It’s safe to say that 2020 was a year that everyone was ready to leave behind. And while the year brought many challenges, it also changed how users interact with the web forever. Now that we have been in 2021 for a few weeks, we can examine the new trends in digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) that have been the result of the shift that 2020 caused. While your business may want to jump on adding these new trends to your website, it might be best to partner with an experienced digital marketing and web design agency like TechArk Solutions in Norfolk VA. Their team of experts can help determine which of these new trends make the most sense and will have the most benefit to your business. Let’s explore these new trends further.
Voice Search:
How often do you find yourself asking Siri, Alexa or Google a question? Recent studies have found that on average 55% of teens and 45% of adults are using voice search on a daily basis. While voice search may be a newer technology that advertisers are starting to utilize, it still works generally the same. To optimize for voice search, choose the keywords in your content carefully. Search engines will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to sort the search results based on the quality of the content and its relevance to the user’s search. Including relevant keywords within your content your website will show higher in the search results and therefore be read aloud. Even though it might be your first instinct to include as many keywords as possible in your website content, that may not be the best approach. It’s important to remember that AI is able to utilize Natural Language Processing, meaning if your website content is full of keywords, but the content does not flow naturally, your website will not appear as high as you would have expected.
Conversational Marketing:
Users expect the answers to their questions faster than they ever have before. And with most users making purchases via online shopping, they want to be able to get their answers from your website. Some customers will naturally have questions specific to their situation. Make it easier for them to get the information they are looking for by incorporating instant messaging into your marketing strategy. When instant messaging with customers it is common to start with some prompts that are frequently asked and have users migrate to live representatives as needed. To utilize conversational marketing your business can implement instant messaging on your business’s website via a plugin.
Image search:
With Google’s technology constantly evolving, more and more users are searching for products via the image search feature of Google. With this type of searching growing in popularity, Google is insisting on the proper optimization of images to be able to show up the search results. To incorporate image search into your marketing tactics, be sure to use only high quality images that your users will find relevant when searching for products similar to yours. It is also important to optimize the title and alt tag of the image on your business’s website as that is what the search engines use to determine relevancy and rank the position of the images within the search results.
Semantic search:
On a similar note to the Natural Language Processing in Voice Search, Google will also start focusing on semantic search. While semantic search is not something new, most digital marketers are still unsure of what it is exactly. Semantic search is when the search engine attempts to understand the intent behind a user’s search. Filling your website content with lots of keywords will no longer do the trick, instead search engines will be focusing more on the reason the user is searching. The relationship between the keywords will be more important than it was previously. Semantic search also allows Google to interpret the intention behind a user’s search based on a variety of factors such as the user’s search history and location. To optimize your business’s website for semantic search, make sure to focus more on relevant topics than just incorporating relevant keywords.
Featured snippets:
Another search aspect that isn’t new, but has started gaining traction is featured snippets. Featured snippets are selected search results that are featured at the top of the organic results on the search engine results page. The main goal of a Featured Snippet is to answer the user’s query right away. It has been found that website’s that are included within featured snippets receive more traffic. There are several types of featured snippets:
- Paragraph - The answer to the user’s search query is given in text.
- List - The answer is given in the form of a list.
- Table - The answer is given within a table.
There is no specific tactic that can be used to help your website be included in a featured snippet. Your website does need to rank highly for the specific query you are targeting for a featured snippet, so it is important to make sure your overall SEO strategy is effective. Your goal should be to have the best answer possible and to answer the question concisely. Organizing your information is also crucial. Include numbers, lists or steps wherever possible as that is an answer format Google prefers. Your content should also answer as many related questions as possible.
Data and Analytics:
No matter how many new trends there are for 2021, measuring the performance of your business’s website via data and analytics will always be necessary. Your goal should always be to rank highly on the search engine results page (SERP), preferably at the top. Tracking key metrics not only shows you which tactics are working best for your business, they also identify what areas of your business’s website are not performing well or not working properly. There are many tools available to help you collect and analyze your website performance data, but utilizing Google Analytics is a robust platform that captures all the metrics you desire to track and more. While Google Analytics can give you both a high level overview and a very detailed report; if your team is not trained to understand what the metrics mean and what can be done to improve their performance, it can be confusing.
Conclusion
Choosing to partner with an experienced digital marketing agency, for example TechArk Solutions in Norfolk VA, can help make it easier to understand how your business’s website is currently performing and determine what changes need to be made to improve its performance, including incorporating some of the new tactics discussed above. If your business is in need of reimagining your online presence or improving your online visibility, contact TechArk today.
