Upcoming Trends for SEO in 2021

One of the main things that 2021 will bring to the world of SEO is a major update from Google. It will make user experience an even more vital part of any website, and for older sites this means they may have to do some catching up. 

Some of the new factors that will come into play next year are: 

First Input Delay – How long your page takes to load before it can be interacted with. 

Largest Contentful Paint – How long it takes before a user can view the main content of a page. 

Cumulative Layout Shift – Elements on a webpage shifting and jumping as different elements load. 

The raised importance of these new factors means that businesses will have to think about whether their website needs its navigability or average load speed optimising. 

It goes without saying, but having impressive and informative content on your website is absolutely essential for any business’s search marketing strategy, and this will not change in 2021.  

All audiences want content that is relevant to them and answers any questions they might have about the product they are searching for. Google will also take this into account when ranking the order of search results, so it is in your best interests to make sure your website hosts content that is of value to people who might explore your website. 

This kind of content can take a variety of forms, such as how-to guides, infographics and video tutorials. It would also be a mistake to assume that this content has to be short and snappy, it’s been shown that websites with longer, but high-quality, content attract more clicks. It’s also important to make sure that your headlines are optimised for SEO as well. 

Technology will only become more advanced in 2021, which means that searching for products online via voice search will become more and more common, meaning it’s essential you factor it into your SEO marketing strategy. 

Most of these voice searches are more specific than a typical typed search, as they are usually used when people are on the go and are looking for a certain place, e.g. a nearby Italian restaurant. The common geographical nature of voice searches means that highlighting your address and location is vital when it comes to attracting these potential customers.  

Another technique that helps boost your traffic is bullet-point lists, which increase the odds of higher search rankings when voice searches are used. 

Google has considered the mobile version of your business’s website the primary version since 2019, replacing the desktop version. This change was rolled out due to the fact that increasing amounts of people searching for products online are doing so via their mobile phones and tablets, and this SEO trend will continue into 2021. 

This means that making your company’s website mobile-friendly has to be your absolute priority for next year, as not doing so means you will miss out on large amounts of potential traffic and revenue.  

Fixing this problem is made easy by just following a few simple steps which should be your SEO priorities. Making your content’s width and dimensions fit the screen and making sure that your touch elements are appropriately sized and appropriately spaced apart are two actions you can take to improve your mobile page speed.  

It’s been shown that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from the brands they like, and this percentage will only increase as 2021 arrives. As long as they’re interesting and entertaining, they can be a great asset for any search marketing strategy. 

One of its advantages over other types of content, apart from the obvious, is that it can be utilised across a number of different platforms, especially social media platforms. YouTube ads, Facebook stories, Instagram reels, and just recently Twitter fleets, are just a few of the ways that your business can promote its products and brand image to potential new customers. 

It’s not just that video content can be utilised across a number of different platforms that makes it beneficial, it is also due to the fact that the same piece of video content can be utilised. Adapting a video made for YouTube for other social media websites is simple, by trimming down the length and making the framing tighter you can create content that remains consistent across your brand’s online presence. 

Preparing and updating your SEO marketing strategy for the new year is a challenge for any business. Get in touch with our SEO experts today so you can confidently enter 2021 knowing your brand is ready for the future.