Search engine marketing, what to expect from it in the new year

Mobile-first index

Google spokesperson Gary Ilsh has confirmed that the company has launched a mobile-first index. And while the official announcement was rumoured to be back in 2018, you may find yourself still part of the experiment now (here's how to check it out). So it makes sense to re-evaluate how mobile-friendly your site is.

Western experts also remind us that along with the growing popularity of mobile, local search will become increasingly important.

Accelerated mobile pages

Yes, Google announced AMPs back in 2015, and you'd think this story is no longer relevant. But the company continues to pay quite a bit of attention to them (and in light of the mobile-first index, mobile pages with accelerated loading times generally look like a panacea). For example, Google rolled out a site with ready-made templates for creating AMPs.

Voice search and voice assistants

According to The Search Agency, voice search accounts for 20% of all searches. At the same time, by 2021, their share may reach 50% as well. So SEO-specialists will have to take this trend into account in their work.

For example, it is worth paying attention to long-tail queries and their language. It should be as natural as possible, because users are unlikely to formulate complex phrases, addressing a voice assistant.

Blocks with Google answers

According to Stone Temple Consulting, Google gives out blocks with answers (featured snippets) in 30% of cases. And if you want to be among these answers - on the so-called zero position in the output, it is worth thinking about appropriate optimisation.

Most often, content that answers the questions "who", "what", "when", "where", etc. is included in the block with answers. Also, labelled and numbered lists and tables. Keep this in mind as you develop your promotional strategy.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Google's RankBrain ranking signal has left no doubt that in the near future, search results will depend on machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. They help search engines to make the output more personalised and deliver results that are most relevant to the query.

Links

Obviously, working on a website's link profile will continue to be an important part of an SEO specialist's job in the new year. But we will get further and further away from hunting for links from a cool site that will help a site get to the top. Search Engine Watch columnist Tereza Litsa predicts that you should pay attention not only to the popularity and authority of a resource, but also to how thematic it is for you. So guest blogging will still be just as relevant.

User experience

Every year search engines pay more and more attention to how users interact with websites - how comfortable and successful it is. 2021 is unlikely to be an exception.

So, if Google Analytics is telling you about a very high bounce rate, it's worth paying attention to factors such as site load speed, design and, of course, content quality.

HTTPS

But not all professionals have moved their sites to HTTPS yet, and Google continues to insist, for example, by marking resources on HTTP in the Chrome browser as insecure. So the moves will continue, perhaps with your input.

Video content

Cisco predicts that by 2021, 82 per cent of internet traffic will be video. So if video still isn't part of your marketing strategy, it's worth debuting. Especially since YouTube has become such a big part of people's lives that it's not uncommon for them to search for some information there, bypassing search engines. And Google and Yandex, in turn, are actively adding videos to their search results. Another option for using video content is to simply embed videos on the site and improve behavioural factors thanks to users who will spend more and more time on the resource, viewing the content.

According to the results, the trends are:

increased work on content;

stricter sanctions on the part of search engines;

increasing share of advertising in search engine results;

new areas of work: promotion on YouTube, Maps, ASO;

changes in the format of agency-customer relations, new KPIs;

AVSEO wishes you a good holiday season and always be aware of the latest innovations in search engine optimisation.