results to search queries.

3. Voice Search Is Still on the Rise

You probably have used voice search before. It’s convenient, easy to do, and even addictive sometimes. Voice search will become more popular in 2020 as search engines are continuously refining their algorithms to provide top quality answers. But how do you optimize your website for voice search?

Well, Google and other search engines source the answers to voice searches from trusted websites, preferably those that rank in the top 3. therefore, you need to have a good page ranking already to optimize for voice search. Once you reach that point, make sure that you include both a question and an answer in your written content.

For example, you can write something like “what’s the speed of the light?” and then go ahead and provide the answer in your article – “approximately 186,000 miles per second”. Google scans your website and finds these two important pieces of content. It will then provide the answer to the question and your website will rank higher.

4. Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

In short, EAT. This is the new way Google ranks websites, depending on the quality of their content and other factors. Expertise refers to the fact that your content should be written by people who are experts in their selected fields, not just random freelancers. If you decide to provide medical advice, it’s imperative that this help is given by real doctors who are experts in their field.

Authoritativeness refers to a plethora of things. For example, Google puts an emphasis on having a thorough “About” page and easy-to-find contact information. You get a higher authority rank if you’re also backed up by other websites or have links coming from trusted sources. Lastly, your website also needs detailed Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages to increase your authority online.

Trustworthiness mostly refers to having good off-site indicators that confirm the quality of the content on your website. In other words, it means get cited by trusted sources and obtaining high-quality backlinks. The EAT ranking system can also be known as Domain Authority 2.0 in some cases.

5. “Stealing” Featured Snippets Will Happen More Often

If you don’t know already, a featured snippet is a block of text that appears at the top of a result page. It can also be a table or a list, depending on the search query entered. The Featured Snippet acts as a quick answer to a question and it reproduces the content found on one of the top 10 websites for that query.

Most people love Featured Snippets because they provide quick and effective answers. Also, the Featured Snippet usually gets a lot of clicks, so it can increase the exposure of your website. You don’t even have to rank as  #1 for certain keywords to “steal” the Featured Snippet, you just have to optimize your content and let Google do the rest.

Optimizing your content for Featured Snippets is a bit more complex. As a general rule of thumb, you need to find keywords that already have Featured Snippets and find the keywords that you rank for. Tools such as Ahrefs can help you find Featured Snippet opportunities you can take advantage of to “steal” the snippets and rank higher in result pages.

Now You Know More About Seo Trends For 2020!

As you can see, the SEO trends for 2020 look promising and exciting. It’s up to you now to optimize your web pages and get the most out of your online business.

If this seems like a scary mountain to climb, don’t worry, we can help! Check out our SEO services to discover how our specialists can increase website traffic and online exposure for any website you might have.