With 2021 presenting new opportunities for brands and businesses, many are wondering what the future holds for online entities. After the train-wreck that was 2020, plenty of people are hoping for new direction in how the economy and technology integrate into daily life. Fortunately for those, the world of SEO does present new and emerging trends every year as the nature of the process changes.

With that being said, some things never change (or at least change slowly enough as to be difficult to notice). Some major SEO trends from the past several years are going to continue to be relevant in 2021 and beyond. Today, we’ll look at a few examples and help you know what to expect in the coming year.

Knowledge Graph Click Reductions

Search engines like Google have increasingly been focused on serving users with up-to-date information in the most efficient ways possible. While pinging search engines with direct information is efficient for users, it does potentially pose a long-term problem for brands: if search engines are displaying relevant info to users up-front, what incentive is there for them to visit one or more websites?

Currently, roughly half of searches on Google are subject to Knowledge Graph results. These searches are reducing the number of clicks in particular SERPs, leading to less traffic overall – and the trend is only growing.

The recommended course of action for brands is to conduct more detailed keyword research to avoid SERPs that might seem competitive on the surface but otherwise are experiencing a major drop in clicks.

Continued Popularity of Voice Search

It shouldn’t be surprising that voice search is continuing to grow in popularity as more mobile devices make it a seamless experience. Optimizing SEO for voice search can be a bit tricky, but is entirely worth the effort when attempting to derive clicks from these specific search queries. Like with Knowledge Graph searches on Google, statistics show that roughly half of all searches are conducted via voice, with the number only continuing to grow.

How can brands accommodate these trends? Examples include setting up and filling out completely profiles such as Google My Business, earning backlinks from relevant and trustworthy entities, and focusing on improving page speed (voice searches overwhelmingly come from mobile devices).

Increasing Pressure for User Experience Improvements

Search engines in general care about pleasing their users. After all, an unpleasant experience means that users may look elsewhere for solutions. As such, the results displayed via search are increasingly reflecting which brands offer users the best overall experience.

Page speed, navigational layout and mobile responsiveness are crucial components to consider when pinging search engines with content. Platforms such as Google Search Console offer solutions to test user experience for websites, such as the Core Web Vitals report. By evaluating how easy and efficiently users can interact with your website, you can ensure that this trend isn’t one that derails future plans.

Ultimately, accounting for emerging and continuing trends is the name of the game in SEO. Ensuring that user experience, voice search and Knowledge Graph considerations are all variables on your radar can mitigate long-term issues you might face and help improve performance in various search niches.

logo design