Having an SEO strategy traditionally meant being number one for a particular keyword or being at the top of the search result page, but that has changed. Such a simplistic goal made sense for a small website back in the early 2000s.
Since then, just as any other form of technology, SEO has continued to evolve. Albeit, human behavior has also evolved along with it.
With the rarity that came with 2020, due to the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, most marketers and those that offer SEO services may find it challenging to come up with the best SEO strategies for 2021.
If like most, you’re wondering the best way forward, you may consider revising your SEO strategy for 2021, and here’s why:
1. The Changing SEO Trends
The changes in SEO seemed to redirect efforts from the structure of websites and leaned more towards content. There was more focus on content in the Panda algorithm, which was introduced to Google search in 2011.
The algorithm led to a steady focus on the relevancy of content—peripheral factors like page links got secondary consideration. These modifications were also expected to offset the prevalence of black hat tricks which tricked search engines into awarding certain sites high search result ranking.
With the popularity of smartphones, there was another interesting evolution in how online content could be viewed. It had to be flexible enough to be viewed on the formats of mobile devices.
Mobile devices had various ways of presenting information which allowed users to engage with different forms of media. These included:
- Long Content or Short Content
- Audio Versus Written Text
- Video Versus Digital Images
Other changes that took place over the years include the voice search, which broadened how people searched for information online.
2. Changing Keyword Phrases
User intent has transformed over the years, and particularly now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After you’ve studied your customer intent, try to refine your target keyword phrases so that they’re relevant to your potential clients. Shifts in the demand for goods and services could also lead to changes in searches.
3. Evolving Keyword Clusters
Keywords alone are now almost a relic from the past. You may now need to go a step further and focus on keyword clusters. This refers to the use of terms that your potential clients may favor.
If, for example, your local coffee shop offers a slice of cake to go with a cup of coffee. You could scan search results within search engines for clustered phrases like ‘coffee and cake for sale’ or ‘cake and coffee.’ In this case, coffee and cake would be the main keywords. You could then go ahead and produce content on pages for coffee shops, baking, or for cakes.
Focusing on keyword clusters may help you map out the right content on your pages. When you generate keyword clusters, you could also highlight plans for search ad campaigns. The year 2021 will likely provide opportunities to utilize digital ads.
Although there were some notable declines in ad spending in 2020, it’s predicted that there might be a renewed spending on ads in 2021. As a marketer, you will have to update your keyword clusters to include prevailing search trends and customer needs and persona to make necessary adjustments as search volumes continue to changes.
With this in mind, you will need to improve the regularity of your SEO examinations, reviewing analytics so that you look out for any possible chances of optimizing your content or implement ad groups in digital campaigns.
When you compare keywords by their search positions in search engines, you can determine which topics to flesh out with content or the right areas to backup with digital ad campaigns.
4. The Need for Speed
An SEO area taken for granted is page speed. In this era of ‘I-want-it-now,’ as an SEO practitioner, you might want to put a little more focus on the analytics of your page speed. Various factors could slow your page. Study the structure of sites and improve areas that cause page crawl. Dodos have no place in 2021 web pages.
Analyzing page speed can help you understand the process of page loading. It could also help you with planning for lazy loading for your pages. This is a system in which images and other digital codes are loaded in the browser independently.
This helps to load bigger page components faster. It also helps to enhance the client experience. After all, sufficient page speed has a positive bearing on how sites will be positioned on mobile indexing.
5. You Can Now Track Your SEO Activity
They say only fools fall in the same pit twice. Because you can track your SEO activity, it may be in your best interests to study your technical changes to get an idea about the mistakes not to repeat. Analyzing your history will help you formulate a clearer and more fluid strategy. It also helps you to keep your home in order.
Online Behavior Has Changed
How Internet users behaved in 2019 is quite different from how they behave now in 2021. The global pandemic transformed the internet user behavior such that SEO practitioners need to study the behavioral analytics of their traffic so that they tailor their content and structure to suit the prevailing demands.
Your online content has to address the needs, worries, concerns, and general demands of your customers. When they express these in search, you’ll have to show up attend to them, or else someone else will lead them away from you.
Basically, 2021 is about knowing your customers and presenting them with relevant content. Failure to do so could lead to their loss to someone who appreciates them. In marketing, they say, don’t tell the customer what they want; let them tell you.
To Sum It Up
Search engine optimization is not just about improving a website’s ranking in search engine results. It has far greater importance of getting the right traffic to your site, which could ultimately result in more customers. The year 2021 has given e-commerce more importance than ever before.
The global COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s online behavior and increased their reliance on the internet––this led to more searches. If you, therefore, don’t revise your SEO strategy in 2021, you could lose out on potential business.
