SEO Trends to Look Out for in 2020 – Part 1

Of all the digital marketing strategies out there, SEO is probably the most dynamic. And while some SEO techniques are pretty static—like keyword optimisation, quality content and improving loading times—most strategies are in a perpetual cycle of adaptation, transformation and diversification in order to guarantee customers will find your website on SERPs. As we embark on not just a new year, but a new decade, it seems only right to examine the SEO trends making waves in 2020.

So, let’s take a look.

Voice Search Optimisation

As people more readily rely on smartphone technology and home assistants, voice search optimisation is becoming increasingly significant. So much so, that this year we expect to see 50 percent of all searches conducted via voice, and it’s easy to see why—voice searches load 52 percent faster than the average traditional webpage.

From checking the local weather to managing shopping lists, the capabilities for processing natural language and recognising speech is increasingly impressive. However, the main focus for any business is to ensure their content wins out and is presented to the user as the answer to any voice-activated search. To achieve that, their SEO simply has to get them on to the first page, particularly when reports suggest Google tends to source voice search answers from content that already ranked in the top three search results.

Zero-Click Searches

A zero-click search refers to when the answer is displayed directly on the SERP, thus fulfilling the users’ objective without them having to click through to any link. Zero-click optimisation was a focus in 2019, but is only set to become more important in the year to come. The smart marketer will therefore be committed to coordinating and optimising across a range of media sources in order to dominate the first page. They will have to get cannier about the information shown in search snippets (more on them later), as well as working to increase actual clicks over impressions.

Mobile

With up to 70 percent of web traffic happening on a mobile device (CIODive), and 61 percent of mobile searches ending in no click at all (Sparktoro), optimising your website for mobile use should continue to be a priority. Mobile SEO is the deliberate process of optimising a website so that it will display perfectly and be easy to use on any mobile device, regardless of screen size. Users want easy navigation, quick loading times and an overall smooth experience across any device they choose to use. Furthermore, although not the only ranking parameter, Google is far more likely to list responsive pages first, making mobile SEO more important than ever.

Structured Data

Although it is essential that we concentrate on the importance of high-quality content, we still find that the algorithms are not keeping up and are still failing to understand context. This means that we need to do more to ensure the search engine can suitably understand our content and deliver appropriate results.

Essentially, structured data is a code format used to mark up the information on your website. It enables you to publish content and have the search engine, voice assistant, or other device return your site in the search results, in a richer and more specific way. Using structured data for SEO will therefore help you to generate more attention and engagement from your target audience.

Snippets

The information provided on the SERP has never been more important. Yet, with so much competition—and new avenues to access it—standing out is more complicated than ever. One way to do so is through the use of snippets. Whether it’s a rich snippet, whereby enough information is provided for users to be able to act solely based on the search result alone, or a featured snippet, in which an entire block of information (summary of an answer to a search query) is presented at the top of the SERP, including snippets can increase your traffic by up to 30 percent and click-through rate by 300 percent. Furthermore, with voice searches, there is only one result per search, and with 40 percent of Google Home search results coming from featured snippets, it is certainly an area warranting attention.

More users are now making purchasing decisions directly from their search. In practice, this means customers are effectively skipping visiting the website entirely since they are able to garner all the information they need within the search results. Achieving selection for a snippet is mainly about having quality answers to frequently asked questions. This trend is already driving more than 50 percent of the clicks, so you would be crazy to ignore it.

BERT

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, more commonly known as BERT, was launched by Google in 2019. It is their attempt to make searches as natural as possible by using an algorithm to analyse the structure of a search. This means moving away from keywords and moving towards understanding the intent behind the search—in essence, understanding context similarly to how humans do.

BERT increases Google’s capabilities for understanding complex search queries and, in turn, improves its ability to return relevant results to the user. The biggest impact from BERT will be on conversational queries where propositions affect the meaning of the query.

Visual Search

The rise of the visual search is upon us. While still in its infancy, it’s poised to really take off this year. Essentially, visual search refers to conducting a search using images instead of text. More people are running more visual searches than ever before. Pinterest reports getting 600 million visual searches per month, Google states that Google Lens has already been used a billion times and 62 percent of Gen Z and Millennial consumers want visual search more than any other new technology (ViSense).

Applying artificial intelligence to understand the elements of the scanned image enables the production of relevant search results. It will be very useful in terms of shopping, directions, business reviews, and translation amongst many others. It can create opportunities for businesses to cross-sell and provide a more personalised shopping experience.

As technology changes, so too must your SEO strategy. The only constant is that SEO matters, in one guise or another, and your business must keep pace with what will get you to the top. Whether it’s optimising for mobile, voice, snippets or visual searches, this year will undoubtedly be another busy year for SEO professionals.

Look out for our next instalment where we will be examining exactly how to achieve optimisation across each of these trends.