SEO IN 2020: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
The SEO landscape is constantly shifting and changing with time. In order for websites to keep their SEO scores high and ensure a steady stream of traffic throughout the year, it is important to have an informed SEO strategy that takes into account all the most recent developments. Google introduced a number of changes to SEO in 2019 and we can expect 2020 to be the same. By the end of the year, the world of SEO will be in a very different place from where it began.
But going into 2020, we do already know some of the things that Google is likely to focus on. For the first part of the year, we are mostly expecting the continuation of some of the most prominent trends from 2019. Where we will ultimately end up is a very different question.
Taking Domain Authority To The Next Level
Not all domains are created equal, at least not in the eyes of Google. Some websites are better sources of information than others. For example, a personal blog, insightful as it might be, isn’t as reliable as the website of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In practice, things are more complicated than this. That personal blog might be the blog of a particle physicist working at CERN, in which case it would be a very authoritative source.
Google used to measure domain authority simply by the number of external pages that linked back to it. Over time, Google’s algorithms have become more sophisticated and have learned to discern between links from websites that matter and links that are worthless or artificial links being spammed to promote domain authority.
In 2020, we are expecting Google to build on its philosophy of ‘Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness,’ the holy trinity of domain authority. The good news for website owners is that as long as they strive to create accurate and high-quality content, their authority will rise automatically.
Expanding The Ways That Users Can Search
Internet searching has traditionally been done by typing search queries out, but this is no longer the only option available. Smartphones introduced support for voice searches a couple of generations ago and with both hardware and software improving all the time, voice search is becoming more accurate and more widely used.
Over the last few years, Google has introduced other forms of search and we are expecting these to play an increasingly prominent role in 2020. With Google and others still eager to make augmented reality (AR) useful, image search and live search are both going to be important going forward.
Going Beyond Keywords
Keywords have been so fundamental to SEO in the past that it is difficult to imagine a world without them. But it isn’t what users are searching for that Google cares about now, it’s why they are searching for it. Going beyond keywords and considering user intent enables Google to serve users with the most useful results for their needs.
Every year, the SEO landscape is shifting and evolving. Keeping up with this evolution isn’t always as simple or as straightforward as most website owners would like, and this isn’t helped by a level of unpredictability. However, we are confident that the three areas highlighted above are going to form the lynchpin of Google’s SEO development in 2020.
