SEO Trends for 2021

SEO Trends for 2021

While this is obviously not a new concept, we need to be cognoscente of the fact that each
and every year it’s important to refocus because searcher behavior and intent is constantly
changing. Especially after 2020, when so much changed so rapidly. GitHub SEO Manager,
Jenn Mathews, in an interview with Search Engine Journal was quoted as saying,
"At the core, Google (and other search engines) is a place to go when people want to
answer a question or to learn more about something. When we understand the nature of
why people search and help them with content that provides the answers they are looking for
then our business benefits from it.”
What does that mean for your company and your SEO? It means SEO teams will need to
transition away from what are considered traditional best practices that hold less value as
the Google algorithms get increasingly stronger (e.g., writing meta descriptions for every
single page). Along those lines, business would need to turn their attention and focus more
on a better understanding of what is happening within their SERPs/searcher intent.
Google has the world’s information at their fingertips. They know what the majority of people
searching for ‘x’ are looking for. Pay closer attention to search results so that you can take
advantage when creating competitive content, creating it in the exact way that those who are
searching for it want it to be delivered. Google already shows us which results it believes
serve users’ intent, so turn around and use this same data to create your own strategy.

Brand SERP Optimization

Many experts believe that in 2021, tracking brand SERPs and knowledge panels will start to
become the norm. We are not too far away from realizing that entity-based search starts
with Google’s supreme understanding of who you are, what you offer, and what audience
you serve. To get ahead of the competition, you need to work earnestly on Google’s
understanding of the ‘who you are’ part by creating or improving your presence in the
Knowledge Graph. In fact, 2021 is likely to bring the personalized Knowledge Graph.

With all the information that Google has access to about you; your search history, your
emails, your social media, and other types of user information, they do have the ability to
scale personalized knowledge graphs. Being able to qualify the relationships between the
legitimacy that author credentials provide to content, as well as how Google perceives the
value from that content. Qualifying the relationships between the legitimacy of author
credentials to content, in addition to the way Google perceives value from content, will be
coming increasingly important.

That means optimizing your entire brand’s digital presence (e.g., your Facebook channel,
images, videos) and how Google features them. It is no longer just about your website. It is
about all of your properties and how they work together on the SERP. If the information is
coming from various outlets, does that information create a good story about your brand?
Solid keyword research is still necessary, but it has become secondary to understanding the
topics or entities related to that query, as well as the intent behind the query.