Whether you run a blog as a hobby or make a living selling products or services through a website, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to the performance of your site. Even though the Internet is hardly new, over 90% of web traffic is generated through search engines.

Being ranked high on Google search results will be a crucial part of the visibility of your online presence.

Because you’re competing for the attention and time of millions of users with other websites, having an SEO strategy is crucial to success. Here are some of the trends in SEO that you’ll need to be ahead of to take your site views to the next level.

Search Intent

Gone are the days when playing keyword bingo was enough to achieve a high search engine ranking. Can you imagine wanting to know about trips to Vegas and getting a result linking you to a page that had the phrase “trips to Vegas” repeated a thousand times with no other information?

These days, Google, in particular is interpreting the intent of a search to return users the results they expect. Is the user looking for content that is informational, navigational or transactional?

It’s not enough for your site to have a critical number and distribution of keywords. It’s important to develop content with keywords arranged in a way that satisfies user intent. Consider consulting a Miami SEO expert for guidance.

Video Content

If a picture paints a thousand words, how many words does a video paint? The advent of YouTube as well as the ability to search for videos is a reminder of the power of video content. It is believed that by 2021, over 70% of online data will be in video format.

Advertisers will be pushing to get video content out to market their products and services. Consider your website and the content you provide. Having a video that quickly engages visitors and provides them the info they seek is important to increase rankings. Think about how you can strategically optimize your video content. An investment in your website, is an investment in your business. It all links together to help you build on your customer base and grow your company.

Voice Searches

It’s estimated that voice searches will make up almost 50% of web searches in 2020. Given the spread of smartphone use and the proliferation of voice assistants by way of AI, you need to consider voice SEO moving forward.

More users are conducting online searches using Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant to get info on local businesses, weather and other information, using speech.

Voice search continues to grow in popularity, because it extends the ability to search for info to people who may be blind, illiterate or otherwise unable to type what they’re looking for.

Voice searches also go hand in hand with search intent, as search results need to consider more than what a user may be after. Online sites will also need to answer how, when, where and why as well.

Mobile, Mobile

Websites that are optimized for viewing on mobile devices will continue to perform better in rankings than ones that are without. While the Internet has enhanced connectivity that transcends geographical boundaries, mobile access allows us the opportunity to make these connections at any time and place.

The number of mobile users only continues to grow as more people get their hands on portable devices such as smartphones and laptops that can use mobile networks to connect. Google ranks mobile-optimized websites ahead of those that aren’t, so having a site that is mobile-friendly is a necessity.

Content Length

Quantity and quality matter when it comes to search results rankings. High-quality content that is of significant length is going to be ranked higher than content with fewer words. The thinking behind this is that when there’s an appreciable amount of good content, users will spend more time on a particular webpage.

This is known as “dwell time.”  Longer dwell time says to Google that users enjoy your website, and the content therein is considered to be authoritative and trustworthy which also improves rankings.

If you’re a subject matter expert or can provide detailed high-quality info on something, make sure the length of your content reflects your expertise and passion.

If you depend on page views for income or visibility, it’s important to take advantage of ongoing and emerging trends in SEO. Search engines drive the vast majority of internet traffic.

You need to understand which SEO strategies you can employ for your content and leverage these strategies for visibility and rankings on Google and other popular search engines.