SEO is constantly changing and in order to keep featuring at the top of the ranking’s pages, websites are going to have to keep adapting. Google and the other search engines are continually tweaking their methods to try and offer their users the best possible experience, which can sometimes make it difficult for website owners to keep up.

So, what themes should you be looking out for in the 2020s, and how can you make the most of these SEO opportunities to ensure that your website receives organic visits for years to come?

Image Source: Pixabay

Voice Search

Voice search SEO are something that often seems to get forgotten in SEO, but if you’re not already, you’ve really got to start taking advantage of them in the 2020s. Even as far back as 2016, voice searches were making up 20% of internet searches, and it’s predicted that figure will reach 50% at some point in 2020.

20% is too much to be ignored, but 50% is simply impossible to ignore, and websites are going to be paying a lot more attention to optimizing for these searches.

The difficulty is, we don’t use voice search in the same way as we do the regular search. While if you’re looking for used cars you might type into Google “used cars,” if you’re asking Siri, you’d be more likely to say “where can I buy used cars,” which can make a difference in terms of SEO.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Google has introduced updates such as RankBrain, which use artificial intelligence to detect patterns in search data to make sure it’s giving the most accurate results.

This allows Google to understand how people are interacting with search results in real-time and adjust the results accordingly. Using data such as time spent on the page, bounce rates, and pogo-sticking, RankBrain helps the algorithm adjust the search results to prioritize the best pages.

This means that creating engaging content is more important than ever. Keeping people engaged with the page through text, images, and videos, just like how a music video production helps show Google that your content is good and you’re worthy of ranking well.

Creating great content has always been the best way to the top of the rankings, but now, Google has AI working to make sure that users are getting the very best content to fit their queries.

Related Guide: A Marketer’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence

Image Search

Traditionally, all internet searches have been carried out using text, however, this is changing, as technology allows us to search through images.

21% of marketers in 2019 said they believed the visual search was the most important trend for their business, and this is only set to continue in the 2020s. This means website owners are going to have to focus on using best SEO practices for images such as:

• Including alt image text.
• Accurate image titles and file names.
• Giving your images a good textual context.

Image search is becoming more and more popular, which means there’s plenty of opportunities for you to increase your traffic through good SEO.