It\u2019s no secret that Google loves updating its SEO algorithm. In fact, over the course of a year, they may make upwards of 500 changes!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
SEO\u00a0means optimizing your content so it shows up more often in search results. With so many changes to navigate, it\u2019s easy to miss something.<\/p>\n
And when you miss something with SEO, your content might as well be invisible. ?<\/p>\n
But if you get it right, you can reap the benefits of increased traffic, which leads to more conversions, improves\u00a0lead generation<\/a>, and boosts sales.<\/p>\n And every business wants\u00a0more traffic, leads and sales<\/strong>, right?<\/p>\n SEO ranking factors<\/a>\u00a0have changed a lot over the years (find out how in our\u00a0keyword research guide<\/a>). Search engine optimization techniques that worked even 5 years ago won\u2019t cut it today.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why we\u2019ve pulled together some advice from experts so you can make sure you\u2019re using the best SEO strategy for the coming year.<\/p>\n These are great SEO tips and tactics for building big traffic in 2020. As you\u2019ll see, if there\u2019s one theme that unifies them all, it\u2019s\u00a0creating a better user experience<\/strong>, but some of these experts take their own unique approaches.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also included a bonus section with 16 quick SEO tips that will have you going into 2020 with a bang and not looking back!<\/p>\n Ready for these awesome SEO tips? Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n Our first expert is Brian Dean of\u00a0Backlinko<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brian talks about the importance of user experience signals in search engine ranking. We\u2019ve already\u00a0heard from Google<\/a>\u00a0that RankBrain is their third most important ranking factor, and that trend is not only likely to continue but to become even more important in 2020.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not clear on what RankBrain is, you\u2019re not alone; it sounds like something straight out of science fiction. And, it is a machine learning system that helps Google decide where pages should rank in search results. So, maybe it\u2019s a little sci-fi.<\/p>\n To put it more simply, RankBrain watches how users interact with search results and rank the results based on that. If users click on a result and immediately bounce from the site, the site will start to lose ranking. But, if users click on a result and spend time on the site, the site will start to gain ranking (or stay at a higher ranking).<\/p>\n All based on the user experience with the site.<\/p>\n Brian recommends\u00a0optimizing around medium tail keywords<\/strong>\u00a0to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to search engine optimization and RankBrain. He says, \u201cwhen you optimize your page around a medium tail keyword (and make that page awesome), RankBrain will automatically rank you for that term\u2026 and thousands of similar keywords.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to optimizing for medium tail keywords, RankBrain looks at:<\/p>\n Next up, we have Andy Crestodina, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of\u00a0Orbit Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Andy recommends looking for\u00a0posts that almost rank high<\/strong>\u00a0and rewriting them. You can find these posts in Google Analytics by going to\u00a0Acquisition \u00bb Search Console \u00bb Queries<\/strong>\u00a0and setting up an advanced filter to show the phrases where your average position (rank) is greater than 10 (on page 2).<\/p>\n Now give those articles an overhaul. Add details, examples, answers, statistics, images, contributor quotes, and anything else that makes it a better piece.<\/p>\n If you go big on quality, you\u2019re very likely to add length and keyphrase usage naturally. Make it a page that you\u2019re so proud of, you want to print it and frame it on the wall.<\/p>\n Here are 3 ways to make this tactic even more effective:<\/p>\n Video marketing<\/a>\u00a0can be a huge traffic source, but some marketers are still ignoring its potential, says Shilpa Shah, co-founder at\u00a0Hummingbird Web Solutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shilpa stresses that one of the best SEO tips is quality over quantity: just because you have a large number of indexed pages doesn\u2019t always mean your site\u2019s going to attract a larger volume of organic traffic.<\/p>\n She encourages site owners to get rid of shallow posts on blogs that have either low word count or superficial content (aka \u201cno fluff\u201d) and \u201cto focus instead on meaningful content that\u2019s truly engaging and makes each visitor want to read through the complete article.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Also, video content has a lot of untapped potential\u00a0which is great for SEO and makes for good user engagement. Chances are, that your user might quickly run through a 1-minute video but may not have the patience to read your 100-word article.<\/p>\n Online video is huge and is only going to get bigger. Cisco is projecting that\u00a0online video will make up\u00a080% of all online traffic<\/a>\u00a0by 2021<\/strong>. ? And, even with all that video out there,\u00a043% of people<\/a>\u00a0say that want even MORE video content!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how you keep your video content optimized:<\/p>\n A little more than 11% of search results have a featured snippet. These are the results that show up on search engine results pages typically after the ads but before the ranked results. They\u2019re usually alongside an image, table, or a video, making them stand out even more and putting them in an even better position to steal clicks from even the highest ranked results.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what they look like:<\/p>\n Pretty neat, right? Let\u2019s hear from A.J. Gherich and our friends at SEMRush about how to optimize your content to get them.<\/p>\n A.J. Gherich, the founder of marketing agency\u00a0Gherich & Co.<\/a>, teamed up with\u00a0SEMRush<\/a>\u00a0to put together an enormous study of 6.9 million featured snippets made up of over 80 million keywords.<\/p>\n Based on their data-driven approach, A.J. recommends using a paragraph format if you\u2019re trying to rank for question keywords like \u201chow can I grow my email list\u201d or \u201cwhat is a featured snippet?\u201d However, if you\u2019re trying to rank for a preposition (\u201cfor,\u201d \u201cto,\u201d \u201clike,\u201d etc.) a list format would be your best bet.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are some ways to keep your content optimized for featured snippets:<\/p>\n BuzzSumo<\/a>\u00a0founder Steve Rayson recommends creating long-form, in-depth posts about a topic to position them as the kind of result Google is looking for: the best possible result for the searcher.<\/p>\n In their 2018 Content Trends Report, BuzzSumo analyzed\u00a0100 million articles<\/a>\u00a0published in 2017 and found out some pretty interesting things about social sharing, viral posts, and the kind of content that has staying power.<\/p>\n For starters, in the past 3 years, the\u00a0social sharing of content has been cut in half<\/strong>. ? This is partly due to content saturation (3 million blog posts are published every day) and partly due to a rise in private sharing (people are sharing content in private messages, not posting on walls).<\/p>\n Recommended Resource:\u00a0<\/b>Do social media shares count the same as backlinks? Google says no, but are they telling the whole story? Find out the truth in our guide to\u00a0Social Media and SEO: Do Social Shares Really Matter for Ranking?<\/a><\/p>\n Steve did find that the sites doing well despite the decline of social shares and content saturation are sites with strong reputations built on original content. While most content gets ignored, Steve says, \u201cauthoritative research and reference content continue to gain links.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There are 2 great ways to show search engines that you have in-depth, authoritative,\u00a0evergreen content on your site:<\/p>\n Max DesMarais is an SEO & PPC Specialist for Vital, a Digital Marketing &\u00a0PPC agency<\/a>\u00a0that specializes in PPC management services. His expert tip is to focus on user engagement.<\/p>\n From updating existing posts to creating new ones, pages should be built to maximize engagement.<\/p>\n Here are some great ways you can maximize user engagement on your posts:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Employing these tactics will ensure that your pages are highly valuable to the readers, and search engines will mark these pages as high-quality content.<\/p>\n Julia McCoy, founder of Express Writers encourages continued efforts to optimize for voice search. Voice search started becoming big SEO news in 2018, and McCoy tells us as voice search technology improves and becomes more accessible, that trend is going to continue.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it makes sense for your brand, use geo-targeted keywords,\u201d says Julia. This means optimizing for local searches.<\/p>\n Since most voice searches are local, this tip is an absolute must if you\u2019re a local business or have a target audience in a specific geographic area.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to optimizing for local voice searches, Julia stresses the importance of ranking for both questions and answers. More than half of searchers are using voice search for basic online searches, so creating high-quality, voice search optimized FAQs can go a long way to get your posts ranked.<\/p>\n For this tip, we\u2019re going to hear directly from the source: Google.<\/p>\n First, what does \u201cmobile-first indexing\u201d even mean? Quite simply, it just means that Google now considers the mobile version of your site to be the primary version of your site.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a mobile site, your desktop site will still be used. But, if your site isn\u2019t mobile-friendly your rankings may take a hit; remember that user experience is HUGE.<\/p>\n If your mobile site is currently using an \u201cm.\u201d URL, like \u201cm.optinmonster.com,\u201d Google recommends switching over to a fully responsive site.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is because Google currently just annotates m-dot URLs, it doesn\u2019t actually index them. Making the switch to a responsive site means that Google can simply update the annotations to say the responsive site is now mobile-friendly, which saves time.<\/p>\n In this bonus section, we\u2019re sharing 16 quick SEO tips that you can easily put into practice to boost your SEO\u00a0today<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0Write headlines<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0appeal to searchers\u2019 emotions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0Use power words<\/a>\u00a0in your headlines to\u00a0trigger a response<\/strong>\u00a0from searchers.<\/p>\n 3. Include parentheses or brackets in your titles to\u00a0draw attention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0Write a strong meta description<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0sets your post apart<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0Grab visitors\u2019 attention<\/strong>\u00a0with an\u00a0above-the-fold hook<\/a>.<\/p>\n 6. Craft\u00a0engaging<\/strong>\u00a0intro paragraphs<\/a>.<\/p>\n 7. Use internal linking to\u00a0keep visitors moving<\/strong>\u00a0to other relevant content on your own site.<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0Create a custom 404 page<\/a>\u00a0(displayed if the requested page isn\u2019t found) to\u00a0help visitors find what they\u2019re looking for<\/strong>\u00a0on your site.<\/p>\n 9. Link to other sites with high authority and relevant content to\u00a0encourage relationships (and backlinks)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0Increase your\u00a0social proof<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0through reviews and testimonials.<\/p>\n 11. Install an SSL certificate and\u00a0move to HTTPS<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0inspire confidence<\/strong>\u00a0in site visitors.<\/p>\n 12. If it makes sense for your business, get your site set up on\u00a0Google My Business<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0show its legitimacy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 13. Compress and optimize your images to\u00a0increase your site speed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 14. Use tracking on your site to\u00a0find out where visitors are dropping<\/strong>. We recommend\u00a0Google Analytics<\/a>\u00a0(and\u00a0MonsterInsights<\/a>\u00a0is a must if you use WordPress).<\/p>\n 15. Make sure your\u00a0site is crawlable<\/strong>\u00a0by\u00a0creating an XML sitemap<\/a>.<\/p>\n1. Focus on User Experience<\/h3>\n
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2. Overhaul Your \u201cAlmost\u201d First Page Posts<\/h3>\n
![\"google](\"https:\/\/cdn.optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/google-analytics-average-position-query-2.png\")
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3. Tap the Potential of Video<\/h3>\n
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4. Rank for Featured Snippets<\/h3>\n
![\"featured](\"https:\/\/cdn.optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/om-featured-snippet-e1545746572383.png\")
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5. Create Comprehensive, Authoritative, Evergreen Content<\/h3>\n
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6. Maximize User Engagement<\/h3>\n
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7. Optimize for Voice Search<\/h3>\n
![\"voice](\"https:\/\/cdn.optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/voice-search-stats.png\")
<\/p>\n8. Focus on Mobile-First Indexing<\/h3>\n
BONUS: 16 Quick SEO Tips<\/h3>\n
Increase Your Click-Through Rate<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"how-to-write-high-converting-meta-descriptions\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/how-to-write-high-converting-meta-descriptions.png\")
<\/p>\nReduce Bounce Rate and Increase Dwell Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/content-marketing-guide.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGain Site Authority<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nOptimize Your Site for Top SEO Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n