SEO strategies are fundamental to digital marketing success, and they’re likely to maintain their importance in 2024. While the core aspects such as page speed, quality content, backlinks, and responsive design will likely remain crucial, there might be shifts in their emphasis or execution due to evolving search engine algorithms, user behaviour changes, or technological advancements.
Evolving Landscape of SEO
The landscape of SEO is in a constant state of evolution, shaped by technological advancements, changes in user behaviour, and updates in search engine algorithms. Keeping up with these shifts and adapting SEO strategies to align with these trends is crucial for maintaining visibility, ranking, and driving organic traffic in the evolving landscape of search engine optimization. Based on the current trend analysis, following are some crucial SEO trends that will improve SEO rankings in 2024
Good Content
In 2024, content will continue to hold a central position in SEO. With Google introducing AI, SERPs have evolved to include rich snippets, knowledge graphs, and other dynamic elements, offering users more diverse and interactive information directly on the results page.
With Google rolling out the helpful content update in August 2022, Google now de-prioritises content with little or no value to the users. This situation emphasises the need for high-quality content, improved user experience, and structured data to remain competitive in SERPs.
- Demonstrate thought leadership through quality content
- Keep refreshing old content.
- E-E-A-T
With the introduction of chatgpt, seo content generation has become easier than ever before. This has also led to the creation of low quality content. In this scenario, thought leadership is something that will make you stand out from the rest. With these ongoing changes in the content trends make sure to refresh the existing content to maintain its relevance.
Page Speed
In an attempt to increase its sales strategy, Vodafone decided to optimise their site’s Web Vitals. It was observed that 31% improvement in LCP led to 8% more sales, a 15% improvement in their lead to visit rate, and an 11% improvement in their cart to visit rate.
Faster Websites = Deeper Engagement = Higher Conversion
Ref: https://nitropack.io/blog/post/web-performance-matters-case-studies
Statistics and trends emphasise that website speed is a crucial factor affecting user engagement, sales, and search engine visibility.
Links and Backlinks
Backlinks continue to play a big role in demonstrating a website’s authority, credibility, and trustworthiness to search engines like Google and will more than likely continue to play a crucial role in 2024 as well.
Search engines consider backlinks as ‘signs of trust’ from other websites. When reputable and relevant sites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and credible.
Responsive Design
In 2024, responsive design will remain pivotal due to the continued prevalence of mobile and multi-device usage. Responsive design in 2024 will continue to prioritise user-centric experiences, adaptability across devices, and seamless performance to accommodate the evolving landscape of digital interactions.
Be ready for changes in the SERP listings
We can expect continuous evolution in SERP features. Prepare by diversifying content to suit various formats like featured snippets, knowledge panels, image carousels, and video carousels.
1. Google AI generated answers
As we have discussed above, Google now at times shows an AI-powered overview on top for search results based on the search term. Google’s Generative AI, is a subset of machine learning that aids in creating content, offering creativity, productivity, and knowledge enhancement.
These results are basically match making using information on different websites. And Google also adds citations to support the credibility of the information so it is important to make sure the content you add on the website is reliable and trustworthy. Add citation and reference wherever necessary and provide supporting documentation.
If Google is not showing content from your websites in this then it is something that you want to look into. The solution is to focus on more quality as well as quality and refreshing the existing content. You might want to focus on your content quality and quantity in 2024.
Wayforward
- Focus on new quality content
- Refresh existing content
2. Increase in zero-click searches
Since Google is aiming at providing quicker and more user friendly results, and the introduction of AI generated answers is indicating towards that. And with the release of AI generated answers, there has been an upward trend in the number of people who are not clicking on any of the search results. Such searches are called zero click searches.
This trend can impact SEO strategies by reducing click-through rates. To counter this, options include targeting SERP features with specific content or focusing efforts on keywords likely to generate clicks. You can use tools like SEMrush to identify keywords that don’t show instant results.
Recognising and avoiding zero-click searches involves analysing SERPs for features that hinder organic traffic and identifying long-tail keywords. Building brand visibility, fostering community, and creating content for visual SERP elements can also mitigate the impact of zero-click searches.
Adding diverse content types such as images, infographics, videos, and FAQs can enhance your visibility on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This strategy aims to occupy more space, potentially increasing the likelihood of getting clicks even when instant answers or other SERP features are present.
Wayforward
- Identify and focus on zero click keywords
- Add more images , infographics, videos, FAQs, structured data markup, to take up more real estate on the SERP
3. E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) remains a critical aspect of content evaluation in 2024. It’s especially crucial as search engines emphasise quality and relevance in their algorithms. Websites and content demonstrating high E-E-A-T are more likely to gain visibility and credibility, making it a cornerstone for SEO strategies and content creation. Users are increasingly looking for trustworthy, accurate, and expert-backed information, making E-E-A-T a pivotal factor for success in the digital landscape.
4. Voice search gaining popularity
Voice search has been growing rapidly in recent years. comScore estimated that around 50% of all internet searches would be conducted through voice. Voice-enabled devices and virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa have contributed to this surge in voice-based search queries, offering users a more convenient and hands-free way to find information online.
Users typically use voice search to get quick results often to search for nearby stores, restaurants etc. So make sure to optimise your website for local SEOand keep the NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) up to date.
And since voice searching is faster than typing, people use this method of searching when the user wants quick search results. Voice searches tend to be longer since they’re conversational in nature. Ref: https://searchengineland.com/voice-search-explosion-will-change-local-search-251776 So start including more long-tail keywords in your content.
Enabling a voice search assistant on your website can enhance user experience and accessibility. It allows visitors to navigate your site hands-free, appealing to a broader audience, including those with physical limitations. Additionally, it aligns with the growing trend of voice-activated technology, potentially improving your site’s engagement and user satisfaction metrics.
Wayforward
- Focus on long tail keywords
- Optimise the website for local keywords
- Enable voice enabled search on your website
5. Continuous Learning
The world of digital marketing is always changing with the introduction of new tools, technologies, and strategies. If you’re an SEO specialist, it’s crucial to keep learning because search engines and how people search online are always evolving. To stay ahead in this field, you need to be open to keep learning, trying and implementing new methods and stay updated with what’s new in the industry.
What do you think will be the popular trends in SEO for 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments!
