Search engine optimization can help companies significantly increase their online visibility and sales. What’s great about SEO is that you can learn how to do it yourself online and it won’t cost you a penny. However, it does take a lot of time to master search engine optimization. One of the most challenging thing about learning SEO is that it’s constantly evolving.
You always have to become familiar with new trends to retain or improve your rankings. Here are some of the most important trends that should play a role in your 2021 SEO strategy.
Follow the EAT Principle
The EAT framework was introduced by Google several years ago, but it’s now more important than ever to follow it because a huge amount of your traffic may depend on it. The EAT framework was conceived with the idea to provide Google users with better search results. It’s based on three different factors – expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
The main purpose of this framework is to give ranking advantages to websites with quality content. The first EAT factor is expertise, which you’re required to display in your content. Essentially, you have to display knowledge that’s at the same level or higher than your competitors to outrank them.
Being an expert in a certain field will allow you to craft useful content, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. You also have to display authoritativeness. To do this, you have to secure links from authoritative websites and pages relevant to your industry. Even if your business gets mentioned on another site, it can positively impact your rankings.
Finally, trustworthiness is another major factor imperative in SEO strategies in 2021. Let’s say that you have a paper writing service that you want to promote online. It will be hard for you to attract new customers if your website isn’t trustworthy. Some of the ways you can display trust include providing users with an easy way to contact you, associating your web page with a physical location of your business, having a privacy policy, and switching your domain from HTTP to HTTPS.
Local SEO
With more businesses with an online presence than ever before, local SEO has become fundamental for reaching customers in your area. This is crucial for every business owner that has a company with a physical location. Although you should definitely optimize content, headers, meta descriptions, and tags to target local audiences, your main focus for a good local SEO strategy should be to create a Google My Business (GMB) listing.
When Google provides users with local results, their algorithm looks for companies with complete and accurate information. If you set up a Google My Business listing for your firm, you’ll be favored for local searches. Some of the most basic information you need to add to your GMB page includes your business address, opening hours, phone number, website address, and category.
It’s always a good idea to add numerous photos that clearly display your business, as well as the goods you provide. Encourage your customers to write reviews about your business on Google, as this plays a huge role in rankings. You can also build trust with consumers if you regularly respond to reviews that you get on your GMB page.
Voice Search
Alexa, Siri, and Cortana have become insanely popular ever since virtual assistants were first introduced. They allowed users to search for information online more easily, which heavily impacted common search queries. While most people usually only enter a few keywords in their queries when they’re typing, voice search is more about posing complete questions.
What this tells you about user behavior online is that many people are looking for an answer to a specific question. You can improve your Google rankings by including FAQ sections on various pages on your website. Research what are some of the most common questions consumers in your industry have and write useful answers.
Long-Tail Keywords
You can greatly increase your conversion rate if you optimize your content for long and specific keyword phrases called long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are somewhat associated with voice search, but many consumers type them when they’re close to a point of purchase.
What’s great about these types of keyword phrases is that there’s less competition for them, which means you have a better chance of grabbing the first spot on search results pages. Although it won’t provide you with a substantial increase in traffic, optimizing for long-tail keywords will effectively help you turn visitors into leads. While your main objective with this approach should be to rank for long phrases, it also helps you achieve rankings for short keywords.
Summary
Every business owner should update their SEO strategy often. As technology evolves, so does user behavior on the internet. It’s common for strategies that yield good results to become significantly less effective after a few months. That’s why you should always stay up to date on the newest SEO trends.
Author’s Bio:
Charlie Svensson is a freelance writer and digital marketing specialist. Apart from writing articles for various online magazines and blogs, Charlie also likes to help college students with their essays. He currently works at my-assignment.help, offering his services to countless students in English speaking countries across the globe.
