The SEO Trends for 2021
Search engines are getting smarter. Google now answers many queries directly on search results pages and the number of voice searches is increasing.
Website and eshop owners are worried about how the upcoming changes will affect their page’s ranking in organic results.
That’s why we’ve summarized the most important changes coming in 2021.
1. Featured Snippets
If you look at the results of a search, you will notice that there is a lot of “competition”.
On the one hand, Google Ads take up a lot of space at the top of the page, and on the other hand, many types of information compete for a place at the top of the page:
- Google Maps locations
- Graphs
- Featured Snippets
- Referral Questions
- Google News
- Google Images
- Featured Videos
Below is an example of a featured snippet. In this case, the image and the text of the quote are from different websites.
Featured Snippets will continue to play an important role in 2021. They serve the user’s need for simple answers to their query.
The displayed excerpts come from websites that Google deems appropriate to answer the user’s question. However, it is interesting to see how Google assesses the trustworthiness of the pages it uses.
Google has already started building a knowledge graph for many queries using data from Wikipedia. In the English-speaking world, Google uses “People So Ask” boxes where users can click directly.
Tip: 2021 will make it even harder to rank at the top of search results. To optimize your website, you need to plan a strategy for the goals you want to achieve that are achievable. If you want your page content to be at the top of Google as a featured quote, especially when it comes to knowledge questions, consider embedding questions and answers on your page.
Structured information can also provide a good place for organic results. Even if the competition for the top positions is high, in terms of featured snippets, the structured answers that Google can use.
So for 2021, you should ask yourself what your audience wants to know and answer those questions through your page. The more you serve this need with your content, the better your chances of ranking better.
2. Structured Data Becomes More Important
As search results evolve, Google now has access to more and more data. It has the ability to create its own meaningful meta descriptions from existing content.
In addition, it uses structured data to create rich snippets. Given that the available space in search results has decreased considerably due to the changes in Google Ads ads, you should create important snippets.
For example, one of our clients’ page appears like this on Google:
Rich snippets can significantly increase the click-through rate for your website by up to 30%.
Google uses the structured data to display rich snippets. Some examples of such snippets are: Rating stars, Calories, Opening hours and Event data.
Tip: Highlight your page content in the best possible way. Visit schema.org and see what options Google has for you based on your business type.
3. User Experience
The term “search engine optimization” is actually anachronistic. We do not optimize websites for search engines, but for search engines and website users.
For this reason, user experience plays an increasingly important role in seo. So, the following topics should be on your to-do list in 2021.
Website Speed
With various tools like GTmetrix you can measure the load time of your website. You can also use Google’s free PageSpeed tool to measure your site’s performance.
Technical Issues
Users are becoming more and more demanding and should navigate your pages without any problems. For example, Adobe Flash is no longer used.
Optimized for Mobile
In most countries, over 50% of search queries are made on smartphones or tablets. This makes it even more important to optimize your website for mobile devices.
4. Content Matters
Although Google’s algorithms are getting better and better, they still need textual content to determine the relevance of web pages to a search query.
Google in recent years has made huge improvements in analyzing textual content.
It uses the latest technology, Rankbrain, to better understand content. This will continue in 2021 as the Rankbrain algorithm is a machine learning system.
Therefore, you should have the best content about your topic on the web.
5. Google’s Mobile First Index
In recent years, Google has shown a huge emphasis on mobile devices. This is not surprising, as the number of users using mobile devices on the Internet has increased significantly and exceeds the number of users using desktop devices.
Mobile optimization was added as a ranking factor in 2016. In 2017, Google completed the mobile update to Google Ads ads.
6. Building Backlinks Still Lives in 2021
Every year there are various articles titled “SEO is a thing of the past” or “Backlinks are a thing of the past”.
In fact, in 2021, backlinks will continue to play an important role in Seo.
In an earlier interview, Google’s Gay Illyes stated that PageRank will continue to be an important ranking criterion internally for Google.
The power of backlinks and the credibility of the domain is achieved through backlinks.
Additionally, “missing links” may play an even bigger role in 2021.
This is based on the fact that Google can look at the references of websites to other websites even if there is no link to them.
Tip: For 2021 SEO, you should understand that building 3rd and 4th order links through article portals or guest posts will not pay off. Instead, you should invest in creating unique content that interests users.