7 SEO Trends You Must Know for 2024 & Beyond

Website Development: SEO Trends You Need to be Aware of

As we power through 2024, staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of SEO is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. We understand that SEO is often a pain, and small businesses are often victims to the "get rich quick" type of scheme from online services claiming to rank them high on Google.

However, today, All Marketing Group is here to simply offer some assistance: here are seven SEO trends you need to know, along with tips on how to prepare for each one.

1. Embrace the Google Search Generative Experience (SGE)

What to Know:

Search Generative Experience (SGE) is Google’s AI-powered search feature, providing AI-generated results at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). It delivers clear, concise answers and relevant visuals, enhancing user interactions with a conversational engagement model.

Unlike chatbots (Chat GPT, Meta AI, etc.), SGE includes links to underlying sources and additional prompts for further exploration. This trend is making Google a more interactive assistant, understanding and anticipating user needs.

Looking forward, businesses are heavily investing in this technology, with the artificial intelligence market valued at nearly $100 billion and expected to skyrocket to almost $2 trillion by 2030.

How to Stay Ahead:

To capitalize on SGE, focus on creating content that answers common questions and provides detailed, user-centric information. Use natural language and aim to address the specific needs and queries of your audience.

Focusing on content that directly and comprehensively answers user queries is crucial to maintain relevance with SGE. Why? Because SGE’s AI-generated content still includes links to relevant resources.

For instance, in Google’s search example, the AI snippet includes at least one side link. While it's unclear what influences these links, certain content characteristics seem to help: - Expert analysis or opinion might boost your chances as SGE synthesizes information from various sources. - Direct language and organized sections make it easier for SGE to reference your content. - Sites with topical or niche authority are often cited, indicating the importance of topical focus. Additionally, new or novel information is commonly included, emphasizing the value of publishing original data.

Incorporate these factors into your content strategy but don’t abandon traditional SEO best practices. Traditional search results still appear alongside AI-generated ones, remaining relevant. It’s too early to determine how often users will rely on SGE, but it is important to stay in tune.

2. Video SEO Is Essential

What to Know:

With the increasing consumption of video content, optimizing videos for SEO is more important than ever. Video content can significantly boost engagement and dwell time on your site, both of which are positive signals to search engines.

Creating video content that ranks in Google search results and on YouTube offers a significant opportunity for marketing teams. With the number of digital video viewers expected to reach 3.78 billion in 2024, search engines are taking notice.

According to Wyzowl’s Video Marketing Statistics 2024 report, 89% of users want more videos from brands they follow, 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 82% of people are convinced to buy a product after watching a video. Leveraging video SEO can help increase your customer base and drive business growth, but how do you start?

How to Stay Ahead:

Before hitting record, make sure you have a solid video SEO strategy. Creating videos just because it looks promising isn't enough; you need a plan. According to Wyzowl, 70% of non-video marketers plan to start using video, meaning more competition for audience attention. A reliable strategy will help your videos stand out, ensuring your audience views, values, and returns to your content.

Ensure your videos are properly titled, described, and tagged with relevant keywords. Use high-quality thumbnails and include transcripts to improve accessibility and searchability. Embed videos on relevant pages and promote them across your social channels.

This can all be a struggle at times, and requires mass amounts of time. Thus, put your time back into the business because All Marketing Group is here to help with a free video shoot and content plan, click here to find out more.

3. Zero Click Searches Are Rising

What to Know:

Zero click searches, where users find the information they need directly on the search results page without clicking through to a website, are becoming more prevalent.

Semrush's Zero-Clicks Study shows that 57% of mobile searches and about a quarter of desktop searches end without clicks on organic or paid results. This happens for various reasons, such as when users search for local businesses, quick conversions, or public figures.

Google often provides necessary information directly in the SERPs through enhanced features like knowledge panels, local packs, and direct conversion tools. These features satisfy user intent by offering concise and precise answers, eliminating the need to click on a result.

How to Stay Ahead:

Optimize your content to appear in featured snippets by answering questions concisely and using structured data. Ensure your metadata is clear and informative to increase your chances of being featured prominently in search results. A major key here is KEYWORDS. There are a ton of tools to use, even Google offers a trends service, to find popular keywords or search terms. It won't be easy to secure a featured snippet, but it will do wonders for your SEO and business as a whole.

4. Establish Topical Authority

What to Know:

SEO is increasingly focused on showcasing clear expertise on specific topics, known as topical authority. Establishing this involves becoming a reliable source for comprehensive information on a niche subject. Search engines, especially Google, prioritize content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, collectively referred to as "E-E-A-T."

How to Stay Ahead:

Create comprehensive, high-quality content that covers your niche extensively. Link related articles together to form a robust internal linking structure and update older content to maintain its relevance and accuracy.

Establishing topical authority involves a strategic approach to content creation and optimization, including:

• Creating comprehensive, expert, and high-quality content on a specific topic
  

• Building a thorough catalog of content on related topics and subtopics
  

• Designing a site architecture that allows easy discovery of relevant content by both humans and search engines.

5. Optimize On-Page Content Around Target Keywords

What to Know:

Target keywords remain a cornerstone of SEO, but the focus is shifting towards integrating them naturally within high-quality, informative content. Search engines are getting better at understanding context, so keyword stuffing is no longer all that effective. Be sure to keep your content shining, and don't just throw something onto your website because you think it will contain a lot of keywords.

How to Stay Ahead:

Identify relevant keywords through thorough research and incorporate them naturally into your content. Focus on creating engaging, valuable content that addresses user intent and provides real solutions to their queries. At All Marketing Group, we know that business owners don't have the time to be digging into their website every day. Maybe it's time to give us a call and see how we can develop your website and boost that SEO!

6. Optimize Images for SEO Trend

What to Know:

Image optimization is crucial for enhancing your site's SEO. Properly optimized images can improve load times, user experience, and even your rankings in image search results. Something many people fail to input into their website images is ALT text. Google can't necessarily see photos, thus including ALT text is crucial for when Google's bots "crawl" and index your website.

How to Stay Ahead:

ALWAYS use descriptive filenames and ALT text for your images. Compress images to reduce load times without compromising quality. Implement structured data to help search engines understand the content and context of your images. In other words, take some serious time to ensure the images on your site are high quality and able to be found by Google.

7. Refresh Existing Content

What to Know:

Updating and refreshing existing content can have a significant impact on your SEO performance. Search engines favor content that is current and relevant, so regularly revising your content can help maintain its effectiveness.

Additionally, with rising competition and rapid content creation, regularly updating your content is crucial for maintaining SERP relevance and rankings. Content velocity, or the rate at which new content is published, is accelerating, as seen with platforms like YouTube, where creators upload 30,000 hours of content every hour. This increased content velocity shortens the shelf life of content, making it essential to frequently refresh and update your material.

How to Stay Ahead:

Audit your existing content regularly to identify pieces that need updates or improvements. Add new information, update statistics, and refine keywords to ensure your content remains relevant and valuable to your audience.

This process involves not only updating facts but also ensuring alignment with user intent, adherence to SEO best practices, and competitiveness with new content on similar topics.

_____________________ THANK YOU FOR READING!

By staying on top of these SEO trends and implementing the strategies outlined above, you'll be well-equipped to improve your search rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site in 2024 and beyond. Happy optimizing!