7 Biggest SEO Trends of 2021
When you get leads through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you have about a 14% conversion rate – compared to a 2% conversation rate for things like print ads.
The problem with SEO is that it changes so often — what worked last year might not work this year.
With that being the case, let’s look at the 7 Biggest SEO Trends of 2021
1. Proving Your Authority
It’s a good idea as a creator of content for your website to have some authority in the subject matter about which you write.
There’s a ranking factor that Google uses called the Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness factor.
Expertise – meaning that you have expertise on the subject you are covering in your particular article.
Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness – meaning you can be trusted and have the authority on the subject.
A person who is an authority in painting, for example, spending time writing on heart surgery might not be considered an authority in the subject.
Search engines can generally tell when you know what you’re talking about so it’s better to write with authority.
[Related: Painting Contractors: 12 Ways to Get the Most Out of SEO Blog Posts]2. Well Written Content For Your Site
There’s one thing that search engines and people have in common when it comes to web sites – both prefer quality content.
A person may fill one or many of the blogs on your site with nonsense, just words that you write one after another in order to meet a word count.
This might sound like a good idea but it absolutely is not — search engines can distinguish well written content from garbage.
Better to take the additional time to write well for your site and get better return on your time for higher SEO placement.
Search engine artificial intelligence compares the title of your articles to its content and will know if it’s irrelevant.
3. Long Form Content Is Better For Your Site
It was well known in years past that really short articles on your website are not considered a good thing by search engines.
This refers to articles that are under three hundred words — they are thought of as thin or poor quality.
It was recommended that your blogs be at least that long and if possible longer — but long form content is even better.
Long form content in this case refers to articles that are anywhere from 1-3,000 words — considerably longer than 300!
Of course, when you have such a long article you will need to break it up with things like pictures and paragraph breaks.
4. Optimize For Mobile
With every passing year, people do more and more of their searches online — and 2021 will be no exception.
With this being true, it’s more important that you have a website that looks just as good on mobile devices as desktops.
In addition to your site having the right kind of layout that it looks good regardless of what browser is on it, image size is also important.
Having images on your site that are too big will make even a desktop browser want to flee so keep your image size down!
One major reason that this is important is that browsers can tell how quickly you leave a site.
When they see that too many people don’t spend a lot of time on your site, your site gets pushed down in results.
5. Work On Voice Search
There are an increasing number of ways that people can do voice search – from smart home devices to ones built into your car.
As this is the case, you are going to want to work on what you write on your site and how it relates to voice search.
You should think about the way that people speak to their intelligent assistant and try to write sentences that way.
A person would not use terse language – few words in talking to their smart assistant.
The speed of your website is also important — so make sure your site loads quickly for voice search to properly capture it.
Here’s a great tutorial for improving your voice search SEO:
6. Make Sure Your Site Is Easy To Navigate
Another important thing for you to do to help boost your SEO ranking is to make sure your site is easy to navigate.
To say the least, it should not be confusing how to get to any one particular page on your site – no confusing menus.
You should also not have too many things that make it more difficult to look at your website or interfere.
This could come in the form of removing pop-up ads (which people hate) to making the navigation buttons clear and large enough.
7. Improve Your Images
Lastly, think about the images that you have on your website — how much formatting goes into them before you upload them?
The names of the files you put on your site also are important — just having a jumble of letters and numbers like JFRS1234.jpg won’t help.
Search engines see the names of the files on your site so when you have images their file names should be relevant, too.
An image you have of white kitchen cabinets should have a name like white_kitchen_cabinets included in it.
You should also make sure that the images are not too big – even though you can resize on the page, it’s better to start close to the size you show on the site.
Quick Recap:
1. If you want Google and other search engines to take your website seriously, you have to prove your authority by only posting relevant and true content
2. Google and search engines can tell what is and isn’t well written — if you want to be rated well, have well written content for your site.
3. Search engines like long form content better than even somewhat long — have the occasional article that is 1-3,000 words long.
4. To ensure that people will be able to see your site no matter what device they’re using, optimize it for mobile use!
5. As more people do internet searches via voice assistants, work on voice search by incorporating longer phrases people use when talking.
6. As search engines will reward sites with good user experience, make sure your site is easy to navigate.
7. To help search engines, improve your images that you have on your site by making sure they’re the right size and their files have relevant names.