Much like everything else today, effective SEO techniques change rapidly. Knowing the right keywords is no longer enough to be on top of the digital marketing game. Today, it’s all about utilising the different SEO strategies and tactics that will help direct your target audience to your site.
Google has specific criteria on how they rank a site, so it’s essential for digital marketers to know certain techniques to make sites appear on the first page of SERP. To identify these strategies, here is an SEO guide with eight of the latest SEO techniques that will change the game in 2020.
Mobile-First Indexing
Much like its name, mobile-first indexing means that Google will first look at the mobile version of sites rather than its desktop counterpart when it does its evaluation. Although most websites are primarily made for desktop use, the shift of users opting to search using their mobile phones has compelled Google to focus first on a site’s mobile version in rating its quality.
If you want to be prepared this year, then it’s necessary to optimise your website for mobile searches, so Google sees it as a sign to give more importance to your site over others.
Optimise for Voice Search
One of the significant changes rolling in this new year is the focus on voice search. Experts predict that at least half of the queries will be via voice search. With voice search tools such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, websites should start optimising their content to cater to voice searches.
Voice searches are different from regular desktop searches. You would have a more conversational tone when using voice search. For example - On the computer, you’d type in “Best restaurants in Brisbane” but through voice search, you’d probably ask, “What’s the best restaurant nearby?”
Optimise for Visual Search
Visual content is always part and parcel of what makes a site rank higher. In 2020, web engines will prioritise websites that optimise for visual search, and for that reason, you should incorporate the following techniques:
- Give images a descriptive name
- Provide Alt Tag for every image
- Create captivating captions
Making these small changes to your site can lead to significant results and is a way to get the edge over your competitors.
High Quality & Optimised Content
Of course, the age-old technique of optimising content remains to be a forerunner in landing the 0 position on Google. Creating high-quality content by using relevant keywords and linking relevant sites will help keep you at the top of the SEO game. Likewise, repurposing and refreshing your old content is another way of staying relevant and ensuring you maintain your SERP position. After all, content is King.
Follow Google E-A-T Guidelines
Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness – these form the E.A.T. guidelines provided by Google to get a favourable review from its algorithm. Expertise requires that the content should be able to portray that the author is knowledgeable in the subject matter, such as providing accurate references and links. At the same time, authority focuses on the credibility of the site itself by looking at reviews and testimonials. On the other hand, trustworthiness prioritises websites that have excellent site security.
When you follow the E-A-T guidelines, you’re showing Google that the information you have on your website provides value to your visitors. Google’s main goal is to make sure users get the best information possible, so if they see that your website holds that value, you will definitely rank better.
Page Speed Optimisation
In today’s century, everybody expects services to be quick, and the internet is no exception. When it comes to searches, users prefer websites that can load fast. Speed matters when it comes to SEO, and that is why you have to craft your website in a way where it will load in milliseconds.
When users come to your site and it takes more than 3-5 seconds to load, the majority of users would leave the site in hopes to find a quicker loading page. This increases your bounce rate and gives search engines a bad impression of your website.
To mitigate this, you need to optimise the images on your site, compress content, place JavaScript and CSS in external files, along with other factors.
Make Featured Snippets a Target
If you have landed on the first page, the next goal is to become the featured snippet. As such, you can optimise your content by doing the following:
- Create summaries
- Provide unique information
- Fix broken links
- Use question type headings
When you get listed in the Featured Snippets, it shows that Google considers your website rich in data and believes you are the go-to source for that particular information.
Quality Link Building
As mentioned early, expertise is one of the main criteria in ranking higher, according to Google’s E.A.T. guidelines. It can be measured by providing quality link building, which means that your content should have links leading to trustworthy sites to rank competitively. For that reason, it is important to occasionally check your content for any broken links as well as update it with more recent material.
Google mentioned that webmasters could improve the rank of their sites simply by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. This way, you also get traffic from the other websites linked to you.
Digital marketing is not an easy game to play, and learning the basics of SEO is just a stepping stone towards creating a successful online presence. By following this comprehensive SEO guide for 2020, your site can quickly become one of the high-ranking pages, which provides an increase in customer reach and revenue.
Danian is a content enthusiast who keeps track of all the latest updates in Digital Marketing. He is working as a content writer for two years and likes to contribute articles about SEO regularly. Also, interested in working on different niches to explore knowledge. You can get in touch with him on twitter.
