2020 & Beyond: Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions on Future of SEO
The area of SEO or search optimization for engines (SEO) is a subject that is prone to change. The algorithms of search engines are constantly changing and there isn’t any certainty about when or how these modifications will happen. This could be an issue for many businesses that compete in the digital world.
As marketer, you must be aware of the most recent algorithm updates as well as industry changes and adopt the best SEO techniques to secure your online presence. Making sure your website is visible in search results is crucial to the success of your website online. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
In the last few years, we’ve witnessed Google as well as other major search engines release algorithm updates that shaken the landscape of digital marketing. This includes:
1. The featured snippets de-duplication feature eliminated duplicate URLs for pages that are displayed in the snippets of featured content
2. BERT global rollout that was based on enhancing language comprehension and solving the user’s queries based upon intentions to search. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
3. Broad algorithm updates to the core algorithm are made every couple of months to enhance Google’s overall systems and offer the most relevant information to users of the internet.
4. Fred refers to a set of changes relating to the infraction of Webmaster Guidelines
5. Intrusive Interstitials updates focused on all types of pop
-ups that impede the user experience
6. Google Medic update, which has affected organic rankings for fitness, medical and health websites
7. Mobilegeddon, which emphasized mobile-friendliness as a ranking indicator
8. RankBrain is an artificial intelligence live (AI) utilized for processing search queries to give the most effective results in search. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
9. Panda was created to decrease the number of low-quality websites on search engines.
10. Penguin was a program that targeted the practice of manipulating link construction
11. Hummingbird was a project that focused on natural processing of language and local search
12. Pigeon was a project that focused on improving the local search capabilities of Google which included Google’s distance and location ranking parameters.
13. Payday loans are a way to address the most spammy of queries, mostly related to unsavory industries such as casinos and debt consolidation websites
14. The Exact Match Domain (EMD) update that targeted websites that have exact match domains as well as small content
15. Google page layout algorithm that focused on sites that have too many static advertisements above the fold
2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo – As search engines continue shift and adjust to consumer preferences we can anticipate constant change in the industry over the next years. Improve your SEO process and make sure your online campaigns are in the future by implementing SEO-friendly strategies that are agile and flexible.
The Future of SEO: What We Can Expect
To help companies better position their brand on the internet we reached out experts in SEO experts to assess their predictions of the most important market changes that will affect the SEO industry.
SEOblog’s digital marketing experts conducted an online poll between January and April of 2020. We’ve gathered and analysed responses from the respondents and highlighted those which stood out. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
These are the 13 most anticipated predictions to shake up the SEO industry in the next two years as per SEO experts:
1. GREATER FOCUS ON SEARCH INTENT
Jonathan Gorham, Head of SEO at Engine Scout:
“Having an knowledge of search intent will be crucial in the coming 12-24 months. Google’s latest algorithm update called BERT is evidence of the increasing trend toward more understanding and matching the user’s search habits. –
2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The aspect to optimize websites for search-related intent is more difficult than it appears. Marketing professionals need to invest more time and effort to understand the growing trend. It is important to think about the distinctions between the types of keywords that are transactional and informational and the way users behave and interact with websites, too.
“If you can master search intent and know the difference between the subtle behaviors and underlying ‘WHY’ factor behind search queries, Google is going to reward you with improved rankings.”
2. THE RISE OF VOICE SEARCH
Anirban Sengupta, Founder of Digital Marketing Chef: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The percentage of voice searches is expected to increase. For all queries, search engines will strive to include answers to queries. As time passes, the desire to rank will become replaced with the desire to provide the solution [to the queries of searchers[to queries].
“In the case of voice search, the expectation would be to get an [immediate, specific] answer and not a list of content pages.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
Sengupta outlined the three key elements that are driving the growth of SEO voice searches.
* The increase in sales or use of voice-based assistants like Alexa and Siri
* The growth of Google users who aren’t comfortable with typing [on their devices”
* The advancement in speech-to text technology allows users to connect to search engines using voice commands
3. STRUCTURED DATA WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT, ELIMINATING GOOGLE AMP
Dario Zadro, Web Strategist at Zadro Web: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“A similar scenario is occurring with structured data, which happened in the last seven years with responsive design and eventually indexing mobile-first. Many businesses took too long to come fully on board with all the details of mobile. Similar thing is taking place when it comes to structured data, specifically JavaScript object notation used for Linked Data (JSON-LD). – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“I’ve tried this theory out with WP themes development. It is a good idea to put the schema on the top of every list at the moment as it grows. According to me, it will take over what Google AMP tried to be.
“While it’s not clear that AMP is a viable option for publishers in the present however, I’m not sure how AMP will last. It first of all takes over all links and is extremely difficult to set up proper tracking. It limits many web-based features and by enabling AMP creates an Google sole index. Google has repeatedly stated that AMP is designed to speed up loading times however this isn’t the case.
Sites that load in less than two seconds can be easily achieved with the right code. Google’s emphasis upon structured data has been their back-up plan to a failed attempt at the adoption of AMP.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
4. THE RISE OF SCHEMA and THE EVOLUTION OF BRAND SEO
Jonathan Nishikawa, CEO of Winnipeg Local SEO:
“I think it may very possibly be the rise of schema, which wraps its web around the fundamentals of SEO. It has been suggested that schema markup could be an important search engine ranking element in the near future and there are evidence of higher scores from many sites that have already incorporated it. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The schema vocabulary continues to evolve and becoming more complex with hundreds of information points to take into consideration. I believe that SEO is a good way to provide relevant information to search engines in order to rank content that is relevant. In contrast, schema tries to identify that relevance beyond the classic title/description/URL and into the emerging world of rich search results. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“How do we make SEO as is currently practiced sustain its popularity without adopting the concept of schema, and what this can mean to reach out and reaching out to potential customers? This is after all what the continued success of a business is based on and why we use SEO in the first place in the first. Our lord Google has once again thrown down the gauntlet time. The digital marketing community is being forced to adjust to the new stage of search results, which includes “rich results” for its purpose of enhancing user experience and a change in quality of search.
This means that there must be a strong focus on the search intent as well as an ongoing and sophisticated approach towards an effective process of marketing while keeping SEO at the forefront of your mind. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Gone were the times of simple manipulating SERPs. In the same way that Google continues to grow in sophistication through its results for search engines, and social media continues to embed its tentacles into every aspect of our lives, our perception change with the way we use information on the internet.”
5. FOCUS ON CONTENT QUALITY
Brent Jacobs, Co-founder of Get Known Inc: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Content quality is more crucial. Many have said that content is the most important thing for a long time. However, many people are able to escape with poor quality content, and still get a good rank. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Recently, Elon Musk shared his AI content generator free of charge and people are starting to take notice. It’s going to become easier and simpler to access good content. The only method Google will not get the search results pages (SERPs) filled with spam is by or finding an effective method to recognize AI-generated content or raise their content bar.
Which one is the easiest? Setting the bar higher Naturally. Relevance, on-page, and overall quality of content could never be more vital.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
6. INCREASINGLY DYNAMIC SERPs
Kevin Dhimitri, Digital Marketing Consultant at NYC SEO & Web Design:
“I believe that the SERPS are going to evolve to be more complex, dynamic and targeted, based on keywords groups. We’ve seen that recently, Google has been focused on eliminating junk from Google Maps and improving the SERPS’ appearance and clarity. They are also experimenting with featured snippets, as well as unique features including Google Guaranteed. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The prevalent theme that I have observed is a general emphasis on Google improving their monetization , and creating a more interactive search. By implementing BERT Google can better classify keywords into groups and present specific features to users.”
7. SEO AUTOMATION and DATA MINING ACROSS PLATFORMS
Kolleen Shallcross, Founder of Shallcross Marketing & Design: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The quantity of data taken per person is far beyond what people imagine at present. Every conversation you have on your phone, your smart appliance or Alexa is analyzed for interest as well as hobbies and paradigms. The data is compiled and linked to your experience as a user. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Dozens in data point” are taken from different user activities and then, SEO will be automated to provide SERPs specific to the individual. I might be in the same room as my son connected to the same WiFi, and look up the same keyword on the same smartphone and browser, but we’ll see different results depending on our profile. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“For instance, if the stylist is perceived to be visited more often by conservative wealthy women then it is served to these people, and then later on for other search results. The reason why it is automated is due to the amount of information that needs to be compiled on every person and constantly up-to-date.
“If SEO experts can get access to anonymous profiles, we may still have work by honing that brand to show the ideal client they want to attract (more specifically than today).”
8. THE DOWNFALL OF PAID GUEST POSTS
Greg Heilers, Co-Captain at Jolly SEO: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Link penalizations” are present with every algorithm update however, when are they targeted at genuine paid media? – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The different between guest posts that are paid or earned-media is the fact that Google is exhausted of SEOs who play the system by paying to speed up – or even replacethe building of brand.
“Combat this using the real-life live, human being’s executive authority. Contribute their insightful commentary as journalists and marketers will be happy to incorporate it into their posts. Earned media placements don’t get you Google’s retribution unlike posts that are paid for. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Earned media links are long-lasting and paid guest posts are subject to the algorithm’s retribution.
Link vendors are already getting the brunt of criticism. The issue will be more prevalent in the coming years. It doesn’t matter if Google will in fact cut down the link juice of guest posts or not it is evident that the stigma is present. Many are facing penalties for bad link buying decisions. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Create content together with a colleague in another company. When you upload the video or post on LinkedIn ensure that you tag each other.
“Co-marketing increases reach by exposing new audiences to the company’s brand. While at the same time the support of this person increases your authority until it’s enough to win the trust of the content manager for a website. You’ll get organic links from the content managers of your industry that want to connect to authoritative individuals.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
9. LINK DEVALUATION and THE CASE FOR LSI KEYWORDS
Derek Marshall, Affiliate Marketing Mentor and Coach at Bloggers HQ:
“It is a relic of the past. The most important change I’m seeing in the next 12-24 months in the field of SEO is the decline in value of links. It’s a bit in a way, in the sense that Google itself in Webmaster Central inform that links can help. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“I find only relevant, connected and more emphasis on links that bring more traffic, and a focus upon the high-quality of the content. I continue to see in my area of expertise new sites that are low-DA with a single-digit DA that is dominating rankings but have very only a few (almost none) websites that receive a significant amount of traffic. Rankings are based mostly on the quality of their content. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“This could be a snarky prediction, however Google has patents for LSI keywords. From my experience with my websites, I’ve witnessed a hockey stick-shaped curve in traffic as well as the number of keywords that are ranked when making use of LSI keywords in content. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“It isn’t the situation that is reminiscent of the SEO LSI gag “two SEO guys walked into the bar that was a speakeasy, or the gin joint.” It’s not the proper or natural usage to use LSI keywords. I’ve discovered that LSI keywords assist Google to comprehend how your text is used and connect it with the search intent. By the words you’re making, Google can tell if the content “Ruffian” is about a racehorse, or a rogue character. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The LSI helps BERT in looking through content in both directions to discover significance. I believe there is more value in making use of LSI keywords in a proper manner.”
10. INCREASING CHALLENGES IN AFFILIATE MARKETING, TRADITIONAL BLUE LINKS and SHADY TACTICS
Olesia Korobka, Search Engine Optimizer at Fajela:
“Large businesses will be focusing on optimizing more efficiently for their own benefit, attempting to reduce costs, and might consider the possibility of sharing profit with associates. Google’s John Mueller has a somewhat similar forecast. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“For affiliate websites, this means more competition in traditional SERPs. A lot of buyers have already begun their searches via Amazon and Walmart or even the Shopping tab of Google without ever considering the SERP. Some who are still doing may have noticed that the SERP’s layout has changed in recent months and is only beginning to change.
“Blue hyperlinks will disappear. But, it’s much more difficult to stay at top of the line with traditional websites with high authority for the rest of the queries users still search for. It is well-known it is true that no.1 is the one that gets many clicks. Even no.2 isn’t as well-liked today, forcing you to compete for the position of number 1. This means big investments that have uncertain ROI and no guarantee of sales.
“That could lead to shifting to other platforms or aggregater websites, where your prospective clients might be looking for your services, or connecting with them through these channels instead of fighting for that one tiny spot on Google.
“In other words, a reputable SEO professional must become more innovative, technologically proficient and ultimately user-focused while learning new methods of promotion (including paid options) along with platforms. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“During an economic downturn the entertainment industry is typically highly sought-after. They’re one of the most competitive too. But, competition could grow even more, attracting SEOs who have lost their jobs in other areas and with more lucrative than normal profit promises. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Demand for black tactics,” hidden PBNs as well as niche edits and other unsavory techniques will grow in niches that are grey. The field of technical SEO is rapidly developing to aid in the smart competition and reduce costs for backlinks. Teams will attempt to out-compete each other more than they currently do. Effective teams and genuine knowledge will be the most valuable assets as money becomes less valuable.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
11. RESPONSIVE SITES WILL INCREASINGLY BE REWARDED
James Alviani, Digital Strategist at Halo Digital:
“With the increase of inexpensive and free page builders there are ever increasing websites being built every day. This poses a serious issue for Google that must effectively process, analyze and rank these sites each couple of days. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“The solution for them is to reward websites with slim code and only top quality unique pages can be indexable. Page builders create a lot of thin pages as well as duplicate content that drains resources. I am convinced that, in the future, Google will reward the pages with clean code and well-organized content over. excessively bloated builders with a lot of redundant pages as well as archives.” – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
12. MACHINE LEARNING AS A CORE COMPONENT OF GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM
Phil Drinkwater, Founder of Phil Drinkwater: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Rather than a human being deciding what signals merit an important rating, machines can be trained to recognize patterns in large quantities of training data are present. They have the data for training currently in form of high-quality raters, and they can make use of AI to fine tune the strength of signals which are crucial for the various elements of the algorithm, such as EAT and categorization of sites. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“When you study neural nets and the way they function, you will notice that the patterns they generate aren’t like the ones humans would create. For instance, when humans detect handwritten numbers we search at lines and curves such as the right-hand vertical line of “9.” However, when they evaluate the same data, neural networks discover patterns that humans would never notice. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“In SEO terms that is, to classify an internet site as specialist in medicine the site could have an abundance of images in black and white because they feature the most unusual number of images of documents. In addition, B&W images are an simple input signal Google can code. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“While the relationship wouldn’t be one that humans would detect, it could prove very useful in helping to identify whether a page is actually authored by medical professionals. If you attempt to and fool the algorithm only using the keywords that you think they should be able to locate on a webpage however, you could fail. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Once Google knows a site is within the medical expert field it can train another neural net to detect signals on the page, which correspond to a great site in this area. However, these might not be connections that people would expect to see.
“To rank highly, SEO experts will have to become used to looking beyond simple elements like keywords and keyword associations, and instead look more deeply to the kinds of signals that are computationally achievable and correlate with a highly effective site in their niche.”
13. BROWSER UPDATES WILL DICTATE TECHNICAL SETUPS FOR BEST RESULTS
Daniel Cuttridge, Director of Pathtorch: – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“SEO is set to undergo many changes in the next few years, and many of them have been discussed previously. One area that doesn’t receive enough attention is the issue of browser updates.
“Browser changes are changing our SEO landscape already, and this will continue to change due to a small alteration that took place in the year 2019. – 2020 Beyond Digital Marketing Professionals Share Expert Predictions On Future Of Seo
“Starting from 2019, websites are now rendered using an evergreen Chromium version also called Google Chrome.
Let’s take a look the history of Chrome’s releases:
* 2019 11 releases
* 2018 8 releases
* 2017 8 releases
* 2016 8 new releases
“We notice increasing frequency in updates as well as the speed of development process. The type of updates are changing as well as browsers take stricter stances on websites with security concerns and can result in the blocking of content in the most extreme of cases.
“This means that if you want the best results from your SEO, you’ll need to be aware of what these changes are and how they impact your websites.”
Further Predictions From SEO Experts: SEO experts:
SHIFTING FOCUS ON REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FOR LOCAL SEO
Dan Christensen, Founder of Morningdove Marketing:
“Local SEO will focus more on managing reputation rather than SEO. I believe that Google will boost the amount of weight reviews from third parties are given in local ranking. Instead of having a organic or local blended algorithm, it will start letting other sites take on much of the work.”
GOOGLE ASSETS WILL DOMINATE THE FIRST PAGE OF SERPs
Laurean Callander, President at Red Palm Marketing:
“Organic listings will be moved onto the 2nd page. Google resources (i.e. advertising, Snack Pack) already make up a large portion of the page. Soon, they take up the whole first page, and organic content is squeezed out. This will increase the need about advertising and SEO alone will only become more challenging (or impossible) for small-sized businesses.”
.EDU and .GOV PRIORITIZATION
Isuamfon Offiong, Founder of Isua Wealthy Place:
“.edu and .gov links will be more special than anything else you’ve ever seen in the backlink world in boosting a website’s ranking and domain authority.”
THE RISE OF PRIVACY-FOCUSED SEARCH ENGINES
Adam Duran, Director at Magnified Media Inc.
“The rise of privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo will force the SEO industry to pivot towards optimizing and creating content for ranking on those platforms — not just Google.”
WRITING FOR HUMANS MEAN BETTER SEO
Jawahar Kaushal, Team Head at Escope:
“Since BERT’s BERT update is focused on natural processing of language it makes sense to write with the reader’s mind as opposed to writing in the style of algorithms and machines. Simply creating content using a handful of keywords won’t perform. The content must be simple to read and include your title page or article with the help of LSI Keywords.”
Final Thoughts
Despite the continual changes to algorithmic search, elements such as optimized, unique content, responsiveness to devices and well-constructed site structures remain important to success on the internet. Additionally is adhering to Google guidelines and using white-hat SEO techniques will ensure your campaigns will yield long-lasting and profitable outcomes.
“SEO experts need to think outside the box,” said Matt Deloff, CEO of FMS Online Marketing. “They must learn how to use Google’s properties to benefit their clients. If you can think outside the box and consider more efficient ways to use SEO, your customers and their results will be thriving as everyone else is in a state of confusion.”
SEO is a nebulous field. It is therefore essential to keep up-to-date with the most recent trends to ensure that your SEO campaign is on the right path.
Work together with and SEO agency that will become an integral component in your department of marketing. The best SEO agency can use actionable information to enhance your online presence and add to your overall performance.
