The search landscape is continuously changing and so is SEO. Last year, we saw many major updates from the search giant Google, which continues to roll out this year as well.
Moreover, the rise of AI has also significantly impacted the whole scenario which resulted in adopting a more insightful strategy to outperform.
Now we know that technical aspects, user experience and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) are all that matter.
In this guide, I’ll discuss the most important SEO trends of 2024.
Adopting those SEO trends will help you perform better in SERPs. So let's get started!
Increased Usage of AI
AI has changed the way of content creation and research. With tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, which provide generic content, many people have started relying on them.
Just think about it: what if there are multiple copies of the same content all over the internet, Isn't it providing any value to the users? Of course not!
Moreover, AI is also replacing the way businesses do research. It helps speed up the process of data analysis and identify the gaps in a business strategy.
What to do?
As far as AI content creation is concerned, it is highly recommended to avoid it as Google, (despite denying it) does not support the AI written content.
You may use it to get ideas in many ways.
For example, you can ask GPT to generate ideas based on a particular topic for you, or you can ask it to create headings, make a content outline, write meta descriptions and plenty of other things that do not require in-depth analysis, research or human insight.
Keep in mind that providing value to users must be your top priority. Once you create anything using AI, adding human creativity and review is a must.
Moreover, you can also take advantage of AI for your SEO efforts as many big companies and tools are now integrating AI into their processes. Semrush Copilot and AI Writer by Ubersuggest are the best examples.
You can use similar technologies to make your processes more efficient, identify the trends and implement various SEO strategies.
As we know, now it is a common saying that AI isn't going to replace you but a person using AI can definitely replace you. So be prepared for the future!
Google E-E-A-T
Google checks the authority, credibility and quality of a page using E-E-A-T signals which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Having first-hand experience in a particular topic or niche is essential for providing in-depth, accurate and updated information. Google gives so much importance to this and ranks the content well in SERPs.
You can think about it as a person who has worked in the field of SEO can better write on planning SEO strategies for his readers than the other who has no first-hand experience.
This helps your users more in understanding what they want.
What to do?
Write about the topics you are an expert in. Share your life experiences, collect data, present the stats, show them real-life examples and you will make your content stand out from the generic AI-written content.
This does not apply to the written content only, you may use this strategy for other platforms like YouTube, Quora, TikTok, etc.
You can share your first-hand experience there too as people love to hear stories and watch real-life examples or experiences.
Besides, don't forget to add author bios. That could be links to their social media accounts, most importantly LinkedIn, or a link to their own websites, or published posts.
This establishes credibility, acts as a footprint and shows that the person behind writing a great piece of content actually knows about a topic and is a subject matter expert.
Now you must be thinking what if you don't have first-hand experience in a specific subject?
Here, you can take advantage of the experiences of other experts by interviewing them.
This will help you provide useful information to your readers and also establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
User Engagement
In 2024, SEO will be more focused on user engagement signals. Google now understand which pages to give priority and which to penalize.
Earlier, several companies used this tactic by annoying their customers just to get mentioned on review sites to acquire backlinks.
With time, Google learned the ways to understand the sentiments of the users. They started penalizing the websites with false reputations to put an end to this negative tactic.
Google now understand the relevance and usefulness of a piece of content. They know how a user interacts with a web page, either positively or negatively.
As a result, they prioritize the websites or their pages with greater user engagement over those providing no value at all.
What to do?
Google prioritizes content that is written for humans not for search engines.
That is why it is now crucial to focus more on fulfilling the search intent of the users to reduce the bounce rate and get favour from Google as well.
There are several things that you can do:
Keep an eye on metrics such as time on page, bounce rate, and CTR. This will help in understanding the user’s behaviour and whether they are satisfied with your page content or not.
Focus strictly on matching the content to the searcher’s queries. If they are looking for a concise or to-the-point answer, do not bury it under a layer of text, instead keep it simple. On the other hand, if someone wants to read an in-depth guide, cover every aspect of it and satisfy their query with your content.
Make your content appealing or understandable by adding visual elements like videos, step-by-step tutorials or infographics. This helps the users more in understanding a concept or topic.
Besides informational queries, also make sure that other types of queries like transactional, navigational and commercial are also well optimized and direct users to the intended pages.
If you don't know how to identify the search intent behind a query you can use Semrush Keyword Magic Tool.
Additionally, you can type the query in the search bar and see the results to understand the intent. Analyze the SERP and see which type of pages are ranking there and what they have covered.
For example, if there are all guides, it means people are more interested in reading them but if there are price comparison articles, listicles, or product pages, it indicates they are looking for something else.
This is the best way to understand the search intent. Once you identify it, make your content well-aligned with this query to satisfy the user’s intent.
Google SGE (Search Generative Experience)
SGE, now AI Overview, is a text snippet that appears at the top of search results when the Google Search Labs feature is turned on.
It is a kind of featured snippet that instead of targeting one website, pulls information from various websites and uses AI to present this information in a conversational tone.
This is how it appears:
Many webmasters think that SGE is a threat to their website traffic, however, it actually is not.
The reason is that SGE still directs the users to useful resources. If the user is interested in reading the topic more, they can visit the source page to find that extra information.
Think about topics like reviews, places to visit, shopping items and several others that require users to research them deeply.
Providing only a snippet will not answer their queries as they want to search more for those topics.
So instead of fearing SGE, take advantage of it and provide information that is in-depth, useful, well-researched and authentic.
What to do?
Reading all this you must be thinking about optimizing your content for SEG. But wait! Google says that their systems automatically pick those snippets and there is nothing special you need to do.
That indicates you must focus on your regular SEO and content creation efforts to appear in those AI overviews too.
If your content is clear, comprehensive, well-researched, and meets the search intent of the users, it is enough to make your content eligible for SGE.
Keep in mind that optimizing your content for top results must be your priority. If you succeed in getting it, Google will likely choose it for their AI overviews.
User Experience
How users interact with your websites now matters a lot.
If your site speed, navigation and ease of usage are on point, users are going to stay more on your website. It gives a positive signal to Google and it favours the sites that offer a good user experience.
Core Web Vitals are now part of Google’s ranking system that evaluates a website based on three important metrics: LCP, FID and CLS. However, FID is now replaced with INP (Interaction to Next Paint) by Google.
Read more about Core Web Vitals in this detailed guide.
What to do?
There are a few things that you can do to improve your Core Web Vitals.
Focus on improving your website speed
Only make use of the necessary popups and block the other ones
Make your website navigational structure user-friendly
Compress and optimize your website images
Enable browser caching
Minimize Javascript and CSS
Add relevant, necessary and concise CTAs (call-to-actions)
Rise of Voice Search
With the rise of voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, voice search is often discussed every now and then.
It involves asking questions directly to those voice assistants instead of typing a query. This is usually done when you want hands-free help or need a quick answer to your question.
Voice search is a bit different than typical text-based query search using search engines. It involves asking a long and conversational question that is answered concisely by those voice assistants.
But tell me fast how many of you have actually used the voice search feature to search this article?
Probably none of you. But still, there is an increased focus on optimizing for voice searches.
What to do?
It is agreed by many SEOs that optimizing your website for regular search queries is enough to appear in voice searches.
If you are already targeting long conversational questions or keywords and adding FAQs in your content alongside your regular SEO efforts, this is enough.
Any additional attempts to make your content eligible for voice search are not worth the effort.
Local SEO
There are several reasons why more and more local businesses are investing in optimizing for local SEO.
Almost 98% of people searched for local businesses over the internet in 2022.
91% of consumers say that reading online reviews about a brand helps them build an overall perception of a brand.
88% of consumers say that they choose a business that responds to all of their reviews.
46% of Google’s 8.5 billion daily searches are local.
61% of buyers prefer businesses that have both physical location and online presence.
You can see how people interact with local businesses and what helps them in making a purchasing decision. This trend is constantly growing, so missing out on optimizing your local business won't be a good idea.
What to do?
If your business serves in a local area you can optimize it by combining traditional SEO practices alongside some local tactics.
Here is what you need to do:
GBP (Google Business Profile), formerly Google My Business, is the first thing usually users interact with when searching for a local business. You must optimize it by using quality images, choosing the correct category, and adding accurate and clear information, business description, working hours, contact information, etc.
Your services must meet the expectations of the consumers so they can leave a 5-star review. Respond to their queries timely and encourage them to leave a review. Say thanks to those who leave positive feedback and ratings while addressing the problems of those who are not satisfied. This will build a strong relationship with your customers based on trust.
Make use of schema markup to help search engines better understand your business and its website content. It includes information like working hours, services you offer, location, reviews, etc.
Identify and analyze the social media platforms your targeted audience is mainly active on. Create content for those platforms, engage with your customers, respond to their queries, solve their problems genuinely and promote your products and services by actively participating in groups or discussions.
Topical Authority and Backlinks
Topical authority refers to expertise in a particular subject or niche.
When your website is a useful resource of information on a particular topic and you have firsthand experience with it, it makes your website topically relevant and authoritative.
But do you think it is enough to create useful content to get ranked? No! Only creating content is not enough. So here comes the importance of backlinks.
To prove to Google that your website actually is authoritative in its niche, you must try to earn backlinks from relevant sources.
In the past, every type of backlink did matter but now they must come from relevant and authoritative sites.
That means a plumbing website getting backlinks from a health website will not hold much importance.
What to do?
When it comes to backlinks, quality matters a lot more than quantity.
In the past, people manipulated link-building strategies so much that it resulted in Google introducing several approaches to identify and stop them.
However, the focus has now entirely shifted. There are a few sustainable ways to get backlinks in 2024:
Guest posting is still useful and relevant as it involves contacting relevant people in your industry to get a quality backlink.
You may exchange links with topically relevant websites. Keep in mind that websites must be legit, relevant to your industry and must have a strict mechanism to evaluate whether the placed links are actually going to benefit users or not.
You must have heard about it: “Do not make backlinks, try to earn them”. That’s also true. But how is that possible? You can make it possible by creating in-depth guides backed with data, statistics, studies, and research, or adding useful resources, tools, and templates that naturally attract others to link back to you. Read our link-building tactics that are still relevant in 2024.
Ease of Visual Search
Once you start performing visual search, you will get addicted to it. It helps identify several locations, objects, shopping items and plenty of other things.
For visual search, two features are usually discussed: Google Lens and Google Image Search.
Simply upload any image or use your camera to click one, and Google will show you a large number of relevant images along with their sources.
This feature is not limited to Google only, but Bing and Yandex also offer it.
Suggested Reading: See our detailed guide on how to perform a reverse image search on mobile and desktop
What to do?
Here are a few things that you can do to make your images optimized for visual search:
Traditional image SEO best practices like adding alt text, compressing large images, and image file name optimization are recommended.
Google Lens searches are usually done on mobiles, which means your images must be optimized for mobile devices. Moreover, 9 out of 10 Google Lens results came from those websites that passed the Google mobile-friendly test. So it indicates that it must be your top priority to optimize your website images for mobiles first.
Use descriptive file names that accurately describe your image instead of generic ones.
Add structured data for images. This will help Google understand your images better and display them under relevant categories.
Video SEO
Google tries to show content that better matches the search intent of the users.
Some topics can be better answered using videos. That’s why Google displays videos in SERPs.
There is increased usage of video content especially on platforms like YouTube and TikTok which has brought a major shift in search.
Now people prefer to watch videos along with reading content.
What to do?
Implement video schema markup to your videos. Add clear, concise and relevant information about your videos including titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, etc.
Do keyword research and do not forget to optimize your titles and descriptions to match with what your target audience is looking for.
Spilt your videos into chapters so that a person looking for a specific section may easily access it.
Transcribe your videos as this not only helps search engines better understand the content but also helps them present it to the right audience.
Do not limit yourself to a single platform. Identify which platforms your target audience mainly uses and create videos according to the requirements of the platform and users. For example, if your audience mainly includes YouTube users, you can create long tutorial videos but if they belong to TikTok, you may opt for shorts.
Increased Focus on AI SEO
You know AI can make your SEO processes faster than ever. You can use it in many ways to:
Speed up your research process
Generate images
Create headings, outlines, and short descriptions
Write outreach emails
And in countless other ways
Generative AI tools that can create both text and images like ChaptGPT are the best examples to incorporate in any SEO strategy.
ChatGPT and similar tools are very effective in reading, interpreting and creating documents.
You can use it to summarize long-form content or even ask it to expand a short version of a piece of content. There are unlimited ways in which you can use those AI tools to maximize your work efficiency.
What to do?
If you haven't started using AI for SEO, you are on the wrong side of the track.
From keyword research to data analysis and reporting, there are countless opportunities to use AI to improve your SEO.
Use ChatGPT to get keyword ideas. Enter a seed keyword related to your niche or business and get tons of related keywords.
For content creators, AI is a blessing. Use ChatGPT to get ideas for creating a blog, video, or infographic. Create headings, meta descriptions, bullet points, etc. Summarize a piece of content and ask it to read an entire transcript for you while only highlighting the main points.
Choose a section of content and ask ChatGPT to correct grammar for you.
It also plays a major role in technical SEO. Generate codes for schema, hreflang, robots.txt directives, and several others.
While there are unlimited ways to use AI tools, make sure to double-check the responses before implementing or using them on your website.
Content Quality and Freshness
Due to the increased influx of AI-generated content, it is now difficult to distinguish between valuable and thin content.
Moreover, it is also getting tough to find accurate and trustworthy information. That is the reason people’s search behaviour is shifting and they are now searching for the answers to their questions on forums like Reddit and Quora.
The only way to make a difference is to align your content strategy with the needs of your audience while maintaining the content's freshness. This will greatly increase the value of your content.
What to do?
The best way is to pick all the topics of your website one by one and update them with the latest stats, data, infographics and all the relevant information you think will be necessary to meet the intent or needs of the searchers.
If you have a big website and there are several hundred posts, you can divide them on a weekly or monthly basis for editing. You can start with those posts that are almost dead, meaning they aren’t bringing in any traffic.
Make sure to perform keyword research, add new sections, update the older content and add as much value as you can.
Just ask yourself if it is worth reading or if it truly answers the question a user might be looking for.
So What to Expect in the Coming Years?
We have seen several changes in the past few years like the arrival of generative AI, increased usage of machine learning, and SEO automation tools, along with several Google algorithmic updates.
All those things have changed the landscape of search engine optimization to a greater extent but not fully.
AI is taking over the industry but luckily, people’s behaviour in searching online hasn’t changed much.
It is very unlikely (or at least for several years to come) that people will stop using search engines like Google or Bing to search for various things online and switch to ChatGPT or Gemini.
So it is clear that SEO ISN’T GOING AWAY!
Search engines are continuously improving their algorithms to identify the quality content or websites to present them to the targeted audience.
It is good to know that methods of finding quality websites are changing but what makes a website good hasn't changed.
Years ago, when you published a well-researched and quality piece of content, added visuals, stats, and data, linked it well, and distributed it across various social media channels, it would rank.
The same happens now. You can even do all this in 2024 to rank well.
To date, I’d recommend you to focus on the basics of “All Good SEO Practices” and you will get ranked in Search.
This involves following Google’s E-E-A-T, ethical practices, and sustainable approaches, creating storytelling assets, and delivering more personalized user experiences.
Believe me, you won’t regret it!