What does “SEO” mean this year? Here are 4 important trends you need to know for SEO best practices and strategies in 2021.
Long-Form Content
The first trend that’s going to help you outrank your competition is to consistently publish more long-form content.
In 2020, blogs of over 2,000 words significantly outperformed blogs of 1,000 words or less. This trend is expected to continue, and the average length of posts is expected to get even longer. 2021 should be your year to build long-form content into your content schedule. I don’t want you to panic, though! If you aren’t used to writing blogs of this length, start by adding in a 2,000-word post on a quarterly basis, then challenge yourself to work up to posting one 2,000-word blog each month! You can even repurpose and refresh older content. Combine blog posts and make any relevant updates to create one kickass long-form blog!
Remember, your posts still need to follow Google’s “E-A-T” guidelines to be considered relevant and useful. “Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness”
Layout Changes
SEO professionals expect to see a big change in the way content is viewed, and websites are designed, thanks to Google’s Passage Ranking. Google Passage Ranking is when you search for a term, and Google pulls the most relevant information from a specific site. If you click through to the site, you’ll automatically be taken to that part of the webpage (and the most relevant piece of copy is usually highlighted for you).
So, the question becomes: why break up a site into many different pages on one topic, when one page can be created for all of it and Google will take a user where they want to go? Google is also doing this for video content now.
You might see these bits of copy or video referred to as “fraggles”. To optimize your fraggles for Google, be sure your content has a high readability score, and your videos use easy, natural language.
More AI
Someone get Sam Wilson on the phone, because we’re going to be dealing with one of the “Big 3” even more in 2021. (Aliens, Androids, & Wizards … Androids, in this case.)
AI-generated content is expected to increase dramatically this year. First, it’s going to create a challenge for Google to keep spam or irrelevant-but-keyword-packed content out of results. This means Google is going to start looking for human qualities to content (like emotion). Be aware of it, but try not to worry about it too much. Focus on those E-A-T guidelines, produce quality content, and you’ll be just fine.
All SEO is Now Mobile SEO
No more excuses. Your site has to be performing well from a phone at this point. This is where the majority of searches happen, so your big SEO focus in 2021 has to be mobile user experience. Simplicity is key.
The main reason, though, that “all SEO is now mobile SEO”, is that Google is essentially ignoring your desktop site. Your mobile site is determining your rankings.
If you’ve been doing the bare minimum to be considered mobile-friendly, this is the year to focus on shifting your user experience to mobile. Closely review your pages and ensure they’re easy to navigate, and no valuable content or imagery is accidentally hidden on mobile.
It’s fine if your mobile and desktop designs are slightly different, but you need to know that Google is no longer ranking your desktop and mobile experiences separately. If you’re still operating a separate site for mobile, it’s time to make the jump to a completely mobile-responsive site.
I hope this glimpse into 2021 SEO trends was valuable to you. Let me know if you’d like to read about more SEO trends in 2021!
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