SEO may sound like a beast you’ve been trying to tame, but it doesn’t have to be a daunting experience. We’re sharing some SEO trends you can expect (and handle!) in the new year.

Review Marketing Is A Game Changer 

We told you review marketing was on the up-and-up, didn’t we?! Asking your customers for reviews is going to be an essential business practice and one of the most highly-anticipated SEO trends in the new year. By increasing your review content relevance, you’ll appear more credible to Google– which will allow you to appear higher in search results. Plus, you get more feedback about what your customers love about your products and services. It’s a win-win! 

As you can see in the screen capture of our reviews, we always ask our clients after their project has been completed to leave us a review if they were satisfied with their experience with us! We make it a point to respond to each and every one, and pro tip– be sure to include keywords in your responses to boost your chances of being found on Google. It’s that simple! 

Optimizing For Mobile Is A Must 

Another SEO trend you can expect to take off in the new year is the act of optimizing your website for mobile. Consumers expect this during their online search and if your business isn’t complying with what’s necessary, you better believe people will take themselves elsewhere. Spend a little extra time (or a little extra money) to get your website fully optimized for mobile to better serve your audience. 

Your website should automatically format to fit the user’s phone, as seen in the image example. If words are cut off or your buttons aren’t working properly, it causes immediate frustration and that’s something we want you all to avoid in the new year. Remember how short a person’s attention span is, people! 

Voice Search Is The Future

The year is 2020, my friends– which means that people are becoming more comfortable using voice search to reach their destination. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t on-board with this trend at first. I didn’t see myself using Siri to help me find the best coffee shops in town and actually meet my expectations. But, one day I tried it. 

To my surprise, there are quite a few local businesses that have optimized their Google My Business profiles (also a win in my book), which allowed their reviews to pop up as references for the term ‘best coffee shop in town.’ If you aren’t going to try and write a blog with a popular voice search keyword in it, at least ask for reviews or respond to reviews with that keyword so that it can help in terms of SEO (see trend #1!). 

Secured Websites Will Make Or Break

If you don’t have your SSL certificate for your website yet, that’s your homework. Cardinal Digital Marketing claims that, “If a user doesn’t feel safe visiting a web page then they’re very likely to leave quickly. Or if they see a “Not Secure” warning appear, they may decide to not proceed to your page. As a result, high bounce rates could affect the position of that page in the organic search listing.” And we stand by their statement! 

You can know if your website is secured based on whether it has http or https in the URL. Websites that are secured will also have a lock in the search bar before the URL. If we can offer any piece of advice, it would be to get your websites secured ASAP to avoid scaring potential customers away! 

Featured Snippets FTW (For The Win!)

You know those featured answers you get on Google that often tell you what you need to know without having to search any further? Those featured snippets are going to be a highly-selective SEO trend in 2020. If you receive a lot of the same frequently-asked questions about your business or industry as a whole, write a blog about them for a chance to be considered for a featured snippet. The amount of traffic you can expect would be well worth the couple hours of writing time! 

SEO trends are always fluctuating and forcing businesses to get more authentic with the way they present themselves online. If SEO is a concept you aren’t interested in keeping up with, it’s our job to do it for small businesses like you! Fill out the form below to schedule a free, 30-minute consultation with Kaitlyn so that we can help your brand grow its online reach: