It’s a known fact that SEO is never constant! The updates and changes are ongoing. And as 2019 is nearing its end, the SEO experts are gathering the trends that are applicable in 2020. Here are two crucial trends that you need to know.
1. A user-driven optimization and BERT
2019 witnessed Google’s new algorithm BERT that got huge attention globally! And this has made SEOs keen to learn the tactics for optimizing BERT. However, instead of focusing on ways to optimize this algorithm, it is also essential to know the ways to concentrate on user-focused optimization. SEOs must know the means to deliver content technically. To sum up, it indicates analyzing user access points for searching as well as aligning the content. And to know more about it, you can check out Magnetize.Me.
Expert Views and Suggestions
Today, multiple experts have put forward their suggestions to leverage this trend. According to them, it is essential to check the process of the content getting served, indexed, and crawled in various search settings. Today, users have increased choices when they want to search for anything online. Hence, SEOs must keep in mind the basics of content delivery and clean architecture.
According to Eli Schwartz, Growth Consultant, and Advisor, Google took the massive leap to make search mostly about intent matching. Today, it’s mostly about pure string matching. It is essential to curate and develops the content matching the user intent instead of having few strings which the user has a chance to search. Also, the keyword research tools might become redundant with the primary dataset for content generation from the recommended focus. As 2020 progresses, smart SEO’s will attempt to get speaking with online users and customers. It will help them to figure out their audience requirements and shape the SEO strategy accordingly.
Frédéric Dubut, Senior Program Manager, Bing, also asserted that keyword research might be on its way to become obsolete. He further said that to date, there isn’t much sign of NLP (natural language processing) and the deep learning slowing down sometime soon. It is natural to expect the search engines to change its focus to intent from keywords in 2020. It will make the tooling providers and practitioners focus their initiatives to the intent research and catering to the user requirements. SEOs need to comprehend the nuance of all this with their content and also keep a firm grasp on the past updates from Google, which resulted in this trend.
Other industry experts expressed that they always wanted to concentrate on the intent for the past few years. It would have helped them better to understand the customer journey and leverage it. Today, with the BERT update, this initiative is a vital part of the SEO landscape. Without this, most online businesses will find it challenging to grow and survive.
As SEOs concentrate on the user’s intent, they will know where they are in the customer journey. And as they address all the relevant questions, they can convert the customers as well.
What does this all mean for the SEOs?
Simply put, it means that SEOs need to concentrate on the way users talk concerning their needs, problems, and issues. Also, they need to expand their initiatives beyond the buying part of the user journey. And that comprises of reliable and relevant content for addressing the user requirements even after the product sale. It will help to assist the users, create the scopes to advocate, and stay connected for other purchases.
Today, many brands fail or simply forget to understand and realize all that it takes for impressing and attracting potential users. Customers today look for real value, and they wish to understand more about a brand, to develop trust and brand loyalty. It will help them develop a healthy and lifelong bond.
2. The Unfair Advantage and E-A-T
As 2020 approaches, Google will consider the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and reputation of an organization. It is also essential to know about the people who publish the brand content.
Hence, the organizations that have reduced reputation trust and customer service complaints might find it difficult to compete. And all these trust issues manifest themselves as feedback and problems concerning a brand. However, they also morph into security and technical issues on the website. And it might become complex for a few brands to get organic visibility for questions without apt credentials and expertise to write on such topics.
Hence, publishers need to focus on trustworthiness entirely in 2020. It is essential to have a firm focus on eliminating and discarding fake and false news. The content should be of high-quality and informative. Here the trust value of the authors is also essential and will be the focus for the website as a whole.
SEO experts suggested that the opening of nofollow might be Google’s initiative to understand the news stories’ sources better. It is also essential to consider the references in academic study and other research papers. And it is necessary to match the same with the author credential that can get defined by a structured data mark-up. Google has always come up with ways to assess the trustworthiness and authenticity of content, be it a publishing story or a news article. Simply put, today the offline is becoming online. And most businesses must figure out their unfair advantage.
And with the increase of E-A-T, Knowledge Graph, and the entity-based search, the capacity to create a compelling and correct online version of the offline world is what will create the difference. It is here that few brands will excel, and few brands will struggle to gain customers and make a consistent sale. And the majority of offline events, awards, partnerships, conferences, and many more, which Google can’t conjecture, will assume ample relevance. Organizations need to pull it all online and send it to Google to cater to its requirement for credibility and understanding.
These are the two trends that are essential for SEOs to pay attention to as 2020 approaches. It will help them to position a brand better and also come up with a better SEO strategy.
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