When your business exists in the digital world, there are certain trends to keep up on in order to remain relevant and to be consistently found by customers online. With maintaining find-ability comes Search Engine Optimization and learning how to utilize it in order to draw in your brand’s specific audience. Each year brings forth new SEO strategies that can help you to better prepare for what’s next in online marketing. In this post, we will be outlining the top trends in SEO for 2021 and how to apply them to your online business.
Top SEO Trends of 2021
#1 Content is More Important Than Ever
It’s no surprise that ecommerce is growing with each year and has no signs of stopping in the future. In fact, “in 2017, ecommerce was responsible for $2.3 trillion in sales, which is expected to nearly double to $4.5 trillion by 2021”. These numbers represent the customers that have the potential to stumble upon your site when making their online purchases; that is, if your sight is reachable when they start their search. This reachability is based on a few factors, one being the quality of your website’s content.
Google continues to reward websites that provide the most “in-depth” experiences, meaning that if your online business gives its visitors quality coverage and personalized content, you are more likely to appear in future searches made by similar customers.
The rule of thumb for this SEO trend? Quality over quantity. Instead of spending your time creating large amounts of lower quality content, work on crafting more in-depth and engaging content in smaller batches. The trade off will result in an increased amount of visitors who will actually want to stay on your online store once they get there. Because of this, your site will naturally rise to the top without the help of other SEO bells and whistles.
#2 Voice Search
Although this has been among the top SEO trends in past couple of years, voice search is on the near horizon. In 2021, this is more true than ever before with the increasing popularity of the voice-activated assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home. Today, “40% of adults depend on voice search to help every day”, which means that almost half of digital consumers are turning to these services to get their information on a daily basis. Many digital marketing firms have already started to look into what this consumer behavior shift means for the ecommerce industry.
When considering this change in digital shopping habits, it is important to understand the new steps your customer will be making when he or she looks for products online. Instead of opening their laptops or apps and typing out an inquiry, they will now be more inclined to use AI via these voice assistants. These customers are more likely to ask broader questions when speaking than when typing, simply because it is easier. These searches also tend to be more conversational and more detailed due to the ease of speaking. As the owner of an online business, you should take these changes into account when improving your find-ability. make sure that your content is easy to read, targets keywords, and provides answers to customer questions.
#3 Geo-targeting
With “Near Me” based searches growing in popularity each year, it is essential that your brand is properly equipped for these highly specific inquiries. This is especially important for smaller businesses that aspire to be recognized both online and in person. Geo-targeting, or local search optimization, includes the process of ads being delivered to pre-qualified customers that reside within a certain radius. This is key when customers who live in your business’s same zip code make searches for services or products that are nearby their current locations. If your site is appropriately geo-tagged, these local customers will be brought right to your doorstep.
Incorporating geo-tagging into your SEO strategy might improve your local visibility. It can also help to cater to a more defined target audience due to the creation of consumer clusters that often appear within a certain demographic. Essentially speaking, the more precise the better when it comes to marketing your business on the digital platform.
We help local boutiques get found on Google to increase their website traffic. How can ranking on Google improve your business? Find out by booking a complimentary strategy call.
