SEO Best Practices For 2020 – Let’s Build Good Reputation On Google Page

Last updated: November 17, 2023 Written by: Karolina Niegłos
Table of contents show hide

    From this article, you’ll learn the importance of your online presence and how to build a good reputation on Google, following these current SEO trends:

    No doubt the purpose of SEO has not been changed from the beginning but the practices to get your site on top rank are continuously modifying. From the start, the core principle of SEO has been to make the webpage searchable, and it has remained the same to this day. However, SEO is an incredibly fast-moving marketing discipline, and its implementation has changed immensely. It looks nothing like what webpages were hyped about even a year ago.

    With the New Year around the corner, it is good to know earlier what it has to offer. Firstly, you’ll need to know what importance your online presence has.

    Table of contents show hide

      Importance Of Your Online Presence

      Nowadays, having an online presence is considered mandatory. Even if your company does not conduct business online, you are supposed to have a relevant social media page or a website because people expect to see you there. This digital age has made people prone to googling a name before experience for verification. Therefore, having an online presence is hugely beneficial for your business.

      Avoiding it may cost you customer and market exposure. Two of the primary reasons why you need to have your name show up on Google in the first place. Showing up search results is an automatic validation for having a standardized, up to date business.

      SEO Best Practices for 2020

      As new websites take the runway to take off in 2020, it’s high time for you to invest in SEO and remain on the top of the search list. To stay relevant and to retain your position on Google’s first page, let’s see what the current trends have to offer.

      Practice #1: Use of snippets

      snippets

      Image source

      Generating search results has evolved with time. The Google user experience has come up with a new way to engage organic traffic, and that is by using Snippets. More commonly known as Featured Snippets, they are positioned above the #1 organic search results at the “Position 0”.

      It works when your website provides simple answers to the most basic and frequently asked questions. Google has its ways to determine the quality of a featured snippet. After evaluating it as good enough, it shows the snippet right at the top and continues to boost it.

      The use of snippets might seem like a regular trend suspect, but it weighs more in generating organic clicks. Studies suggest almost 60% of Google clicks are originated because of Featured Snippets – creating more than half of the search engine’s overall clicks. It means this feature is an excellent opportunity for content creators who need organic traffic and top search results.

      Practice #2: Leveraging influencers for SEO

      Image source

      People often feel bombarded with ads when they open a webpage. It is genuinely unappealing, obstructing, and uncalled for. No matter how clickable or alerting your ad might be, intrusive ads are not a thing of today. It has given way to influencer marketing.

      People need someone they can trust to review the products or services that they want to buy. It is highly likely for a customer to be influenced by a well-known figure than to be convinced by an ad. Since 2019, digital marketers and media companies have started investing more and more in influencer marketing, as it has shown effective results.

      According to a 2018 study, “Digital marketers are spending anywhere from $25k to $50k over leveraging influencers to review their products.” It means that influencer marketing can be a fantastic SEO tool when used correctly.

      It works by allowing influencers to help you create backlinks. Influencers talking about your product will boost up traffic on your website and ultimately give Google the reason to amp up your search result ranking. The strategy should be to hire an influencer that works in the same domain as your product. For example, Marques Brownlee is a tech YouTuber. Having him talk about a new cool feature that your phone company has just launched will get you favorable results as compared to asking a fashion blogger to write about it.

      Therefore, investing in influencer marketing is the famous trend that will get your brand famous and help you reach the top position in search results.

      Practice #3: Website security

      Image source

      Some of these trends might not directly link to SEO but ultimately lead to negatively affecting your search result ranking. And one such direction is website security. A user will leave the webpage quickly if it triggers a “Not Secure” warning, and the user feels it is not safe to use. As a repercussion, your website will suffer high bounce rates, pulling it down in search engine results.

      Google insists on providing privacy protected and secure user experience to its users. That’s why it is highly recommended to enable HTTPS protocol for most of the websites that Google hosts. In return, it provides them a minor SEO boost and secure connection with both encryption and authentication.

      If your website collects data through web forms, then you have a responsibility to protect the user’s privacy. Your webpage should be designed around the fact that the user feels safe as long as they would be on the webpage. There still may be vulnerabilities, but many security features are implemented every day and can be proven useful.

      Practice #4: Implementing Responsive Web Design

      mobile-website-ads

      Image source

      Google made its priorities clear when they first introduced the Mobile-First Index. It means Google’s primary focus is over websites that are mobile device optimized for indexing and ranking. Consequently, any website that is not optimized for mobile viewing is more probable to lose its ranking for both desktop and mobile phone search results.

      For the last four to five years, it is a growing trend as more and more people opt for searching on the go through their mobile phones instead of being limited to desktop searches. Studies show that every 4th customer has performed local searches on their smartphone before buying a product. It makes searches on a smartphone go up to a whopping 90%, whereas a combined estimate of desktop and tablet searches goes up to 80%.

      Up until now, the effort was to get your webpage mobile optimized so you could rake in the search results. However, it doesn’t stop there. Not only should your web page be smartphone-optimized, but it should also have a mobile-friendly interface that is easy to read, attention-grabbing, and can answer the query briefly yet efficiently.

      Practice #5: Voice search optimization

      Image source

      As we learned in the last point that mobile phone search is a growing trend. Like searching for premium jackets on Amazon on the phone will work differently than on your desktop. So it is conclusive that mobile phone users find it easier to search using their voice while on the go instead of typing it in. It means that voice search is getting popular as well.

      Voice search is not only optimized for random Google searches through the mobile device but to voice virtual home assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

      The strategy here is to know how to optimize your website for voice search so that it can help you in generating organic traffic. The idea is to make your content more precise and targeted. The more conversational your content will be, the more likely it is to show up in voice search results. This change might be new and even challenging to interpret since we all are habitual of short keywords generating our traffic. But as it is expected that more than 50% of Google searches will be voice generated from 2020, this change is inevitable if you want your content to stand out.

      Practice #6: YouTube for SEO

      Image source

      Increased mobile usage has given way to increased voice as well as video search optimization. Google analytics shows that almost every 6 out of 10 people prefer videos over television. It is safe to say that YouTube has ultimately become the TV of today. The younger generations, like Millennials or Gen Z, prefer videos over other modes of entertainment. As YouTube videos range from academic to random art videos, it has become a compelling medium for all types of people. From academics to entertainment, YouTube is the one size that fits all.

      Any business that is looking for a dynamic consumer range should implement YouTube as a business strategy. A quality video is a conversation booster. It has all the features to keep the viewer hooked. As well as use keywords in headline and description to make the video relevant to search results and easy to find.

      Practice #7: SEO reputation management tactics

      Other than following all the individual trends mentioned above, it is essential to maintain what you achieved through them. Nowadays, it is not easy to reap benefits just by following specific trends that are gaining momentum. It is the intensive maintenance work and following certain ground rules, after the first successful result that will get you long-term benefits.

      • Extensive use of external links

      This ground rule is there for a reason and should not be replaced just because certain trends are generating profitable results. Even to this day, using external links generously in your content will help you reach that top ranking. External links should not be denied their importance of influencing most of the content marketing tactics to this day.

      The reason for linking should not be that all links should lead to your website’s homepage. If you are only linking back to the homepage, it may be harmful for your website’s SEO. You need to link back different pages of your website including your service pages, particular products and features. Moreover, linking back to some of your good blog articles is necessary for it can drive organic traffic to your website through blogs. Instead, there should be links to your employees, CEO’s, or even the director’s socials. Having a known figure on board is like having a guaranteed ticket for online traffic. Users will visit your back and forth due to the known personality, charitable organization, or an event page you link to.

      • Pitching content creators

      As mentioned earlier, the digital age is all about content creators. These people can make or break your business depending upon their respective influences. Therefore it is always a good idea to allow content creators, editors, journalists, or more recently YouTubers to review or talk about your work or product. Getting your product pitched by a known face, popular column online, or in a famous magazine is like winning the lottery ticket. People are naturally drawn to things their favorites talk about, hence landing your website some deserving clicks.

      • Create your own content

      Blogging has always been the oldest and most reliable way to gain ranking on Google search results. The basic blogging requirements, if appropriately fulfilled, can easily give your website the necessary boost. It means that one of the essential elements you can fulfill is to create your own content by using an assignment writing service. And have it posted on more prominent open platforms like Forbes or Huffington Post etc. The idea behind is not link building but just getting your name out in the market through popular and reliable platforms.

      These platforms allow guest posts, given some guidelines that need to be followed. You can link your webpage, your writing credentials as the author, and even your business socials. However, the goal here should be to achieve brand name first and then linking.

      Designing your own content does not necessarily mean content designed to mimic your business style but strategy. Strategy driven content that is subtle to the user is the new ground rule. No more annoying advertisement, clickable links, or in the face promotions seem appealing to the modern age user.

      • Monitoring rankings

      Image source

      As someone dedicated to getting your webpage the deserving ranking, you must have someone who monitors ranking constantly. Monitoring rankings of websites, competitor webpages, and trending keywords should not be the reason for obsessing over your own ranking. But,

      • It should work like a strategy carefully designed to understand how Google operates daily.
      • Designing your content should be relevant to current news and trends.
      • Content should be sought after relevancy.
      • It should be a reflection of what is user demand.
      • It should help your webpage earn popularity until the trend lasts.

      Some websites feed off of rankings. Their sole purpose of online existence is to take the place of any top domain and not let anybody else take the spot. This kind of marketing can be short-lived as people don’t go for top results if known names show up even as the 2nd or 3rd result in search ranking.

      Conclusion

      SEO is a fast-paced and exciting industry to work in. These trends might last you the few initial years of the new decade, which is right around the corner. However, one can easily say that soon new trends will overtake, giving way to fresher, cooler strategies to work with. These trends might become the ground rules of the era at the rise and help you long term, with current trends popping up every day. You just need to keep up with the 2020 best practices!

      Ready to grow? Let’s get started!

      Join us and create the best-converting landing pages