Essential Tips for SEO in 2021

May 13, 2021

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Having a good Search Engine Optimization strategy is crucial for attracting new potential customers to your website and maintaining your business’s online visibility.

However, with SEO, what you might have learned yesterday, may no longer work for you today. That’s because Google is constantly changing up its algorithms based on the users’ behavior to ensure that they offer the best browsing experience possible.

What does that mean for you? Well, if you don’t adapt to these changes, your website’s search engine ranking will most likely suffer.

So, what does Google have in store for us this year in terms of SEO? Let’s go ahead and take a look.

User Experience

User Experience has always been classified as a ranking factor, and it should always be an integral part of your website design strategy. However, this year, it seems like UX will be all the more important.

Google will now watch how users interact with its search results and rank websites based on that.

For example, if a user clicks on your website and bounces off shortly after, the algorithms will take notice and will negatively impact your ranking.

So, how can you avoid that from happening? Try to find ways to increase your website’s dwell time, which ultimately enhances the user experience.

You can start by performing a website audit to get an insight into your site’s weaknesses.

Voice Search

With the current advancements in technology, voice search is becoming increasingly popular. But what does that have to do with SEO?

Due to the user’s increasing demand for quick answers for on-the-spot questions, Google will now prioritize websites that contain specific, long-tail keywords, so it can provide users with the exact answers they are looking for.

With that said, make sure to adapt your website’s content based on these changes. You can start by doing extensive keyword research to find out exactly what users are searching for.

It’s also best that you’d create pages that answer your audience’s frequently asked questions, where you would also include the said keywords.

And finally, if you’re a local business, make sure to use geo-targeted keywords. More than 58% of users will use voice search to find information about a local business. So, voice search optimization is a great way to put yourself on the map.

Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are the results that are usually placed at the top of the search engine results page, right beneath the ads.

Besides plain text, these snippets may come alongside a complementary image or video, increasing the chances of generating clicks as a result.

With that said, you should aim to create content that has high chances of being ranked in a featured snippet. But how can you do that?

Well, just as with voice search optimization, you’ll need to answer specific questions. Again, creating a FAQ page will likely bring you positive results. Now, here’s the thing: the answers you provide need to be in-depth. You can’t answer with a simple “Yes” or “No”.

That’s because the algorithms will go through countless sites to find the best answer to the user’s question and the ones that are thorough and provide valuable information have the highest chances of being put in the spotlight.

Evergreen Content

Creating high-quality content is a must when it comes to succeeding in SEO.

However, quality does not only refer to how well written your articles are or how valuable the information you provide is. It’s also about how that content stands against the test of time.

News articles, for example, will lose relevance after a short amount of time, dropping in search engine rankings as a result. That’s why you’ll need to focus on content that’s evergreen, something that will still be relevant six months, even a year after it’s published.

Mobile Friendliness

With over 50% of all web traffic being generated by mobile devices, Google takes mobile-friendliness into account when ranking websites.

When creating a mobile-friendly site, you can either go for a mobile-first, adaptive or responsive design, the latter being the most popular choice.

That’s because a responsive design is not only the most cost-effective option, but it also allows you to offer a consistent UX regardless of the type of device your visitors might use.

It’s generally best to appoint a good web design agency to optimize your website for mobile. We advise hiring local companies to avoid any potential communication and time zone issues.

Google Discover

The next thing you’ll need to look out for this year is Google Discover. This is a curated content feed that is displayed on Google’s mobile homepage.

Google Discover displays content based on a user’s searches and browsing behavior.

Optimizing your content for Google Discover can be a great way to drive relevant traffic to your website. But, how can you do so?

You should start by adding more visuals, as this feed will use images when displaying your content to users.

Secondly, you’ll need to create content that specifically caters to your target audience. By doing this, you’ll increase the chances of reaching more qualified leads through Google Discover.

Videos

And finally, don’t forget about videos. It seems like this type of content will be the next big thing when it comes to SEO. In fact, it is expected that videos will generate over 80% of all online traffic this year.

Not only that, but videos are also a great way to increase user engagement. After all, most people would prefer watching a five-minute clip rather than reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of text.

Final Words

All in all, there’s a lot of things you’ll have to keep in mind when it comes to adjusting your SEO strategy for this year. But hopefully, the information presented in this article will make your job a whole lot easier or you can consider hiring a new york website design company to make your life easier.

Author’s bio:

Christopher is a digital marketing specialist and a freelance blogger. He is focused on new web tech trends and digital voice distribution across different channels.

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