Anybody involved with SEO can tell you that strategies are always changing. This is partly because search engines like Google are continually evolving to create the best product for their users. Strategies also change as marketers exploit new angles, and new platforms and other technologies are developed. This makes it important to keep up with the latest developments and even to anticipate future changes where possible. Google is usually quite secretive about changes to their algorithms, however, making it difficult to anticipate them, but we can still have a fairly good idea about what to expect. 2024 is no different so here’s a brief look at some of the SEO trends we can expect to see in the coming year.
Also, you can check the 10 Best SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic.
The Shift To Long-Form Continues
Long gone are the days when SEO agencies could spam the internet with poorly written articles laden with keywords and back-links to their websites. Instead, SEO strategies now need to have a greater focus on quality, particularly when it comes to written content. Of course, when it comes to creating content you want something in return. And long-form content offers plenty of benefits over short-term content.
According to SEM Rush, articles that have more than 3,000 words can generate 3 times more organic traffic than articles that have between 901 and 1,200 words. Another study showed that long-form content also generates around 77% more backlinks than shorter articles do. With this in mind, a policy of long-form articles is likely to be more effective going into 2024 and beyond.
When writing long-form articles you need to be sure the quality is not diluted – they need to be useful to the reader throughout. Also remember to employ other SEO best practices like breaking the text up into easily digestible sections, and to use plenty of H2 and H3 headings. This is not only to help make it easier for humans to read the content. But also to make it easier for Google’s bots to know what the article is about.
Mobile First Becomes Essential
It was only relatively recently that smartphones became mainstream, allowing the general public to access the internet on their phone. Mobile usage has since surged at such a pace that the search engines and everybody else struggled to keep up. That is all due to change in 2023, however, and we can expect to see mobile-first becoming essential.
In March 2023, Google is expecting to make a complete switch to mobile-first indexing. What this basically means is that all searches will prioritize websites optimized for mobile phones. If your site is not optimized then you can expect to find your website no longer ranks well. Making it a very good idea to ensure you are mobile-optimized if you have not done so already.
Voice Search Will Become Common
Voice search is another fairly new introduction that has seen a surge in popularity in recent years and the surge is expected to continue with a 9.7% increase in the use of the technology in 2023. This means that voice search should no longer be an afterthought in 2023 but an integral part of your SEO strategy. This, in turn, will mean making some adjustments to your keyword strategy to account for the differences between voice searches and traditional searches.
When people are typing keywords into a mobile or computer, they tend to be concise. When speaking, however, their search terms are likely to be more natural and, instead of using the keywords alone, users are likely to use full sentences instead. With this in mind, your keyword strategy should include full sentences that people are likely to use when performing a voice search.
Follow The Google EAT Principle
Google’s drive for quality content shows no signs of slowing and 2023 is likely to see a sharper focus on quality than ever before. To help you achieve the quality Google is looking for it is a good idea to keep the EAT principle in mind. It stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and meeting the EAT principle means creating content that is designed to be helpful to users.
Give readers actionable information that will help them to reach their goals and you are well on your way to achieve what Google expects. Also, make sure to include citations by way of external links to authority sites where you can. This will let the search engines know that you are giving your readers information that is useful to them. Don’t forget to also include internal links so crawlers can get more information about the rest of your website.
Image Optimization Becomes More Important
Images are very useful on the internet. When shopping, for example, images help to give potential customers a clearer idea of what the product is. Images like infographics are also very useful because they help to make things a lot easier to digest. In 2023, they are also likely to be a lot more important when it comes to SEO.
Any images on your website should be optimized. This means you should ensure they are properly labeled with alt tags. And make sure the images and labels are highly relevant to your site. Make sure to also use high-quality images. But also bear in mind not to have too many images that could make your pages slower to load. The latter is especially important when optimizing web pages for mobile use.
Conclusion
While developments from Google means SEO strategies keep on changing. Such changes won’t cause too much of a disturbance as long as you adjust in time. Keep the above SEO trends in mind and you should have little difficulty adjusting to the newest developments. Play your cards right and you could even make these SEO trends work to your advantage.
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