Before 2020, tons of articles were written about what SEO features will be relevant the following year. However, 2020 started with a dramatic change that affected the entire world. The coronavirus made everything different.
In March, most of Europe was in complete lockdown. People were trapped in their homes, trying to avoid getting infected. Luckily for everyone, internet connections were stable, and people could work from home.
Still, this situation has affected the way in which businesses are run, and it has changed the SEO game, too. More changes are anticipated in months to come. Keep reading if you want to find out how it will progress over a decade, having the current situation in mind.
People Will Stay at Home More Than Ever
Scientists claim that the world is going to experience more viruses like the one raging at the moment across the globe. They say that by 2050, it is most likely that a strain of well-known influenza will be a cause of death for millions across the world.
However, technology seems ready. Augmented and virtual reality, ecommerce services, artificial intelligence gadgets, and other technologies are here for us. This is going to change the world, but it will change the rules of SEO too, no doubt.
What Is Going to Change?
The trends for 2020 that were suggested by many experts in the industry are going to change. The outlook of the entire industry is also changing. Some things will no longer be relevant while others are going to be even more relevant than it was predicted. Here are some of them.
Keyword Choice
The crisis affects all industries, but it causes more damage to some of them than others. For example, construction and tourism are almost completely crushed. No one searches for keywords about these things at the moment.
The research done by Neil Patel shows a staggering search drop in these industries because of the coronavirus. On the other hand, food and health see an amazing rise.
In other words, future marketers will need to have in mind that customers’ needs are changed, and that past rules and data are no more relevant.
Content Is Still King
Quality content is always going to be one of the essential features of a solid search engine optimization. It is said that 91% of all ads are viewed for less than a second. People just scroll past them because their attention is not captured.
Another report says that 71% of people hate the fact that too many posts on the internet are obviously just a way to sell stuff. They would like to see quality content, and if they detect content that is only trying to sell them something, they immediately quit reading.
In the future, people will spend more time than ever on the internet. Not just reading, but watching videos, pictures, infographics, and so forth. This is a chance to get the attention of the public, but it can only be done with great content.
Voice Search
SEO statistics show that 31% of all people searching via smartphones use voice search. This is inevitably going to change in the next decade because the industry shows a constant rise. Tech companies, such as Amazon, produce AI-based smart speakers that use voice search for almost anything. Every SEO expert should be aware of this and optimize their websites for voice search.
Loading Time
One of the biggest SEO trends for 2020 is page loading time. With competition going through the roof and millions of pages on the internet, loading time needs to be as short as possible.
Visitors expect a page to load in no more than two seconds, and 40% of them will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds. However, the average loading time of web pages is just over 10 seconds, so it is nowhere near the three second threshold.
Humans might accept longer loading time, but with the rise of voice search and artificial intelligence, this will not be tolerated. In other words, SEO experts who cannot manage to turn websites from SUVs to sports cars will lose a vast amount of visits.
Content Length
The isolation we mentioned, which is most likely to happen during this decade, will make people’s attention span even shorter. Working from home has many benefits, but the inability to stay focused is one of the downsides.
People will spend less and less time reading long articles. The ideal length for articles at the moment is around 1,600 words or seven minutes reading time. In the future, the chances are great that this number is going to drop below five minutes which means SEO experts will need to keep this in mind and ask content and copywriters to write shorter articles.
Desktop Computers in All Their Glory
People enjoyed the freedom of being connected to the internet in the 2010s. The fast development of smartphone technologies, and the ability to work on laptops from anywhere was a fantastic opportunity.
In this decade, however, people will limit their movement. They will stay at home more, which means desktop computers will likely be popular again. Until now, all SEO consultants advised for better mobile and tablet optimization, but it seems like this is going to change in the next 10 years.
Conclusion
No one can predict exactly what is going to happen in the next 10 years, but based on recent events, the above points are self-evident. The SEO game will change even more dramatically now than ever before.
Everyone working with SEO needs to do more research and analysis now because society, in general, is changing from its core. Of course, these changes are going to be dictated from search engines, but it is best to be prepared and act immediately instead of waiting for everyone to benefit from the changes and miss the opportunity to capitalize on new trends.
