The digital marketing landscape is ever-changing with Google making daily changes to their search algorithm and marketers around the world responding in kind. New trends and changes are being observed all the time, which affects how people search online. We all try to keep up as much as possible so we can keep our toolkits up to date. This is especially true for SEO. Luckily for us, the people over at ahrefs.com have gathered lots of stats for SEO in 2020, and over here at Core Optimisation, we have poured over the data to see what learnings we can let you know about that you can apply to your strategy. By the end of this article, you should have some more things to consider for your SEO strategy going forward.

This article will outline the 4 things that current stats in 2020 tell us about the state of SEO within the Digital Marketing world.

The Importance of Mobile

We all know how much time we spend on our phones these days, and we can see why it’s important to have a website that’s mobile-friendly where people can browse through your products and services seamlessly. But, some of us may not realise just have significant mobile traffic can be and how to fully take advantage of it. In fact 52.2.% of all website traffic worldwide comes from mobile phones. Not only that, but 30% of all mobile searches are related to location while 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. This information not only tells us that the overall volume of mobile traffic is high, but that the potential for quality leads is there to be taken advantage of too. If you are a business with a brick and mortar store or location, not recognising this potential and acting on it could mean you are leaving money on the table. 

To do this, think about how your current website is optimised for encouraging people to visit your store with calls to action. Ensure that the available information is readily available so that people can find you whether it’s on your site with a location page and contact information or with your Google My Business profile. Lastly, make sure that your website is mobile friendly and mobile responsive so your users can have a pleasant experience while they are browsing.

The Benefit to Narrowing Your Targeting

When it comes to targeting users with your keywords and website, the urge is often to be as expansive as possible with the net you cast out. On the other hand, if you decide to cast your net too wide, then you will find it difficult to really target your ideal audience in any meaningful way. It makes more sense from a strategic perspective to narrow your focus in every respect so that you can work towards getting a larger piece of a smaller pie. This approach will let you get in front of the people who will be the most valuable leads a greater proportion of the time even if your overall website traffic is lower.

From an SEO perspective, it is also practical to narrow your focus and target longer tail keywords. This matches the trend of how people are searching in 2020, but it also allows you to match the intent of your target audience and begin to provide content and landing pages tailored to their needs. Just 0.78% of Google searchers click on results from the 2nd page which highlights the need for a narrow focus. On top of that, 0.16% of the most popular keywords are responsible for 60.67% of all searches. This shows us that if you find your niche and set reasonable goals for what keywords you should target, there is a huge amount of potential. The best thing you can do is gather the information you have about your target audiences, build customer personae and develop your strategy from there based on what these individuals want to gain from their searches.

‘Quality’ As A Core Value – The Changing Landscape of The Search Algorithm

As mentioned earlier, getting in front of the right people will make your life a lot easier as you develop efficiency in your approach. Once you are in front of the right people, you want to make sure that the content you are providing is valuable to your audience while also guiding them further along the purchasing funnel until they become customers or clients.

69.7% of search queries contain four words or more. To take advantage of this, some marketers would turn towards keyword stuffing in an attempt to fit as many keywords onto their landing pages as possible. Since longer tail keywords are becoming more common, it is more sensible to use this information to gain further insight into the searcher’s intent. Instead of keyword stuffing, think about exactly what the searcher is hoping to achieve, and if possible, use high-quality content to satisfy that need and that can provide value.

In fact, 60% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc) is their highest quality source of leads. This supports the idea that if you can provide a quality offering on your site, that the users that arrive will be a higher quality lead than if you used algorithm-gaming techniques to try to gain as many visitors as possible. This method becomes even more effective if you can produce content that is evergreen such as product reviews and supplementary information around your products or services. There is also an added benefit of developing yourself as a resource that is trustworthy and of higher standing when you put an emphasis on quality as a core SEO value.

The Need for Investment

With all the previous points being made, you might be thinking that there is a lot that needs to be done to stay competitive in the organic search space. This may be particularly true for people who have had their focus elsewhere up to this point. But, the juice is worth the squeeze. With 53.3% of all website traffic coming from organic search, your efforts to develop your website and user base are best placed here. SEO is the largest piece of the puzzle, so putting the time and money into supporting this channel and rejuvenating your best practices and thoughts towards SEO will have a lasting impact and allow you to create a solid foundation that will enable the rest of your digital marketing channels to flourish.

At the end of the day, time and money are limited resources, and putting your resources towards SEO will be the best decision you make all year!