Do you want to rank on the first page of Google in 2020?
Well, who doesn’t?
As you might be setting your business goals for the next year, it is equally important to revisit your SEO strategy. Keeping up with the ever-changing Google Algorithm is a daunting task. However, improved ranking is of critical importance for your business. Here are some statistics to prove the point:
- 67% of all the clicks go to the first five organic search results.
- 70% of marketers believe that SEO is more important at driving sales than PPC.
Ranking higher on the SERP results is not easy. In fact, SEO is more complex than ever in 2020. You need to take into consideration some of the emerging trends (like featured snippets) algorithmic changes (like BERT, Humming Bird, etc.) technological changes (like Artificial Intelligence) and User Experience.
In this article, I am going to give you some of the vital SEO ranking factors in 2020 in light of recent Google algorithmic changes. They are:
- Link Building
- Voice Search Optimization
- Snippets Dominate More Clicks
- Smartphone Orientation
- Video Content is the King
- Better User Experience
Before discussing each ranking factor in detail, it is important to understand why does Google decides to rank a particular website.
How does Google decide who ranks (and who doesn’t)
The answer is simple. Google values “high-quality content”. High-quality content is the most relevant, easy to understand and well-structured information which appeals both humans as well as search engines. In response to the millions of research queries every day, Google aims at providing “useful and relevant results.”
Google aims to structure the information and make it easily accessible and useful. Some of the key algorithmic updates in 2019 gear at achieving the same result. Both Humming Bird Update and Rank Brain update aim at identifying and ranking the quality content higher. Similarly, through the BERT update, Google aims at better understanding the contextual meaning of each search query.
Now that we agree that the high-quality content ranks, let’s dive deeper into what are the qualities of high-quality content. In other words, what are the factors which rank a piece of content higher?
Top 6 Ranking Factors in 2020
1. Link Building
Link building is of critical importance for ranking your website. One way of doing this is by inserting contextual links into existing content.
How to do it?
First, you need to check for the websites which have the relevant content. Second, you have to contact the webmasters of those websites and encourage them to link to your website by inserting a link in their content. This kind of link building is also called niche edit. It is considered an easy and effective way of creating backlinks for your content. Furthermore, authentic content will generate more backlinks to your website.
2. Voice Search
In2020, voice search is the most important trend which impacts SEO strategy. More and more people are using voice command features to make purchases. Using voice commands to make searches in Google or home voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Samsung Smart TV is commonly more than ever. The businesses must aim at optimizing their websites for voice searches. It is believed that more than 50% of all internet searches by 2020 will be done through voice. It entails that the keywords are longer and conversational rather than short and targeted. It also entails that you need better page speed. You are either there or nowhere.
3. Snippets Dominate More Clicks
Google has introduced featured snippets above the organic results to deliver a better user experience. The position, typically known as Position 0, provides a clear answer to the queries entered. 54.68% of clicks from Google originate from Featured Snippets. Using this feature appropriately can result in better rankings.
SEO content writers can leverage this feature by providing the most accurate answers to the frequently asked questions on Google. These answers should be written concisely and accurately, in not more than 90 words.
If you structure your content with H2 and H3 tags which consist of relevant keywords, you have a strong possibility of being featured in the snippets.
Another tip is to summarize your content in the first 100 words. The latest SERP feature points out that if a content summary is included at the beginning of the article, Google can bring it up in the form of snippets.
4. Smartphone Orientation
The buzz word “Mobile First” will continue to influence SEO in 2020. According to a recent study, 88% of the total searches on Google are on smartphones. The websites which do not optimize for smartphones are going to lose ranking. Furthermore, mobile revenues are expected to exceed the revenues of the PC market in 2020.
It is high time to make your website interface mobile friendly. Your website should be able to grab the attention of the users on smartphones, inform and entertain them. Optimizing your website for smartphones involves:
- Appropriate location of main buttons,
- Ease in reading and viewing the content,
- Better loading speed on mobile phones and
- A better view of the navigation bar.
5. Video Content is the King
According to a recent study, 6 out of 10 people will watch videos on YouTube rather than watching TV. Very soon, YouTube is likely to replace the TV.
Businesses need to use more videos for marketing. They also need to optimize them appropriately. To start with, they can use the right keywords in description and headline. Embedding more videos on your website can reduce the bounce rate and increase the time a visitor spends on a particular page.
6. User Experience and Performance
Through thousands of algorithmic changes this year, Google is going to prioritize User Experience and Website Performance even more in 2020. Google tries to evaluate the user experience through user metrics. The most important of these are:
- Page views: It refers to how many times a web page is visited.
- Total Traffic: It is the total number of visitors to a website.
- Bounce Rate: It is the percentage of visitors who leave a website after visiting a single page. A high bounce rate means that users do not find your website interesting.
- Pages Per Session: This metric refers to the number of pages visited per session. One session is equal to a 30 minutes activity.
- Scroll Depth: This metric measures how deep the visitors are scrolling down a website. More scroll depth means that the website is more interesting.
It is even more important to develop technically mature websites, which load at a faster speed, and offer valuable, easy to understand and interesting content.
Conclusion
Define your SEO 2020 strategy today! Irrespective of industry or sector, businesses need to prioritize the above-mentioned ranking factors. This way they can keep ahead of their competitors. Double down your efforts to acquire more organic traffic the next year and beyond!
