Are you always striving to be on top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)? Are you unsure of how to best prepare for the upcoming new year to ensure that you are able to maximize your business? Well let me tell you, when it comes to SEO in Greenville NC, no one does it better than Red Shark Digital, and that’s why we are here to prepare you for 2020 by letting you in on some upcoming SEO trends that will affect the way you and your marketing team work in the new year!

If you’re a local to the Red Shark blog, then you know that in digital marketing, SEO is by far one of the most dynamic services we offer. With Google changing its algorithm with the seasons, it can be hard to get, and stay on top for long durations of time. This is why it is always best to strive to be one step ahead of Google and make accommodations for algorithm changes as soon as the change is announced. The latest change and trend, you ask? Google and other platforms striving to be the end-all source of information in the user journey. This is what has led us to the major SEO trends for 2020.

Sorry, But Zero Click Searches Aren’t Going Anywhere

Thanks to Google’s latest advancements such as featured snippets, local packs, and knowledge graphs, the actual Google results page is housing a lot of the information that a user is looking for. This means that the user is never actually landing on anyone’s website from organic search. Now I know what you are thinking, why spend money on SEO if no one is clicking on websites anymore? Well, the truth is, if you alter your SEO strategy, you can still secure some of the coveted link clicks in the SERPs.

To do so, you will need to identify what searches are most valuable and lead to clicks. You can use Google Search Console or your own preferred tool to help determine this. Once you figure out what your most valued keywords are, you will need to alter your strategy to focus more on these keywords. You will also want to make sure that you are optimizing the titles and metas of these pages to be enticing to someone making the search.

Optimizing for Rich and Featured Snippets

With zero-click searches rising, it is more important than ever to have a featured snippet from your website showing in the search results. But one question we often see is how to create a rich or featured snippet on Google. Well, as with anything related to SEO, there are many ways in which you can optimize for these snippets.

The biggest thing your website will need for these snippets is structured data. There are many tools online to look at your website to determine if the data is already structured or not! Once you determine whether or not your site is optimized for structured data, you will need to use some form of a keyword tool to look for opportunities in which you would be eligible to have a featured snippet. With all of this data, things can sometimes be a little overwhelming. Instead of worrying yourself with structured data, trust the pros and let us take the reins so you can focus on other aspects of your business for 2020.

Local SEO As We Know it is Changing

A colossal number of the previously mentioned zero-click queries are local searches for which the outcomes appear on the SERP itself, in Local Packs. For cell phones, a solitary Local Pack may occupy as much room as the whole SERP appeared to a user.

Firstly, if you don’t have a Google My Business listing, you’re already two steps behind. In addition, if you aren’t optimizing your website for keywords featuring terms such as “near me,” “address,” or “phone number” you are practically committing local search suicide. While these tactics are important, these are just the first steps in securing a local presence in the SERPs.

Another huge part of dominating the local SEO landscape is having backlinks on your site that Google deems locally authoritative. Our friends over at Link Assistant have put together a few tips and tricks to securing some of the most important local backlinks for you to take a look at!

The Machines are Taking Over

Google uses learning algorithms to improve their users’ experiences with search and help avoid keyword-stuffed webpages. In 2020, this will be more important than ever with Google’s latest algorithm named BERT.

Now, as far as we know, Google uses three mechanisms: first is Neural Matching, which figures out the meaning of the query. Second is RankBrain, which adjusts the SERP’s relying on the collected data about users’ behavior. The third, the newly-implemented BERT, is the algorithm that is used for analyzing the structure of a search to better understand the context in which keywords are used.

To help your ranking and favorability within Google’s algorithm, you will need to stay on top of rankings, ensuring that you are continually optimizing for what the hot ticket searches are in the moment!

Continue to Build Your Brand Identity

While this last tip isn’t going to help you dominate the SERPs, per say, it will help your brand become more favorable within the digital landscape and that is building your brand identity! Having a positive brand identity and becoming a household name will lead to more users interacting with your content in organic searches because they already have an affinity to your brand. The more users that interact with your brand organically, the more favorable the algorithm becomes to your business. Having great brand identity is an easy way to help your business grow.

Things Are Always Changing

Let’s be honest, every time marketers think that they have something under control for SEO, a new curveball gets thrown their way. While these 5 trends are just the tip of the iceberg of what is sure to come, we hope that you can employ these tactics and kickstart 2020 with organic success!

Do you have questions regarding SEO in Greenville NC? If so, contact the experts at Red Shark Digital today!

This post was selected as one of the top digital marketing articles of the week by UpCity, a B2B ratings and review company for digital marketing agencies and other marketing service providers.

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