SEO Strategies that Proved to be Promising in 2020

SEO or Search Engine Optimization strategies are methods of analyzing your website’s data to make it more optimized and efficient. This leads to better rankings in search results. In simple words, it helps attract more traffic to your website.

With the huge increase in the active internet users, websites are continually coming up with new strategies to increase their revenue. Some push in more advertisements, including loads of images, and others engage expert agencies for SEO services.

Irrespective of how you go, adopting the right SEO strategy is crucial if you want to gain more organic traffic for your website. Search engines like Google, have gotten smarter. With their evolution, SEO agencies have also had to rethink their marketing plans to get noticed. 

With more sponsored ads and giant companies hogging the space, websites relying on organic traffic have had to work harder to get their due. However, there have been a few changes and innovations in SEO strategies this year that have worked wonders.

Look at the 8 best SEO strategies that proved to be promising in 2020.

Local Landing Pages and Listings

Local landing pages are a must if you want to gain more organic traffic for your business. Survey says that 58% of users use their smartphones to access local content daily, and you don’t want to miss being under the “local spotlight”.

Ranging from small businesses that have their operations limited to one location to large companies operating in several countries, everyone benefits from local listings. And with your landing pages targeted towards the local audience, you cannot go wrong.

For instance, food delivery apps use the location to display customized ads and suggestions. This helps in connecting better with the buyers and ultimately results in higher SERPs for your business.

Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization has been the base of SEO since its beginning, but it has evolved over the years to reflect users’ search behaviour. Google’s algorithm has grown continuously with time, and so have keyword trends.

It is crucial to use relevant keywords naturally in your content. You should avoid overstuffing at any cost as it lowers the SEO power of the page. The goal should be to focus on user experience and quality of information rather than stuffing keywords or even removing them completely by going off-topic.

• Edit your content for readability after adding desired keywords.
• Compose the snippet carefully to optimize it.
• Focus on topic clusters instead of standalone keywords. For example, if your topic is hair care, the groups can be “hair products for dry scalp”, “hair care to remove dandruff”, etc.
• Include target keywords in title tags and while using internal links, breadcrumb links, and navigational links.
• Optimize image descriptions and URLs with suitable keywords.

Interactive Content & Infographics

Content is the king, and you need to treat it as such. Users have learned to recognize content quality, which was reflected in the successful SEO strategies of 2020. An SEO study by Backlinko said that lengthier content could accumulate more backlinks, which lead to higher rankings and more traffic.

However, your blogs should not be too long or too short. The perfect balance can be found by recognizing “user intent”. You need to figure out what information users are looking for and how that can be conveyed best. If your headline includes “tips” or “do’s and don’ts”, chances are the users will expect sharp and crisp points.

Infographics are another way to grab users’ attention. They are visualized data that tell a story or explain a process—using infographics in your content influences the ranking factor. It also gives you social media credibility, which may lead to increased brand awareness.

Voice Search Optimization

Voice search has gained massive popularity, with AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, etc., making it a reality. The commencement of voice search throws a wrench into traditional SEO strategies.

Searches have become longer and more conversational. For example, instead of typing “cake recipes” in Google, you’re asking, “Hello, Google. How do I bake a cake at home?”

Long-tail keywords work better in this scenario; add “near me” after the target keyword for localized voice search.

The answers are often read out from featured snippets. So, make sure you’re optimizing your snippet for voice search as well.

Videos or YouTube SEO

Videos and relevant materials are preferred modes of content consumption among internet users. Hence, they are a common factor in SERPs. Being the most popular video site with over 2 billion monthly users, YouTube holds an essential place in SEO strategies of 2020.

If you are involved in video marketing, it is essential to make your videos SEO-friendly in the following ways:

• Optimize the file name and title of your video to reflect target keywords.
• The description of your video affects search rankings, so make sure to optimize it.
• Consider adding a sub-heading after a colon to include more power keywords and drive more clicks.

Technical SEO

Apart from the content, technical SEO forms a crucial part of modern digital marketing strategies. Your website needs to be technically sound for a better user experience. Consider enabling your entire websites to load on HTTPS for more secure and encrypted connections.

Ensure your website has Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP, which makes it easier to optimize website content for the mobile screen. Additionally, focus on your semantic markups by using proper HTML tags for headings and subheadings. And lastly, make sure you redirect visitors to your website in case of 404 errors.

On-page and Off-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing your content on the page to ensure better search rankings. This includes adding keywords and spreading them evenly, placing anchor tags, internal links, and relevant external links and optimizing the page URL to make it shorter and keyword-rich.

Off-page SEO combines everything you can do outside your website to make your content rank higher in SERP positions. It includes promotion on other forums, link building, influencer marketing, and content marketing. Off-page efforts help search engines to understand your website’s reputation among the target audience.

Reports and Analytics

Reports and data analysis might not seem relevant to SEO at face value. Still, they play an essential role in improving the overall website quality, which leads to improved SEO and higher rankings. Successful marketing strategies of 2020 have recognized this and proceeded accordingly.

Analyze your website to figure out which pages are most visited, which areas have UX issues, which SEO changes influenced rankings, and which keywords fetched the most results. Once you have a comprehensive understanding of these, you can create an improvement plan.

Conclusion

There are several SEO strategies in the market, but it needs proper observation and analysis to understand which one is best performing for your business. With these evolved marketing concepts in 2020, professional SEO services are revolutionizing the digital marketing game. Implement them on your website for better results!