The world is coming online and the process has only accelerated in the past two years as the pandemic has necessitated and increased our dependence on the internet. Be it working from home, ordering groceries & medicines, continuing education, or marketing products & services, the internet has emerged as a savior in times of peril.
The increased importance of the internet means that businesses need to have an online presence, to be able to taste success in todays world. For a long time, small local businesses have gotten away without relying too much on the internet, but that has changed considerably. As digital marketing has gained popularity, Search Engine Optimization(SEO) has only risen in its stature.
No longer can local businesses afford to ignore the latest SEO trends if they want their business to appear in the top results of the search engine results page(SERP). Keeping up with these trends can be difficult as SEO is always evolving. Hiring an SEO agency like Sure Oak might be in the best interest of your business because they can help provide a strategy customized to your goals. Users increasingly expect their local businesses to appear in the results of their search queries. As far as SEO goes, it has tilted towards user experience more than ever over the last couple of years.
In this article, we are going to list some of the trends in SEO for the upcoming year, and local SEO Frederick MD and elsewhere are set to benefit a lot from them if they pay attention. These trends are as follows:
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Work on ensuring high quality user experience
Since 2020, Google has started figuring user experience(UX) signals in its search rankings. If you were waiting to make UX the centerpiece of your website experience, the time is now. Signals like the loading speed of your website, ease of navigation on mobile and desktop alike, and availability of relevant and engaging content determine the overall user experience.
Use Google Search Console to learn how Core Web Vitals work as they are a combination of signals especially introduced for quantifying UX. Also, ensure that your website has relevant, high-quality content in the form of blogs, videos, infographics, etc.
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Work on appearing in the Zero Click Results
When users gain the required information from the search results page itself, the phenomenon is called a zero-click result. Since the last couple of years, user dependence on zero-click results has increased dramatically, to the tune of about half of all searches resulting in the same, as per Googles data.
Therefore, your Google my business page and Google maps information needs to be up to date. Another important thing would be creating quality content that answers user queries so that search snippets cover your content against user search queries.
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Focus on Video Content for better engagement(Text will still be king)
Apart from Google Maps and Google My Business, YouTube videos are vital in zero-click results. Not just that, video content has been favored by Googles search algorithm, as has been observed. Video is an engaging medium for pushing content as it captures user attention more easily.
Videos will be able to elevate your business prospects as users interact with your products and services in a virtual world. Trust building is made easier with video content as users get swayed with visual storytelling. But at the same time, as video grows in stature, dont overlook text content as a comprehensive blog will never go out of style.
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You need to research on user intent
Of late, Google has been working on identifying user search intent for every query to provide them with the most relevant search results. Search intent could be one of the below four categories:
- Reaching a businesss website
- Regular browsing
- Making a purchase
- Comparing products and services
You need to ensure that your local business meets a users search intent for securing better ranks on the SERP. Develop an FAQ page on your website and write content in a natural language for targeting local searches.
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Optimize for voice search
Voice search has assumed a vital role in SEO, and 2022 will only double down on it. The advent and popularity of numerous voice-assisted search engines necessitate optimizing your website for voice search.
AI-powered algorithms have been making voice search more conversational and human-like. Therefore, you need to make your content conversational and natural sounding.
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Lay emphasis on technical SEO and website speed
Even as all new trends have popped up lately, technical SEO has not lost its importance. You need to ensure that every technical issue on your website must be addressed proactively to keep the user experience pleasant to keep bounce rates at a minimum.
Your website speed forms a big part of user experience, as has been focused on through the introduction of Core Web Vitals. You must ensure faster pages and overall smoothness in navigation.
Conclusion
Local SEO will become a cakewalk for you if you pay attention to these trends and implement them. Your local business will become more popular on the internet if you do justice to these trends.
