SEO Best Practices in 2020

Digital marketing has dramatically evolved with all the tools and techniques that have been developed and implemented across the majority of industries. Although some of these techniques and tools work, some may not work out in line with your digital marketing strategy. Therefore, you need to figure out the best SEO practices that will make your business grow and succeed. 

The most effective method of doing so is using tried and tested SEO techniques to boost the business’ digital marketing strategy. To help you easily identify those proven practices, here is a list of the 5 SEO best techniques in 2020.

Approaching SEO in a user-centric manner

For the longest time, marketers and business owners have been so focused on search engines that they forget the human side of their content. Some have even opted to try and trick algorithms to get higher rankings using various techniques. 

For example, they started being involved in link-building schemes, keyword stuffing, and creating content just to pass Google Algorithms expectations. 

The truth is that these algorithms are getting smarter with each day and are adapting to human-like intelligence. Therefore, all the techniques to try and cheat the algorithms usually fail and marketers need to start focusing on the human side of their content. Another ranking factor by Google Algorithms is determining how much time has been spent on the site. 

They also check how many more pages were opened to determine if the website is worthy of a higher ranking. If you create content focused on passing Google Algorithms and stuff keywords, users will not be satisfied with that content. 

You can then measure the results by using website rank checker, a tool by SiteChecker that’s trusted by the top SEO professionals. It helps you to analyze the progress in your site’s ranking on search engine results on more than 100 parameters.

• Your main focus should be creating content providing solutions to the target audience’s problems they may be facing.
• Ensure that the content reveals the intention of the article to get higher rankings on related searches.
• Use questions as headings and provide clear answers to them in the body of the article.

Using EAT to develop effective content

Content creation is an essential part of any SEO strategy because that is where you get to optimize your website pages individually. Depending on the quality of content you create, the website can rank as an authoritative site or get lower rankings. 

There are a lot of tips you might hear from people on how to create search engine optimized content but there is particularly one that the business owners should lead an ear to. The content optimization technique that really works is the EAT concept that promotes high-quality blog pieces. EAT stands for:

• Expertise
• Authoritativeness 
• Trustworthiness 

These are the core principles of EAT because the content you create must manifest industry expertise, be written authoritatively and must be from a trusted source. Therefore, it is essential to get the facts straight in any piece you write or create before publishing it. 

If Google Algorithms pick up on inconsistencies or inaccurate statistics, your website will be penalized. You can muster up expertise about a certain industry by writing about it for some time. Here are other ideas for creating high-quality content:

• If you are skeptical about your industry knowledge, it can be a better option to get another professional to create the content.
• Collaborating with other industry leaders by interviewing them can also improve the authoritativeness of the content.
• Gathering and including insightful data and statistics that other websites can link on their content
• Create a comprehensive bio of yourself or the individual who created the content to indicate expertise in the relevant industry

Making great use of Google Featured Snippets

Google Featured Snippets are a great tool that increases visibility for websites most relevant to the search. The website relevant to the search gets positioned right at the top with a piece of their content displayed and a featured image. That is the best spot your website could be on search engine results, but unfortunately, Google is in full control of that position. 

That means you can’t pay for the space by using paid advertising, but rather the website is at the mercy of Google Algorithms. Although that is true, you can play your part by creating valuable content that has clear, structured steps for how-to blog posts. You can also structure the content to answer frequently asked questions related to the industry you’re in. 

That will make it easier for Google Algorithms to understand your content and possibly allow you to get featured in the snippets section. Another thing you can do is use bullet and numbered lists to explain steps for a user to make the content more scannable to his eye and easier to understand.

Using visuals to boost your SEO strategy

You are probably wondering why visuals are so important in an SEO strategy because search engines can’t read or analyze them. Well, the truth is that very soon, this can be a possibility and search engines might be able to process images. The development of Google Lens has left many people guessing regarding this type of technology. 

Google Lens is an application that lets users conduct searches based on how an object looks like. For example, if you love a pair of sunglasses and take a picture of them, the app will search and provide specific results. Although this technology seems too far off, it might be at the doorstep and therefore, you need to be ready and have your site optimized by then. 

Apart from that, users spend more time on sites with engaging visuals and bounce those that lack them. The time spent on a website contributes positively to SEO efforts because it proves to Google algorithms that the site has high-quality and valuable information. Here are some practical tips on how to do this:

• Include a featured image higher up the blog post that is related to the content
• Use real photos whenever possible, not those sourced from stock image libraries.
• Also, use infographics and other graphics other than photographs.

Ensuring voice-activated searches are taken care of

Now that you have ensured that visualizations are ready to support the business’ SEO strategy, it is time to redirect your focus to voice-activated searches. In this case, you don’t have to include audio recordings or voice samples to optimize the website. Instead, you need to consider some other important factors.

With the rise of voice-activated AI virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and other tools, businesses need to keep up with this growing demand. What can you do to optimize the content created for the business? Using long-tail keywords is the most reliable method of getting more traffic from voice-activated searches. 

The reason is that when searching using these tools, you are prone to spell things out a bit. Your search query will also be most likely structured as a question, contrary to most regular keywords used in searches. Therefore, you have to mix up the keywords used on the content created for the businesses to be long-tail and regular ones. 

• Do not focus on regular keywords only but mix it up to get higher rankings on both types of searches.
• Use questions that the audience would really on search engines that support voice-activated searches.

Final thoughts

SEO plays a critical role in digital marketing and by implementing these 5 tried and tested best SEO practices, you can succeed in your outreach campaign. Remember to include visuals and a mixture of long-tail as well as regular keywords in the content you create. Most importantly, implement EAT principles when creating content because it ensures that it is created for the people and not search engines.