Make search results more useful to searchers
In order to make search results more useful to searchers, we must keep up with Google's constantly evolving algorithms. With new updates and the continuing impact of some old ones, some trends are here to stay as we see a rise in the importance of new ones.
Based on our experience, there are a number of SEO trends that are here to stay:
- Rise of Voice Searches
- Optimising for Google Shopping Results
- Optimising Images
- Optimising for Feature Snippets
- Importance of Local Search
- Importance of EAT
Let’s look at them in detail:
- Rise of Voice Searches - with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, voice search is still on the rise; especially when you consider that Alexa-based voice control is increasingly being integrated into car dashboards too. By optimising mobile searches and using structured data to optimise voice searches, businesses can target conversational keywords, create FAQ sections, and target positions for featured snippets. Essentially making sure your business can be found within a number of different contexts.
- Optimising for Google Shopping Results - Businesses can optimise keywords in product listings, use alt text for images to rank, optimise the loading time of the website, and also ensure the platform is mobile-friendly. Google has also introduced Google Lens which plays an important role in online shopping. This brings us to another important SEO optimisation factor.
- Optimising Images for SEO - Google Lens helps the user/customer to find the product without having to know the name or brand and hence pictures play an integral part. Optimising images usually means reducing the image size by keeping the quality high. Businesses can optimise by compressing images, using alt text and renaming images with relevant keywords.
- Rise of Featured Snippets - featured snippets are short blocks of text that appear at the top of the search engine when someone searches for a query to provide a quick and concise answer. Websites can optimise by identifying and answering common questions, using correct Header tags to highlight key points, using lists & bullets & regularly refreshing content.
- Importance of Local Search - post-pandemic local searches have increased with queries including “near me” and “local” for businesses having a local address. This trend is predicted to stay as more users find value in localised searches. To keep up with this, a well-managed Google My Business profile is the best way to start local SEO, followed by creating localised content, and links from other businesses in your area.
- Importance of EAT - Google has constantly highlighted the importance of Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness when ranking a web page as it gives utmost importance to user experience. Optimise for EAT by adding customer testimonials, building links to authoritative websites such as .edu and .gov, and adding accurate statistics.
As Google is constantly improving and updating its algorithm and also giving importance to helpful content with the latest update, the businesses will not only have to focus on new trends but also provide helpful and original content to the users via technically optimised websites to drive the best SEO results.
If you’d like to make sure you’re keeping up with Google’s latest changes and algorithms, get in touch.
