Last Updated on December 11, 2020
The next year is almost on us. And it is time that we share the important 2021 SEO trends that will keep the webmasters and digital marketers at the top of their game.
While there is a lot to cover but as a digital marketing professional myself, I think a great SEO strategy will be the one that puts value on the content, trust on the brand and website easy to use on mobile.
However, this is just the beginning of it, there is a lot more to dig deeper into SEO in 2021.
“User + Search Intent” is the important combination
Time and again, we have told our readers to strictly focus on the user and searcher intent.
If you think this is not something new, you are correct. But searcher intent is a behaviour and it changes all the time. In 2021, you need to refocus on user and searcher intent because 2020 was the year when a lot change so rapidly.
SEO experts globally believe that it is the time when we move away from the traditional best practices like writing meta description for every single page and focus more on better understanding what’s happening within the SERPs and searcher intent.
Google is already providing you with the results it thinks serves users’ intent the best. As an SEO it is on you to use this data for your strategy.
This is why SERP Analysis will be one of the most important SEO trends in 2021.
Behavioural Analytics will be the Hottest Commodity
SEO was once all about driving traffic, but now it has evolved into something much more.
In 2021, you will have to work more than just getting the traffic but to close the gap between the revenue and ROI. In this year, behavioural analytics will be the hottest commodity.
With Google evolving at a much faster pace to give instant satisfaction to the users, you have to take responsibility for more than just the visits, you will have to combine the UX, conversion and revenue to finally boost your SEO.
Keyword volume will be a secondary metrics in 2021 while behavioural analytics will be the forefront. You need to focus on-what your customer is doing, why they are doing it and how can you use the content to make them do it more of it quicker.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the keyword research isn’t always going to be useful in a world which is in constant flux, focus on behavioural analytics more.
Brand SERP Optimization
According to Jason Barnard, The Brand SERP Guy, Kalicube.pro, in 2021 tracking knowledge panels and brand SERPs will become the norm.
He believes that “in 2021, the reality that entity-based search starts with Google’s confident understanding of who you are, what you offer, and what audience you serve will gain enormous traction.”
“Savvy marketers will truly get to grips with looking at their brand as an entity and start to work in earnest on Google’s understanding of the ‘who you are’ part of that trio by creating or improving their presence in the Knowledge Graph.”
There are some SEO experts who believe that in 2021, we might even start seeing personalized knowledge graphs.
It makes sense as Google has so much information about us, our search history, social and mail accounts details along with other information that they are very much in a position to create personalized knowledge graphs. This is how Google has been creating qualifying information between the content and legitimacy of the author credentials. This is the same approach how Google perceives value from any content and in 2021 this will be even more important.
For you, it means, that in 2021 you will have to work on your brand’s entire digital presence and optimize it to how Google features them.
One important platform you need to focus on is “Google Discover”.
Core Web Vitals & Page Experience
Google will introduce the Core Web Vitals as one of the ranking factors in 2021. This is why you can no longer ignore the page experience metrics.
If you do not want to fall behind the competition then you will have to prioritize improving page experience for every single page on your website. For this, you can make use of most of the insights that are provided by tools such as Crux API and Lighthouse. You will have to optimize everything from mobile-friendliness and page speed to image optimization and security protocols.
Your focus must not be on only how accessible and comprehensible the pages are to a search engine crawler but how it makes a user feel. From the page load speed to responsiveness to user interactions, you will have to incorporate page experience into your SEO workflow.
In 2021, it is mandatory to ensure that your website has a better interface and quality than your competitors and your best content is accessible by Google from everywhere.
All SEO Is Mobile SEO
Another focal point in 2021 will be ensuring that your content and website performs well from a mobile perspective. It is important to ensure that the experience users have when accessing your content or finding answers on mobile devices is nothing short of excellent.
This is why another SEO 2021 trend will be the mobile device user experience (UX).
The best you can do to optimize your websites for mobile UX is to think about the user first. The simplicity of design is the key here. You have to ensure to personalize the website content and elements based on your target audience.
As Google will essentially ignore your desktop site, your mobile site will determine your rankings. But you might already know that, however, many webmasters have focused on meeting the bare minimum requirements to be considered for mobile-indexing. In 2021 your focus must on improving the experience of the users.
Get above the habit of just passing by with the scores. Its time you hustle to closely review every page and ensure it is as intuitive for your users as it can get. It must be easy to navigate and focused on the mobile experience.
While it is still important to have a different experience for desktop and mobile, but understand that Google will no longer be ranking your mobile and desktop experiences differently. If for some reason, you still have a separate mobile site, its time you consider migrating it to the main site.
Takeaway
As 2021 approaches near, we are recovering from a year that was marred by the pandemic. It affected every industry and digital marketing is no exception.
As the world changed rapidly in 2020, you cannot rely on traditional SEO metrics or strategies in this year. The 2021 SEO trends that we shared here are in no way a completely exhaustive list, but still, they will provide you with a starting point.
