10 Biggest SEO Trends to Look for in 2024

Intro

While many experts in digital marketing try to predict SEO trends every year, no one is ever spot on the money. Past trends have been proven incorrect, and algorithms can change any moment, leaving marketers scrambling to keep up.

A great example is how AI content has kicked up a storm since July 2022. No one saw it coming as fast as it did.

Despite this, predicting trends is still valuable in keeping up with the digital landscape. As we foresee the future of SEO in 2023, approach these predictions critically and adapt willingly as new data and technology trends emerge.

With that in mind, I believe some trends will be important for SEO practitioners to notice in 2023 and 2024.

1. A High Demand for AI and Machine Learning in SEO

A survey by McKinsey states that the adoption of AI has more than doubled in the past five years, and the presence of AI and ML in the SEO industry is no different.

Artificial intelligence refers to the computer systems development that performs tasks that require human intelligence, such as problem-solving, learning, and decision-making. In contrast, machine learning (ML) is a subset of AI focused on creating algorithms that enable computers to learn from the data and improve their performance over time without explicit programming.

While there are many innovative ways to use AI in business, SEO experts are leaning toward using AI and ML to do what has been done manually for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, bots have been used in SEO for a while to automate tasks such as building spam links, but the use of AI and ML in 2023 is for classification, identification, and creating content.

The speed at which AI can help with SEO tasks such as keyword clustering, identifying the intent behind phrases searched, and predicting the topic of an article using Google's NLP API means that SEOs are much better at creating relevancy between content and their backlinks, which in turn drives better results.

Also, AI has contributed a lot to generating content. It removes the need for humans when writing content. However, Google's helpful content update still ensures that the shown results are helpful content for humans.

2. The Rise of Voice Search

Statista predicts that there will be 8 billion voice assistants in use by 2024. That means there is at least one assistant for every being on the planet.

It's no wonder that voice search continues to be an important aspect of digital technology, as it offers a convenient and hands-free method for users to access information. Over the past decade, the adoption of voice search has grown substantially, driven by advancements in voice recognition technology and the increased use of smartphones and smart speakers.

The growing reliance on mobile devices with assistants like Amazon Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant has become more accurate and sophisticated, enabling seamless voice interactions for various tasks, including searches.

Additionally, the rise of smart speakers and IoT devices has made voice search a part of everyday life for many households.

For example, I recently had a baby boy join our family and having smart speakers trained to listen for "Baby is going to sleep" has been helpful when both my hands are busy trying to keep the baby from doing barrel rolls on the changing table.

As a result, we are becoming more accustomed to voice interactions, increasing voice search usage.

Pro Tip: The voice assistants will only read the first result in the SERP. I found that aiming for featured snippets was an effective way to become THE answer to be read out.

3. Google’s Quality Guidelines Will Remain Crucial

The QRGs keep getting longer, but you have no choice but to get familiar with them as webmasters.

Google's Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) are crucial because they provide insights into how Google assesses and ranks web content. Human quality raters use these guidelines to evaluate websites and inform Google's algorithm updates. Understanding the QRG helps web admins, SEO professionals, and content creators align their strategies with Google's expectations, ultimately improving their site's visibility and performance in search results.

In December 2022, Google updated the QRG and added another E to the infamous E-A-T.

As a webmaster, you can share several anecdotes from the past to show your Experience (the newest E). If you can demonstrate your prior experience (E), that can show you're an expert on a particular topic. While getting mentions and references from other niche sites can indicate that you're an authority (A) and a trusted resource. All of the above will lead to increased trust (T).

It adds to the basic requirements of ensuring your page does and provides what it says it intends to do.

4. Positive User Experience Will Be A Priority

For years, SEO experts have been asking for guidelines on how to cater to and improve UX, and in 2021, we got the Core Web Vitals centred around the user experience on the website.

But in 2023, that is not enough for SEO. Not only must your website be easy to use, but the content must also be helpful to the user. In August 2022, Google released the Helpful Content Update and made changes again in December 2022.

The crux of these updates?

Your website must make the "… visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience…"

That's very subjective because it's completely up to the reader at the time, but here are some basic tips to improve user experience for your website:

• breaking up content into smaller paragraphs
• using meaningful heading tags and bullet points
• simplifying navigation
• focusing on page speed
• prioritizing mobile users
• leveraging search data to inform site architecture

5. Keyword Research Will Remain Useful, But It’s Only Part of the Picture

It's a fundamental skill for any SEO expert, and it's no different in 2023.

However, many practitioners go straight for the keyword tools without really understanding their target audience. It must change in 2023, as it's the only way to differentiate yourself from the plethora of content that reads almost identical in the top 10 results in the SERP.

Understand your target audience and begin by defining their needs, preferences, and pain points. This understanding will guide your keyword research and help you create content that appeals to your audience. Use research tools such as GWI or SparkToro to glean more information than just keywords.

Perform user research surveys and listen to what your audience is saying online about you or your competitors.

6. Featured & Rich Snippets Dominating Search Engines

In 2016, I was working with a client ranking #1 for a chosen term, but at the time, ranking reports did not consider the coveted' position 0' of featured snippets. For three months, I pondered why the traffic was nose-diving until I looked at the SERPs, and that's when I discovered there was another website, not even a direct competitor, who was ranking in the featured snippet, stealing all our clicks.

It was about the time research surfaced about Zero Click Searches.

Seven years on, the SERPs are still changing, and more rich snippets are showing than ever. Some of these could lead to less CTR, and some others will help you.

Here are some of the features dominating the SERP real estate:

Image packs

Filters

Shopping Products & Reviews

7. More Focus on Shopping Features and Merchants

It's been reported that more than 36% of online shoppers globally start their product searches on the leading local marketplace, and based on the SERP features available for shoppers, search engines like Google are scrambling for ways to recapture this market.

It's estimated that the global e-commerce market will reach 6.3 trillion when 2023 ends and 8.1 trillion by 2026, making it a significant pie to get its hands on again.

That's why if you're an e-commerce store, Google has you in its sights because, in May 2022, Google announced its integration with Shopify and, later in September, wrote about the 9 new tools available for merchants.

Some of these features include seeing trends, shopping with filters, using multimedia and shopping in 3D

Now, even if you're not a Shopify user, you can take advantage of these features by implementing Product Schema in your store.

8. Updating and Refreshing Content

In the first three months of 2023, Google has already rolled out two updates, the Product Review in February and the broad core update in March, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more algorithm updates to keep up with the pace of which ai technology is changing the playing field, as well as the features for shopping, both related to the trends I mentioned above.

To ensure your website is not negatively impacted, you should keep tabs on when changes are announced, reported by the various rank tracking tools, or when you see chatter in online forums.

Whenever an algorithm update hits, I always recommend deciphering the ranking changes to identify similarities in the results, regardless of whether your own personal results increased or decreased; that way, you know what you need to change or should do more of.

The QRG and EEAT are especially important in 2023, as highlighted previously.

9. Social SEO Is In!

It surprises me how many websites still have a G+ social icon on their website even when the social platform was sunset by Google after eight years. The reverse has also been attempted since 2015, but neither party has had much success with it.

Social was social, search was search.

Until TikTok came along.

So great was their success in attracting users to the platform even Facebook announced they were changing their algorithm from social to interest graph.

In an interview last year about the future of tech, Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President at Google, said that over 40% of young people go to Instagram or TikTok to start their searches for anything, including "...businesses and products, but also to ask questions about how to do things and find explanations about what they mean."

While this search activity is not happening on the Google search engine, it's happening on TikTok's search engine, so I believe it's worth a mention.

The secret to being discovered on TikTok is through various text means, such as the captions, the title of the video, words that are being said, as well as the hashtags. In addition to this, however, the secret sauce is in the actions the user performs, such as likes and shares, but also what they don't engage with.

TikTok is known for pushing the boundaries of recommendations and will put something in front of you and keep testing until it learns that your feed is exactly what you're interested in, and that's what makes it so powerful. By using the app, you're just sifting through the content and curating what you like to see more of.

10. Topical Authority

Google uses topical authority to determine experts that are most helpful to user’s queries. It is closely linked to Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T). With proof of expertise, you build authority and trust in your industry.

To establish authority, you need to cover all the questions within a topic, not just easy-to-rank topics. You will be going to create content that answers every single question or query within your content. Go beyond just providing basic information and diving into more detailed explanations, examples, and case studies.

: Stay Ahead with SEO Trends in the Ever-Changing SEO Landscape

Search is becoming increasingly tough given the number of technology changes happening concurrently, both from the search giant and competitors trying to syphon eyeballs.

Keep a finger on the pulse, set up your alerts, and, importantly, keep working on your campaigns so you can dominate the market.

P.s

As the year progresses, there will probably be changes, so bookmark this page for updates!