SEO Improvements to Consider Over the Next 5 Years

SEO Improvements to Consider Over the Next 5 Years

group of people holding different devices on a table with “SEO” written on it

SEO is an ever-changing landscape, and it’s estimated that Google changes its algorithms around 500 to 600 times per year. Running an ecommerce site is exhausting enough, and it can be difficult trying to catch up with each and every change. The best way to get onto the first page of Google is to get your work noticed. SEO improvements are crucial to achieving that goal. The internet is an ever-expanding place, and because of that, keeping up with SEO content can feel overwhelming at times. 

That’s why we have this little guide to help. Here are a few ways to prepare for the future of SEO. We will be focusing on the technology of our day and the plan to be expanding as the years go on. SEO is a process, one that relies on data and technology, in order for it to expand. Combining these two is where you see the trends of today, and those trends are what will help keep your business alive with SEO improvements. 

Exact-Match Keywords are Losing Their Utility 

It’s important to bring this one up first, because exact-match keywords have been a part of SEO for a long time, and the evolution of keywords is changing SEO practices as we speak. They weren’t simply a big part of SEO practice though, they were essential when it came to users finding information via search engines. But now, because of algorithmic updates to search engines (such as BERT), this isn’t the case anymore. 

The intent has become a new essential viewpoint when it comes to search engines and their mode of operation. When you write out in Google, “kids books learning” Google won’t simply look up websites that use these two words. Instead, this SEO improvement will look up websites that specifically have kids’ books, and are focused on websites that not just have kids’ books, but are perhaps educational books for kids. This sense of focus is great for search engines and brings us to the next topic.

Strong Search Intent (and Building a Brand)

persons creating profiles of other people

When you are looking something up, what do you have in mind? Are you trying to buy a bike, or are you looking up the menu for a new restaurant? The answer to these questions is search intent, and Google has been building an algorithm to try to pick up on your intent as the User. 

Now, as a practitioner of SEO, your goal for SEO improvement is to have a site that panders to a user’s search intent, but how do you do this? The answer is by creating a persona. You might think this requires more work than expected, but the results show for themselves: marketers who use persona’s achieve 73 percent higher conversions

Learn about your users and why they use your site in the first place. Do they find your products long-lasting? Or is your site easy to manage? When you collect UX data it can help you create a persona that is focused on a certain type of customer, who is using your site for a certain type of purpose. Specificity is key for this SEO improvement. Specificity helps strong search intent by being a website that fits the very exact needs of a search engine’s users. 

Learn about Question Answering

But keywords are still a part of any strong SEO practice, they have just evolved along with technology. Question-Answering is an evolutionary part of strong search intent and needs to be highlighted in the coming years. 

Simply enough, question answering is the process of answering questions that users enter into search engines, predicting the answer and giving the user the closest approximation of an answer. Look at the words “closest approximation”. As said before, this just helps to highlight the importance of specificity when working on SEO improvements. Your website and its content can be that “closest approximation” by adding as much detail as possible to your content, so search engines can make accurate predictions.

Especially when used with Voice Search and Mobile SEO (as we will talk about below), search engines are constantly used as a quick spot for answering questions. Whether on the run or while doing research, search engines are how people find answers to their questions.  

Follow Google Trends 

google trends screenshot

Google Trends is one of many powerful tools to get an edge on the competition. When it comes to ecommerce, data is power; with it, you can build SEO improvements and build your user base. 

Google Trends is a tool helping you find the popularity of search terms in Google. You can use it to see if a search term is rising in popularity or declining, you can see the demographics of specific terms, and you can see related queries, giving you the opportunity to build content that fills a specific niche. 

Great use of Google Trends is the ability to help you with researching keywords. In a world when fewer keywords are useful, it’s important to know which ones are primarily used. This data can be used in creating a persona built for a certain type of user. As you create SEO improvements and bring your website to page 1 of search engines, you are helping fill the niche users are looking for, helping them find the perfect content (your product).

Creating a Mobile-Friendly Site

mobile seo improvements

It is paramount that if you want to understand how SEO will continue in the future, you have to have a mobile-friendly site. Even if you aren’t planning (or simply don’t have the time/resources) on building a mobile site, you need to have one that is corresponding to your desk site. 52.2 percent of all website traffic is generated from phones. 

Google has announced in the past—for the sake of its users to help build SEO improvements—that it will prioritize mobile-friendly sites, making sure to use that version of the site for indexing and ranking. This is a big deal. Smartphones and tablets will continue to be the future, and they will be continually used for ecommerce business. 

Voice Search 

Voice search goes hand-in-hand with mobile SEO’s, primarily being used when somebody cannot use their hands to type out something on a search engine. In simple terms, voice search is when the algorithm learns to process somebody’s natural voice—such as when they ask Siri a question—and spit back an answer.  

This example of question answering is paramount to seeing the direction search engine usage is heading, and how we should create SEO improvements from now on. Prioritizing natural, conversation sentences when researching keywords to build your website (along with specificity) is what boosts your rankings. 

Visual Content 

visual content seo improvements

Similar to voice search and mobile-friendly SEO practices, visual content is another addition to modern-day technology. Instagram, Twitter, and videos are incredibly popular, and with popularity comes the opportunity to find a whole new classification of users. 

These users are usually younger—which means that they will have more intuitive skills when it comes to navigating your website. They also will be more willing to spend money on your product, on average people between the ages of 18 to 34 are spending more money than older generations. This comes from an ability to distinguish if websites are hazardous or a “scam” easier than older generations. For you, this is an opportunity for new SEO improvements and appeal to a younger generation. 

Along with a younger demographic, visual content can help you with a memorable brand. Having a specific style, featuring a unique font, colors, and design really go a long way to stick in peoples’ heads, and in a world that is bursting at the gills with content, it is almost imperative that you have an eye-catching brand in order to survive as an ecommerce business. 

When it comes to creating original visual content, there are plenty of great tools—such as Canva—that can help you start creating visual designs that can be easily shareable (an important aspect for mastering Twitter, Instagram, or any other type of social media.) They’re an SEO improvement that cannot be ignored because visual media is just another way to get your name out there. Content is key for starting a business, and keeping your content relevant in a world that prioritizes the easy accessibility and shareability of social media. Another great thing about these tools is that they are usually free and feature easy-to-understand tutorials, making it easy to build a brand that will help you on the road ahead. 

Improving Your Website’s Loading Speed

Along with a mobile-friendly site, improving your website’s loading speed will do wonders for building a loyal user base that will return again and again to your site. Almost 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer. As a business owner, you can’t let something like this be detrimental to your business. The internet is a place constantly competing to be the best and the fastest, and consumers have been conditioned to be impatient with their time, willing to exit a website if it doesn’t load in a convenient amount of time. 

When it comes to SEO improvements, a website’s loading speed is notoriously overlooked and needs to be taken note of. When it comes to turning users into consumers, you need a website that is fast and will take them to their desired content ASAP. 

Enlist the Help of an SEO Company to Stay Updated for You

Staying on top of your SEO strategy can be difficult on your own, especially if you’re not exactly sure how to maintain a solid SEO strategy or where to get news about new updates. SEO improvements are not simply a one-and-done deal, a site has to be constantly updated to fight the competition for that precious page 1 of a search engine. 

This is even more important if you are a small business because the internet and SEO practices can help give you a bit of an edge in a world dominated by big businesses. Remember, 90% of consumers search local businesses online. These local-driven results cannot be ignored when you are trying to build a business that lasts. 

Reach out to the support of an experienced SEO company like Coalition Technologies, whose vast experience helping websites rank and achieve their business goals—with the help of SEO improvements—will allow you to rest easy knowing that your content strategy is being managed by experts who understand what changes to SEO mean for you. These are experts whose careers are built on creating SEO improvements to your site. 

Look for Trusted Resources That Will Keep You in the Loop

Whenever any changes occur to Google’s algorithm, your website may be impacted. These updates are both constant and can change your SEO practices dramatically, adding a huge amount of stress to your already busy life. One person can only do so much when it comes to running an ecommerce business successfully.

Staying on top of recent news and updates with the support of a trusted resource ensures that you know what’s coming before it takes place. SEO improvements are about being there before it becomes a trend, setting it rather than following it. This gives you ample time to address the issue and keep your SEO strategy, as many successful businesses have done before. Existing content will still be in line with these new changes, allowing you to have a site that is improved while keeping your signature style intact. 

We may not always know what the future of SEO will hold, but we can stay on top of changes to improve our SEO strategies and keep our content marketing strategies on track. Get started with Coalition Technologies and let us build your website’s SEO improvements today.

Related Posts That May Help