Got a business website? Here are 5 SEO changes you need to know
User experience factors
If you look out for no other changes this year make sure you don’t miss the changes to user experience SEO. Google is bringing these changes in May 2021 and they will affect the ranking of every website that isn’t ready. UX changes include core Web vitals.
Google core Web vitals and Google ads phrase match changes will measure a host of data on the website that affects the user’s overall experience. This includes page loading speeds, interaction possibilities, website layout, mobile friendliness and website security. Make sure your business website is ready for May.
The growing importance of local search
Local search has always been important to Google but since 2019 the numbers have boomed. Local search is so important to businesses because one in five searches result in a sale, this is also why it’s important to rank highly in search results and local listings.
In 2021 the local search business is set to get even more competitive thanks to some changes that have been brought in by Google. They are now leveraging even more location data for businesses to make your personalised SEO strategy more vital. Also look out for zero-click searches.
Voice search is becoming more credible
Voice search has been credible for some time. the technology for it has become more subtle in the last few years and there are expected to be 75 percent of households using smart speakers by 2025. Voice searches are slightly different from text searches, they need results fast.
Google is bringing in several changes that relate to voice search. Firstly, they are using many more featured snippets to answer questions promptly. Today, this accounts for around 40 percent of voice search answers. Your ranking will also determine whether your content is chosen for voice search.
Search intent is becoming more valuable
Search intent refers to the intention of the search of the context of it. There are three types of search intent user by Google, those are, informational, preferential, transactional, and navigational. The search engine analyses the collocation of the words and offers relevant websites.
Google’s knowledge and experience of search intent is becoming more advanced and it will influence your SEO more and more. To remain high on the SERPs page and relevant to users, you should use Google SERPs analytics and optimize your content as far as possible for relevantly to users.
Mobile first indexing is coming in
One significant change that you don’t want to miss in the coming year is Google’s switch to mobile first indexing. Until now the default indexing for Google has been for the desktop versions of websites. This seemed reasonable since the majority of searches were conducted in this way, but things have changed.
Over the last five years desktop searches have been overtaken by mobile searches but Google doesn’t have a separate index for those. It is making one, however, which means that if your website is not fully optimized for mobile it will become less competitive in the search results and in the real world.
