Looking to kick start your SEO in 2021 but not sure where to start? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. A 2020 study by Search Engine Journal found that the single most significant barrier that kept businesses from investing in SEO was a lack of understanding around the process.
Here’s what you need to know. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the single most cost-effective way to drive website traffic at scale. As opposed to paying per click advertising models that rely on ongoing ad budgets and marketing spend, SEO will continue to work in the background to benefit your business even when you’re not paying.
Here’s the thing, SEO is inherently complicated. There are more than 200 different factors that affect where a website appears on Google. With Google handling more than 3.7-billion searches each day, only 0.78% of those clicks go to pages that are not on page one of Google. The moral of the story? Page one is not a nicety; it is a necessity. According to Safari SEO Brisbane, websites appearing on page 2 of Google can expect to receive fewer than 10 clicks per month (depending on search volume.
To help you prepare for 2021, we have compiled a list of 5 SEO trends that you need to keep an eye on in 2021.
Core web vitals will become a ranking factor – for the first time ever, Google will factor in core web vitals as a ranking factor for organic search.
The Google Bert Algorithm (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) uses machine learning and natural language processing AI to determine what users are actually searching for.
Keyword intent will take centre stage – forget keyword search volume and focus on the intent of the searcher.
Voice search will account for up to 15% of all organic search – as of 2020, more than 23% of the global population is using voice search on a regular basis. Expect this number to grow in 2021.
Mobile usage is essential – it has been more than 4 years since mobile device usage surpassed desktop usage. If you haven’t already, it’s time to optimise for mobile search.
Final Thoughts
When in doubt, put the user at the forefront of each decision that you are making for your website. 2021 is set to be the year that Google places user experience at the top of the SEO food chain. Websites that focus on creating positive onsite experiences for users can expect to see a positive improvement in Google search rankings.
