The world of SEO doesn't stand still, and neither should you if you want your business to flourish online. As ever you need to review your current SEO strategy and make sure it's optimized for modern search engines. This means knowing and understanding any new developments in search engine practices. Below we look at some of the ways digital technology is changing.
Optimized Content
As ever the content you display on your website should be optimized for SEO. But what does that mean in 2021? For one thing it means you need to do a little more than basic on page SEO to stand out to Google and appear on the organic SERP results.
Your website content should be optimized for traditional search, of course; but additionally, it needs to optimized for voice search too and video content. Keywords should be chosen carefully to avoid 'zero searches' and where possible content should be interactive.
JAMstack Web Services
Website development is now becoming more sophisticated, efficient and user friendly as we move into the new decade. JAMstack Web Services are leading the way with their newly developed Web services system. JAMstack is the modern approach to building websites.
For a full run down of the JAMstack profile read JAMstack a complete guide. In short the platform uses principles of decoupling and pre-rendering to separate components and make them easier to work with. Content is rendered in advance and delivered across servers, bringing closer to website users.
New Types of Search
The big innovation for search this year is the forward strides being made by voice search. In 2019 48% of searches were conducted using voice and that figure now is likely to be higher with the introduction of new forms of smart speakers. Voice search is harder to optimize for but should be incorporated.
To help your business flourish online this year assist voice search by answering all the basic questions about your business on Google My Business. Answer directly and concisely. Also ensure that your page loads fast and that you have quality backings which influences voice search performance.
UX Services
Google has made it abundantly clear that the search algorithm assesses a websites user experience as criteria for its search results. It not only wants the best quality and most original information on the web it needs it to be user friendly too. From May 2021 this will include Core Vitals.
Core Web Vitals will look at the loading speed of your webpages, how long your pages take to respond following a user interaction, and how much things move around during loading. To help your website flourish, trim it down and ensure there are swift loading speeds.
Search Intent
The major search engines are also putting more emphasis on 'search intent' this year and moving forward. Search intent is exactly what it sounds like. It describes the intention behind whatever is being searched for. If you search for 'buy iPhone 12' for instance you're in buying mode.
The search engine will analyze the search intent of users and provide search results according to the intention, thus making a more pointed approach to delivering the best results to users. You can optimize for search intent by targeting your keywords toward the intention of the webpage.
