When designing your website, proper search engine optimization is a key part of your website’s design and content. Without proper SEO, your website will be far lower on the list of search results and in some cases may not show up at all. A challenge in designing an effective SEO strategy is that effective SEO is always changing. In the early days of the internet, keyword stuffing was a common way of improving your search engine results. However, modern search engines are far more advanced and this strategy no longer works. To stay high on the list of search results requires you to update the SEO methods you use to fit current trends and search engine algorithms. Here are six trends to look for in the coming year.
Six SEO Trends For 2024
- Proper Prioritization: when designing your SEO roadmap, it’s important to know what content search engines are looking for when ranking pages. Some content to consider for your website includes informative videos, webinars, FAQ sections, podcasts, and relevant content.
- Good Content: the content on your website should be personalized for visitor needs and the type of information that your visitors are looking for. Review your current content to ensure it does this. You should also review the type of content you are publishing and ensure it is topical relevant content that shows your company’s expertise.
- Make Your Content Compelling: when search engines are ranking sites they are looking for content that is written by experts and meets the needs of search engine users. When people are searching they are looking for information. When looking for a good, service, or product, they are seeking solutions to a problem they are having. This can be learning more about a good, looking to buy something, or scheduling an appointment. By placing your industry expertise upfront, you can frame yourself as an expert in your particular niche and show customers you have the answers they are looking for.
- Don’t Write For The Search Engine: even if you make use of the latest in SEO trends, your content still has to be good. Content should be written for readers, not algorithms. The algorithm considers this and provides better rankings for content that meets the needs of the visitors and keeps them in mind.
- Variety: content doesn’t have to be written to be effective and when it is written it doesn’t always need to be in one format. Take advantage of the different formats you can use when presenting valuable information. You should not just use words but also use images, videos, and webinars. Also, when writing, you can make use of FAQs, blog entries, and news-style writing to communicate different types of information.
- The Human Element: customers like to do business with companies they can trust. Part of this trust is showing you know what you’re talking about. A way to help earn this trust is to present a more human element to the content you provide on your website. Articles shouldn’t be written by an anonymous staff or editor but by a writer. Name your writers and place a brief profile on the articles they write that show their specific skills and expertise. This shows your content is written by people who know about the topic they are writing about. Consider adding authors’ pages to further organize and personalize the content on your website.
Final Thoughts
Search engine optimization requires regular care, upkeep, and review. Previously successful SEO methods will not be effective forever and as the internet landscape changes, you need to be ready to respond to these changing trends. Keeping your SEO information current is an important part of your overall digital marketing strategy.