7 SEO Trends You Should Know in 2021

Businesses are allocating 41% of their marketing strategy budget, on average, to invest in search engine optimization.

Effective SEO, therefore, remains critical in establishing a highly-engaging digital presence.

So, do you have a strategy to stay on top of search engine results pages (SERPs)?

In this blog post, we look at 7 key trends in SEO to help you build a highly-effective strategy in 2021.

Let’s dive in!

Search Intent

Remember that search intent is why your prospects and customers are performing search queries.

With the BERT update and developments in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Google is not only able to read your content better, but also understand what it means.

This enables the search engine to provide the most relevant search results to users.

So what you need to do to rank on SERPs and be found by prospects and customers is answer user queries with high-quality, relevant content.

Voice Search

While voice and regular search are becoming increasingly personalized and accurate at providing answers, there is a difference between the two.

Regular search queries are short, specific, and commonly in the form of standalone statements.

Here’s an example: “Make cold coffee.”

On the other hand, voice queries are lengthy, commonly in a question-format, and location-based.

For instance: “Hey Siri! How do I make cold coffee at home?”

See the difference?

In order to rank for voice search results, identify long-tail keywords and write content in accordance with your findings.

Long-Form Content

Blog posts that are over 2,000 words in length are outperforming those with a word count of a 1,000 words or less.

In fact, as more businesses publish long-form content, blog posts that rank well on SERPs will only keep increasing in length.

This means that you need to publish content that clearly establishes your expertise, authority, and trust (E.A.T.) with prospects and customers.

Mobile SEO

With most searches being performed on mobile devices, it’s critical that your website is optimized to provide a highly-immersive mobile experience.

So, how does this work?

Well, simplicity in website design is essential.

Write content that is highly-personalized to the needs of your target audience.

In addition to this, focus on user experience, such as by speeding up your website loading time.

Featured Snippets

The crème de la crème of SERP features, featured snippets are rising in prominence.

They are Google’s way of serving highly-relevant content to users without them having to browse through a website for answers.

Getting into one not only helps you rank on the first page of Google Search but also increases the likelihood of your content ranking for voice queries.

Wondering how to get there?

Provide specific answers to user queries and write in the form of numbered or bulleted lists.

Looking for inspiration?

Check out the ‘People also ask’ box on Google.

Data and Analytics

Analytics is a powerful tool that helps you understand buyer behavior, forecast digital campaigns, and deliver highly-targeted content.

This also means being able to verify URLs, track referral sources, optimize page loading time, as well as check redirects, response errors, and bounce rates.

A strategy that incorporates rank tracking, competitive research, on-page SEO, technical SEO, and link-building is how you’ll get there.

Artificial Intelligence

As it is with search intent, AI helps Google provide the most relevant search results.

In fact, RankBrain, Google’s AI algorithm, processes queries on the basis of searcher location, personalization, as well as the exact search terms used.

But what does this mean for my SEO strategy?

Write for the reader.

And that is a wrap on 7 SEO trends you should know in 2021 to build a highly-effective strategy!

Need help building a strategy that’ll get you on top of SERPs?