Actionable SEO Techniques to Drive Organic Traffic in 2021

The upcoming decade is about to see some even more significant improvements. With new emerging technologies like AI, voice search, and the rise of video-based content, it’s time to up your SEO game.

Here’s a look at the upcoming SEO trends in 2021 and what you can do to keep up with them.

Work on providing the best user experience (UX) 

Take a tour of your site across desktop, iPhone, and Android and get a feel of the site. How’s the loading time? Are there particularly slow pages? Do you have pop-ups running which, however important, sound annoying and intrusive to the user? See if any elements do not translate well on any device; especially mobile.

Prioritize content and overall UX in a way that satisfies both the user and the business metrics. Regular audits from the UX perspective can help to deliver the best experience.

To score high on user-centred metrics, ensure that your site:

• Loads really fast!
• Is free of annoying pop-ups that demand information before letting the user access the site. Pop-ups are great for generating leads and expanding reach. So, they’re great for business. For users, however, they are super annoying. And Google also doesn’t really prefer them.
• Is highly responsive and mobile-friendly across all the platforms, including desktop and handheld devices as well as all operating systems.

Focus on semantic search in 2021

Semantics is the field of studying words and what they mean in different contexts. In 2021 SEO trends, semantics are going to take centre stage around how Google interpret different searches and the intent around those searches.

To improve the semantic search value of your site, you will have to input ongoing attention. But you can also layout a content plan to adjust to this upcoming trend.

In the end, it all boils down to understanding why users are searching for specific terms. What kind of content, information, solutions, answers, or experiences are they seeking? Try to get into the users’ psychology and see what kind of specific information they are looking for.

Search intent will matter more than keywords

An increasing number of users are using voice search and AI assistants to seek different solutions. With the advancement of AI like Siri and Alexa, people now tend to speak in a more natural and conversational tone. This personalized kind of experience has led to a different type of queries. That’s where search intent comes into the picture. And Google is embracing this trend.

What marketers can do:

Search intent to Google means that the engine giant is now better at understanding the context based on the intent and accordingly showing the right search results. To marketers, this means that simply focusing on short-tail and top-of-the-funnel keywords won’t cut it anymore.

People are using a different language now for Google searches. 

There are four major ‘intents’ with which people are searching. Those intents are:

• To Get some information
• Finalize a purchase
• Compare products and shop for them
• Go to a particular website

Web marketers will need to work their way around these four intents in 2021 if they want to remain on top of their SEO game.

Work on bettering Google My Business for local SEO

What you can do for bettering My Business listing is to start by signing up and claiming the ownership of your business. Google My Business lets you verify it via a straightforward process. The entire process can take a couple of weeks. 

You will receive final verification via the email. After verifying and establishing your location, you can optimize the My Business listing for all the details. It’s a good thing that the whole process is intuitive and simple. 

After logging in to your profile, you can check the ‘completeness’ of the profile and update any additional information such as contact number, business hours, etc.

After the basic information, you can also supply additional input like:

• Answering FAQs related to services and products.
• Add photos of location, products, new launches, etc.
• Share information related to new events, specials, or product announcements. 
• Create a website using the site builder by Google My Business.

Work on incorporating video content

The video carousel, which came as a significant feature of the SERPs by Google, was introduced in 2018. Since then, it has become increasingly popular for seeking the right answers. You must also see this video carousel for most of your Google queries.

With increasing bandwidth and lightning-fast internet, video is gaining prominence. That means you’ll have to incorporate video content in your marketing strategy in 2021. It makes sense if you look at how YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine after Google.

It’s natural because people prefer visual content rather than reading a lengthy article. They would much rather see a video because it’s quick and highly personal. It’s also mobile-friendly.

This preferential treatment for videos both by search engine algorithms and users signify that it’s time to:

• Start creating and planning for more video content.
• Optimize the video content for visibility, website traffic, and views.

Final thoughts

If you look at the ever-evolving technologies, devices, and how users are now searching, these trends make total sense. It also makes sense to tweak your strategies to stay ahead of the game in 2021.

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**About the Author: Sunny Popli is the owner of SPOPLI Web Development & Services. His key interest areas are to learn and implement the latest and most impactful ideas in the field of digital marketing