Over the past 5 years, Google has released 36 major updates to the search algorithm, Yandex is also not lagging behind and on average makes 2 major updates per year. With each new version, search engines force webmasters to reconsider their approaches to SEO promotion and place more emphasis on content for users, rather than on search bots.
Moreover, 2023 has changed the approach to the entire content generation industry. Now, with the help of artificial intelligence, you can create photos, videos, and text, and optimize all this for social networks and various formats. Such colossal changes also could not but affect search engine algorithms and SEO approaches in general.
In this article, we analyze the main trends in optimizing content for search engines and tell you what has changed in SEO over the past year.
SEO Practices Trends for 2024
Trend No. 1. Only high-quality content
In March 2024, Google released one of its largest core algorithm updates to date. And it is largely due to the desire to reduce the amount of “unoriginal, low-quality content in Search,” by 40%.
Over the past year, many in arbitrage have begun to use artificial intelligence to mass produce content aimed at search engines rather than users. And as we know, such content is not always pleasing to the eye. First of all, the introduction of the new algorithm will affect precisely such websites. But overall, the update will hit everyone differently, as it causes large fluctuations in keyword rankings.
Trend No. 2. Optimization for mobile devices
This trend is not new, but one of the main ones in 2024. Now it is absolutely important to move from classic SEO to SXO (Search Experience Optimization) – this is the intersection of SEO, CRO, and UX.
In reality, there is nothing complicated, since there are now working strategies for achieving responsive web page design:
- CSS media queries;
- flexible layouts and images;
- optimization for touch control;
- implementation of a chatbot on a landing page, etc.
You can focus on the main KPI indicators – the share of mobile traffic, mobile search ranking and bounce rate for mobile devices. While these KPIs are not official Google ranking factors, they will help you measure your optimization results.
Trend #3: The Importance of Search Intent in Rankings
Search intent is the user’s goal behind their request. This parameter is considered one of the main ones in website ranking. Typically, marketers identify four categories of search intent:
- navigation search – search for a specific site;
- transactional search – search for the purchase of something;
- commercial search – search for comparison of goods or services;
- information search – search for specific information.
Recent trends have shown that transactional and commercial queries in search engines are growing, but informational and navigation queries, on the contrary, are decreasing. This should be taken into account when optimizing website pages.
However, you need to understand that “search intent” is not the main ranking factor. Equally important is what format of content your target audience is looking for: answers in 2-3 sentences, detailed articles, video instructions, step-by-step guide with pictures, etc.
Trend #4: More clues in questions and answers
Query keywords usually have less competition, so they are easier to rank in search results. Therefore, webmasters should integrate “questions and answers” into their websites. This can be done in different ways:
- Create articles that will contain answers to the most common questions.
- Create a separate page where you will collect answers to the most common questions about your products and services.
- Add frequently asked questions sections to each page, for example using a drop-down menu.
You can find relevant questions in the search results in the “People Also Ask” section. You can also use keyword tools to help you find related questions faster based on keywords.