Some things change, some things stay the same. SEO is the backbone of a successful company. Find out here what you have to do in 2021 to stay (or come) on top.
#1 UX
A customer goes to your website from search, does not find what she is looking for and returns. She is then satisfied by a related website B. Google ranks it higher. Luckily, there are a few simple ways you can optimize your CX:
a) Load your website faster. Use this neat Google tool to see what to improve https://cutt.ly/ijMbHwx
b) Have a mobile friendly site. With more than 50% of internet traffic being mobile, your website must be optimized. Test it here: https://cutt.ly/NjMbCxG
c) Use customer intelligence to track exactly what your users are doing and why they are leaving.
#2 Backlinks
Backlinks always have and (for now) will be the backbone of SEO.
A backlink shows you are authoritative and respected by others. It is the social proof of websites.
There are straightforward ways to increase backlinks:
a) Know your competition. Use tools like Ahrefs.com to see who is linking to your competitors. Export the list and reach out to the site, asking for a link.
b) Build relationships consistently. To receive quality backlinks, you must know people who will do that. Thus, build quality relationships over time with site and media contributors.
#3 EAT
E‑A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
EAT is especially important for websites that deliver “life-altering” information, such as medical, financial, or legal advice.
EAT is evaluated by human Quality Raters, who provide feedback to Google.
They look for reliable, quality information, written by experts in their field.
To satisfy them you should:
1) Have quality backlinks
2) Have accurate and up to date information
3) Have many reviews
4) Hire experts
5) Flash your credentials in your about page
6) Have a Wikipedia page
Below, you can see what happened to websites when Google updated its algorithm to include EAT in 2018.
#4 Mobile
55% of traffic is coming from mobile devices and Google made its index mobile-first.
That is why your website, must be just as optimised for mobile (if not more!) as it is for desktop.
Google gives advice on how to do that:
– If you have a responsive site where the primary content and markup is equivalent across mobile and desktop, you don’t have to change anything.
– If it is not, make sure to serve structured markup for both versions.
– Use the robots.txt testing tool to verify that your mobile version is accessible to Googlebot.
– If you only verified your desktop site in Search Console, please add your mobile version.
#5 Voice Search Optimization
Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Hey Google… AI-helpers are all around us and they respond to voice.
The good news for voice SEO is that it is not much different from your regular protocol: keywords, UX, backlinks, etc.
You can go to answerthepublic.com or Google Analytics to see what people are searching for and answer their queries.
Remember that 22% of people use voice search to look for local shops and services.
Make sure you have a number of positive reviews updated office hours, contact details and a physical address. You can also include keywords like “near me” in your title tags, meta description, internal links, and anchor text.
