7 Key SEO Trends and Predictions to Keep an Eye on
The SEO industry is pretty much as old as the internet itself. As soon as people started using search engines to get around the web on a bigger scale in the late 90s, ranking high on SERP immediately became one of the most effective digital marketing strategies on display.
Of course, in order to maintain its relevance for nearly 30 years, SEO had to evolve, adapt, and keep up with relevant trends and search algorithm updates. The situation is similar these days when new technologies seem to pop up on a daily basis and the internet environment seems more dynamic than ever in history.
Well, what are these external and internal forces shaping the face of the SEO industry and how are they going to influence the optimization of the future? Let us try to find out in this roundup of key SEO trends in 2024.
The growing influence of Artificial Intelligence
Yeah, this was one of the most discussed talking points in the previous years, and deservedly so. For a moment, it looked like the arrival of generative AI was going to turn the entire SEO industry on its head. Now, a couple of algorithms and quality checks later, the dust seems to be settling down. Does that mean AI is going away? Not. But its growing influence is going to be felt more unobtrusively and through assistance with keyword research, content drafts, and other lower-priority duties. Well, at least until the generative AI tools don’t get a couple of updates themselves.
Higher focus on EEAT
If you are unfamiliar with the term hiding behind these letters, EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness and describes Google’s guidelines for evaluating the quality of published content. Now, it is important to point out that EEAT compliance is not (at least, not yet) one of Google’s ranking factors. However, compliance with these quality requirements does have an effect on peoples’ website behaviour in a positive manner. So, expect to see this influx of experience-driven as well as evergreen content in the future since they may prove to be a winning combination.
Voice search optimization
This is one of the mentions that keep popping up on the list of key SEO trends time and again, but its momentum just keeps growing so we need to give it another round. Long story short, the rise of smart home tech, most notably smart speakers, gave voice search a completely new lease on life and made it easily available to millions of new users. So, the number of voice searches just keeps adding up. What that means in terms of SEO is that we will need to pay greater attention to more long-tail and conversational keywords and types of content that can be easily handled by these popular devices.
New link-building priorities
Link building has always been considered a backbone of the SEO industry. The priorities and methods of this process, however, are far from set in stone. Take for example the recent couple of years. Sure, getting as many links as possible is one of link building’s main goals. But, as of lately, the aim is shifting more heavily toward top-quality links even if they come at the expense of the overall volume. This also means a lot of DIY SEO efforts are going to become obsolete. In the near future, an experienced SEO agency for startups will become a norm, and competing for high-quality links is one of the main SEO focuses.
Core Web Vitals defining the user experience
User experience was always one of the main requirements of everything web-related, including the process of Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, this term is very elusive and hard to leverage in the predominantly data-driven web environment. Core Web Vitals tries to make this situation a bit clearer by narrowing down the attention to speed, interactivity, and visual stability of a webpage. It’s not much but it makes a very strong starting point for later technical SEO endeavors. Therefore, it is safe to say that Core Web Vitals will be mentioned on the SEO trends list for quite some time.
Video SEO finally finding its place
This one seems very obvious, right? After all, streaming and downloads constitute about 82% of global internet traffic. Well, the thing is that video content and search engines like Google are not compatible and they need a certain interpreter to be able to allow for effective SEO. Now, it looks like we are figuring these things out and video descriptions, title keywords, video chapters, and other more traditional, text-based assets allow us to play with the tried and true SEO practices. As time goes by this relationship is going to expand and the video content will be better integrated into the SEO space.
Competing for the featured snippet position
Theoretically, featured snippets are flying under the zero-click moniker so they shouldn’t be among the hottest SEO trends in existence. But, keep in mind two things. First, snippets, knowledge panels, and similar featured results do get a healthy dose of clicks. About 8.6% of clicks, to be more precise, which is not that bad. Second, featured snippets are cemented on the top, ‘zero’ position, even higher than the number one SERP result. Getting them, on the other hand, requires much less work and resources. Expect to see more competition in this increasingly lucrative arena.
Wrapping-up
We hope you enjoyed this short roundup of 7 key SEO trends that will move mountains across the SEO landscape in the months and even years to come. Rounding up SEO trends is never an easy task since in the web environment things tend to evolve pretty fast. But, the more disruptive changes are the ones that take more time to take root and these are the exact things we chose to focus on in this article. So, pay attention to everything we have covered so far. You will keep hearing these buzzwords in the following period.
