Search Engine Optimization

SEO stands for search engine optimization — that much has stayed the same. It refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This makes your website more visible to people who are looking for solutions that your brand, product, or service can provide via search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

SEO is one of the digital marketing services which help the business to reach their customers. SEO is the practice of optimizing the web pages to make them reach a high position in the search results of Google or other search engines.

It is about making your website’s ranking better in the organic and unpaid form of search results.  It includes create quality content, specific keywords, building backlinks, optimizing the content and keywords, etc.

SEO Strategy

An SEO marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan to get more visitors to your website through search engines. Successful SEO includes on-page strategies, which use intent-based keywords; and off-page strategies, which earn inbound links from other websites.

Keyword Research

Keyword phrase research involves identifying a group of keyword phrases that will be used in optimization. This step is critical and requires a considerable amount of time to find a good set of phrases that offer a balanced combination of two important factors: high usage by searchers and relatively low competition within the search engines.

Organic Search

Organic search refers to someone conducting a search through a search engine and clicking on a non-paid result. Organic search is a search marketing channel that can be used as part of inbound marketing to increase website traffic.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is unpaid traffic that comes from search engines such as Google or Bing. Paid search marketing does not increase your organic traffic numbers, but you can optimize your website using inbound marketing software to gain more visitors.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic consists of website visitors that come to your website by typing the URL into their browser, rather than coming from another website, a search engine, or social media.

How to Do SEO?

Following are some steps which are followed in the SEO are as:

1. Conduct an audit of your website content.
2. Use keyword research tool to identify the keywords with which people are finding you.
3. Target new keywords you’d like to rank for.
4. Develop new content and optimize existing content.
5. Monitor your website’s performance.
6. Purchase inbound marketing or SEO software.
7. Examine the web pages that are performing well.
8. Look for opportunities to earn inbound links from similar websites.
9. Monitor your change in rankings and traffic.

SEO Trends which would be considered:

Trend #1: The SERPs Will Get More Consolidated

The search engine results pages (SERPs) are not the same as they used to be even a few years ago.

The percentage of ad share has increased, the answer boxes and featured snippets have started getting a lion’s share of the clicks, and the “People Also Ask” feature that was launched in 2018 (which combines a few answer boxes together pushing the organic search result down) has grown in importance.

Trend #2: Keyword Research Will Be Even More Important

Google has evolved from being a search engine to an answer engine. Although the manner in which keywords were used in web pages to improve relevance has changed, the foundation of your SEO strategy still rests on keyword research.

Here are some tips you’ll need to use in 2020 to upgrade your keyword research strategy:

• Use a combination of tools to prepare your master keyword list, such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Answer the public and ubersuggest.
• Think “topics” instead of direct “keywords,” as this will help you map out your secondary keywords from a primary keyword seed.

Trend #3: Influencers Will Improve Your Site’s Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics quantify the effectiveness of your content. Although not stated directly by Google, the search engine giant measures the engagement metrics of your site to better evaluate the quality of your content and then rank it in the search results.

The engagement metrics that play an important role in rankings are:

• Bounce Rate: Refers to the percentage of visitors who visit your website and then leave without visiting any other pages on your site.
• Dwell Time: The time between when a person clicks on a search result and when they leave that page.
• Time on Page: The amount of time a visitor spends reading a single page on your website.
• Return Visits: The number of visitors who land on your site again after having visited it before.
• Click to Call: The number of click-to-call requests that are made to connect with your business.
• Comments: The number of comments that people leave about your business or your content.

Trend #4: Video Will Be Crucial for Your SEO Strategy

Video marketing will continue to be one of the key digital marketing trends for 2020.

A report from Zenith media predicts that the average online video consumption per person will continue to rise steadily next year and beyond. In 2018, people spent an average of 67 minutes watching online videos each day, and this figure is expected to reach 100 minutes per day by 2021.

96% of people agreed that watching videos helped them learn more about a product or service. Hence, incorporating videos into your SEO strategy is a great way to improve brand engagement.

Trend #5: Data Will Be the Future of SEO

An analysis of qualitative and quantitative data is crucial for your SEO strategy. Tracking user behavior and using the right tools for keyword research and site optimization are necessary to move your current SEO strategy in the right direction.

To do this, you need to select your data sources carefully and visualize your info by using data science. This will help you identify common issues, like why your customers are buying a particular product or behaving in a particular way after landing on your website.

Trend #6: Mobile Usability Will Be Critical for Higher Rankings

Desktop optimization is starting to go the way of the dinosaurs. Mobile used to be an afterthought, then it was on par with desktops, and now mobile is leading the way. Google is already ranking websites on the basis of their mobile version.

In 2020, your entire SEO strategy should be mobile driven. If your site serves dynamic content based on the user’s device or has different URLs for desktop and mobile, then you need to follow these best practices to make your site mobile friendly.