If you’re looking for the top trends in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for 2020, you’ve come to the right place. Google is weeding out the bad to make room for websites with legitimate content.

SEO sets the stage for a successful online marketing strategy. There are too many websites, social media platforms, and applications competing for visibility. Bypassing guidance from Google is no longer an option if you want to remain relevant and rise to the top of the search engine rankings.

The World Wide Web has the potential to reach 4.39 billion people at any given time. The number of active websites is well into the hundreds of millions. Broken down by industry, that’s still a lot of competition to contend with.

Every day there are new players entering the game. They are contending with SEO strategists with years of experience. There is no reason to feel intimidated because utilizing the best techniques is what sets businesses apart.

Are you looking for the best SEO practices for 2020? Keep reading to learn more about the top SEO trends for the upcoming year.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In its simplest form, SEO is the strategies and techniques used to get websites to the top of search engine rankings. More specifically, the goal is to get to the top of Google’s search engines.

Website owners need to stay abreast of Google’s top trends. There are rules and formulas that work together to create effective SEO. Over time some trends fade into oblivion, while others rise to the top and remain there.

SEO is important to digital marketing because the ultimate goal is to get noticed by a company’s target audience. These are the people performing the 228 million searches per hour on Google.

Your strategy has to address how to segment the ones looking for your product or service.

Refresh Your Knowledge of SEO Basics

There are basic concepts to SEO every strategist must be versed in. If you don’t understand how to incorporate these elements into your on-page and off-page strategy, your campaign will not succeed.

1. Keyword Search Optimization
2. Description Optimization
3. Video and Graphics Optimization
4. Title Tags Optimization
5. Link Building Optimization
6. URL Optimizations

The key to strengthening your SEO is to optimize everything you do to garner the best opportunity to be noticed by Google.

Invest in Top Trends

Whether it is time or money, you need to invest in the success of your business and brand. This means setting aside time to do your research on new techniques. Or it could be investing in someone to help you with your content marketing.

As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. Passing off the task of staying on top of best trends and practices may not be the best use of your time. Business owners have options. You can send an employee to SEO training, hire a freelancer or sign with a marketing firm.

SEO is growing and your digital presence cannot survive without it.

Build a Strong Platform to Increase Brand Recognition

Brand awareness will continue among the best trends. With the right SEO plan, you can increase the popularity of your brand. Increasing awareness of what you do and what you offer can make your brand a household name.

The brands in the world are not only known by their name, but their name associates them with a product or service. When people hear Dominos, they do not think of the game, they think of pizza. Nike sells athletic gear, but it’s their tagline, Just Do It! that makes us want to work-out.

When it comes to promoting your brand you must be strategic in connecting the name to what it is you do.

Improve the Quality of Your Content

Google is very specific when it states quality content will be rewarded. This is seen in their new way of highlighting the best content. It is called featured snippets.

When someone enters a keyword or sentence in the search engine, Google now returns what it considers to be the best response. The content is featured in a box and prominently displayed at the top of the page.

In top SEO trends, content producers will be pushed to up their game and produce better quality information.

Black Hat SEO has long been taboo in content marketing although it often pushed those websites into goof rankings. With a push to increase the quality of content, there will be a bigger separation.

Here are three things to consider when improving the content you post online.

Display Your Expertise

When writing content, whether it is a blog, article, or reference material, it is important to show your expertise on the matter. Someone reading the content needs to walk away assured the information is accurate and verifiable.

People in the content marketing arena are moving towards authenticating who content producers are in their chosen industry. This will lead to a trend in authenticating who the writer is and possibly verifying their credentials.

Google will begin to look at who is sharing your content, and how often does your name get associated with a particular industry as a subject matter expert.

It will be interesting to watch as techniques come about to give increase buzz around a creator’s name.

Have an Authoritative Voice

Having an authoritative voice will also be crucial. This is something we learn in college composition. Speak and write in an authoritative voice so the hearer or reader trusts what you are saying.

This is important as we move more into video as a means of communicating with our audiences. Creators will need to fact check the information they provide and cite references if needed.

For business owners that are the face of their brand, having an authoritative voice becomes increasingly important. If the customer cannot trust the face of the company, can they trust what is being sold?

Show Your Audience You’re Trustworthy

Speaking of trust, Google wants to know if the information in the content you’re producing is trustworthy. This is a signal to content creators, they should be leery of copying information from other creators.

Ask yourself, has the information been fact-checked. Did the stats or data come from a reputable source?

Doing your own research and quantifying data, will be one of the best trends for 2020.

Focus More on User Experience

Moving away from content creation, let’s now take a look at user experience. In 2020 there will be a bigger focus on the user. With so many options to choose from, consumers do not have to spend valuable time on a website that is hard to navigate.

E-commerce websites are growing in popularity. People are bypassing brick and mortar establishments and opting to shop online.

Past trends told us to stop using autoplay music and videos. Tone down the flash media and streamline color pallets. In SEO 2020 trends, we will continue to build on helping site visitors navigate through our websites to find the information they need.

Techniques like subscriber sign-up boxes, Chatbots, Google Retargeting campaigns, and auto-generated emails when shopping carts are abandoned, will improve.

There will also be better technology to allow users to connect with someone immediately when they need assistance.

Pay More Attention to Mobile Responsiveness

Today, a person is more likely to pull out their Smartphone to perform a search than they are to look up information from a laptop. This is fueling advancements in mobile responsive technology.

The biggest difference between a laptop and a mobile device is the screen size. There are four basic screen sizes for mobile devices. The foundation behind responsiveness is providing the user with the best experience. Screen size or viewing in portrait or widescreen is irrelevant. The content from the website has to readjust without losing functionality.

The key reasons mobile responsiveness and your SEO trends are intermingled are:

1. Google prefers responsive designs when it comes to mobile devices.
2. SEO techniques give you a greater ROI when the device is mobile responsive.
3. A large portion of your targeted audience is on their smart devices.
4. Users are more likely to complete a transaction on a mobile device that mirrors the functionality of the desktop version.

You should also be putting the same effort and attention into your mobile applications as your desktop website.

Set a Goal to Become More Visible

Become the face of your brand if you haven’t done so already. Your name should be synonymous with the product or service you are pitching. This lends to the notion of placing yourself in the role of an authoritative voice in your industry.

Knowledge Graphs will continue to be popular in 2020 as Google expands the product. With your knowledge graph and Google My Business page, you have the option to include images and graphics.

It becomes a powerful marketing tool if people associate your name and face with the business. Jeff Bezo is Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg is Facebook, and each Kardashian is the face of their individual companies.

Imagine your name being the most popular keyword for your business. A search under your name can be more useful than a search for what you are promoting.

Get Before Your Audience with Video Presentations

As mentioned earlier, video is becoming so popular it is taking over content marketing. YouTube has the best platform for building a presence via a video blog. Many businesses have learned to leverage their media advertising budget by creating producing and delivering their own content.

It is easy to generate relevant video results by simply sitting in front of a camera and being yourself. You are the best spokesperson for what you do. With the right keywords, tags, and titles, your videos can go viral instantly.

Using YouTube as the major platform for your video content can grow your audience while earning extra cash. Joining the YouTube Partner Program is easy and it helps promote your website.

There are industries that will be more successful than others. However, there are people on YouTube looking for videos on every topic imaginable. Your task is to use SEO techniques for video content to get yours seen.

Continue to Leverage Build a Strong Social Media Presence

Social media is not going anywhere anytime soon. Not only is Google helping businesses improve their rankings, but many social media platforms are also doing the same.

Whether it is Instagram and Facebook Stories, automated response apps, or paid advertising, these platforms are helping businesses succeed.

In top trends for 2020 explore how you can leverage your content marketing by using social media to promote your brand. There is a great chance the audience you are targeting is already on one of the popular sites you currently use. Your job is to learn what marketing tools are available.

Social media is a vital part of your SEO strategy. When it comes to sharing content from your website make sure you are optimizing your pages with SEO. This way, images, and teaser text flow correctly from your website links to the social media page.

Measure Your Strategy’s Effectiveness

Analytical data and insights will improve in 2020. It is vital every business has the means to measure the success of their SEO campaigns.

Social media platforms that offer a business product should have their own reporting features. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube all have exceptional analytics for their business accounts.

Most web builder platforms offer reporting with their premium packages. However, the best way to monitor your progress across the web is by establishing a Google Analytics account. Since they are the creator of most things SEO, they offer the tools to monitor your success.

Will Your Business Be Trending in 2020?

We hope you found these top trends useful in creating your 2020 SEO strategy. If you’re going to invest time and money into creating quality content, you want to get it seen by your target audience.

Our agency is in the business of creating high-level digital marketing campaigns.  Contact us to learn how we can assist you in reaching your goals.