Top SEO Trends You Should Be Aware of in 2024
SEO is a vital part of your content marketing strategy, helping you connect with potential customers through direct searches for your brand and indirect searches that your brand can address. Google’s data shows that about half of all shoppers use Google to discover new brands, which opens up a world of opportunities for you to find new ways to connect. To stay competitive in this landscape, it's essential to stay updated with the latest trends in SEO. One effective way to do so is by investing in the best online digital marketing courses.
These courses can provide invaluable insights into optimizing your content for search engines, understanding algorithms, and implementing effective digital marketing strategies. As the digital landscape changes, so does how we utilize SEO, and 2024 is bringing in a wave of new trends to keep an eye on. These tips and tricks, combined with insights from top-notch digital marketing courses, can help you stay on top of the search engine rankings and ahead of the competition.
However, as the digital landscape changes, so does how we utilize SEO, and 2024 is bringing in a wave of new trends to keep an eye on. These tips and tricks can help you stay on top of the search engine rankings.
1. Personalize and diversify your approach to potential customers.
You might have seen several studies discussing the value of personalizing your potential customer’s experiences with your brand by now. A 2021 study by McKinsey found 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. However, we’ve gone beyond consumers just expecting these interactions. The study also found that 76% of consumers become frustrated when these interactions don’t happen.
If you’re not personalizing your potential customers’ experiences with your brand, you could be turning them off without realizing it. However, personalization can present challenges, as many Americans are skeptical about sharing their data. According to a Pew Research Center survey, only about one in every five surveyed said they’re confident that companies with access to their personal information will treat it responsibly.
With some Americans hesitant to share their data, we have to branch out and try multiple methods to create as close to personalized experiences as possible, in which effective B2B marketing funnels can help. At the top of a B2B marketing funnel is the awareness stage, in which SEO can play a crucial role. As you build out your content marketing strategy to attract potential customers, you’ll want to utilize any data you have access to to create content that lands you coveted spots on search engines.
However, it’s essential to understand that you should have multiple customer profiles as you may have numerous target audiences. When you create content to encourage potential customers to land on your website, you want to diversify the content to fit these different profiles. Diversifying your content marketing strategy allows you to target more search-friendly keywords and, in turn, tailor your content to more potential customers.
2. Prepare your domains for search.
One of the biggest trends to watch in 2024 is the rise in the need for authority. As we move into 2024, search engines prioritize content written by thought leaders in their respective fields. Consider adding a few things to your content marketing strategy to establish yourself as a thought leader in your space. For starters, sharing your credentials on your website is beneficial, like in a biography at the bottom of the page you want to rank on search engines.
However, you can even establish your authority through your domain. It’s worthwhile to invest in multiple domain names, both for search-engine indexing and to redirect potential customers. You can use search-friendly keywords throughout your website content, but your domain name can be another spot to improve your SEO.
Once you grow your domain portfolio, you can address your audience's searches through those domain names. Rather than simply having your business’s name as the only way for people to access your website, you can have several domains redirecting to your main site. Those additional domain names make it easier for potential customers to find you directly, but they also help search engines better rank what your website is all about.
3. Understand the rise of voice search.
According to NPR and Edison Research, 62% of Americans over 18 use a voice assistant on any device, like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. Ranking for voice search and traditional text search provides both a unique set of opportunities and challenges. Consider how you talk to your voice assistant. Many people talk to it like they would speak to a person.
Meanwhile, when you type something into a search bar, you usually pull out keywords and don’t ask a complete question like a voice assistant.
Moreover, when a voice assistant responds, they usually pull one of the top-ranking results. If your response to the question ranked lower on a search engine, the person asking the question would never see your business, though they might have if they had done a traditional text search.
With the rise of voice search, it’s more important than ever to diversify your keywords for your content marketing strategy. While shorter keywords may be beneficial for traditional search engines, voice search often requires long-tail keywords containing three or more words. A long-tail keyword can be a complete question and is more conversational than shorter keywords, making them perfect for voice search.
It’s also worth considering if your brand voice fits today’s voice-search-driven world. Because voice searches are more conversational, you’ll want to produce content that fits that more casual tone. If your content is overly technical and leans away from how one would speak to another person, you might be doing a disservice to your voice search SEO.
Ultimately, your goal in voice search is to become one of the top-ranking results, as it’s the only way customers will know you’re there if they’re using voice search. This concept goes back to the importance of the top of your B2B marketing funnel. If you want to generate awareness, you need to be a top result in the case of voice search. You may want to test your voice search tools to see where you rank and determine if you need voice search optimization.
4. Don’t fear zero-click searches.
When you search for something on a search engine, you may not always leave that search engine. According to a study by Semrush, 57% of mobile and about a quarter of desktop searches end with the searcher not clicking on an organic or paid result after making a query.
These queries are called zero-click searches, and it’s easy to become concerned about their rise. After all, you always want the result to be someone landing on your website. However, zero-click searches have their place in your content marketing strategy.
Like voice search, zero-click searches are looking for those top-ranking results. These searches look to highlight featured snippets that answer specific questions. These featured snippets also tell the searcher who provides the information they’re reading. This information helps establish you as a thought leader and builds out that awareness part of your B2B marketing funnel.
Zero-click searches can also happen as people search for businesses. If someone were to look up your company name or a related search that might steer them toward needing your assistance, your business profile may pop up. As long as your profile clarifies how to reach you, those potential customers may not need to go to your website, but you’ll still get their business. Zero-click searches can be a boon to your business, even if you don’t see more traffic on your website.
5. Go mobile-first.
According to Statista, more than 60% of all searches happen on a mobile device, so it makes sense why search engines prioritize content from websites optimized for mobile. Whether you’re making a landing page, a blog post, a contact page, or any other part of your website, ensure that your content is easy to navigate and attractive to the eye on mobile.
When you build out this content, look at how the page comes across on mobile before publishing. While you shouldn’t entirely ignore your content’s desktop design, we’ve reached a point where mobile navigation should take higher priority.
6. Make AI work for you.
You may have heard rumors that AI-written content affects your rankings on search engines, but these search engines, like Google, have clarified that they don’t deprioritize content just because AI writes it. However, these search engines do prioritize original content. If it looks like you’re generating tons of unoriginal content to manipulate the rankings, the search engine will mark it as spam, reducing your SEO-driven traffic.
However, AI can still benefit content marketing, even beyond writing. AI can assist you in multiple parts of your B2B marketing funnel. These tools can help you collect and analyze data on your ideal customers, find keywords that target these potential buyers, and let you know if your content is SEO-friendly.
You’ll build out your awareness for your brand with AI, but it can also benefit you lower in your funnel as you analyze your market, reach out to potential customers, and organize your data.
Improving Your SEO for 2024
If we were to sum up the trends for SEO in three words, they would be personalization, diversification, and authority. Through your B2B marketing strategy and AI, you’re employing personalization, targeting your potential customers through careful analysis that’ll lead to awareness growth for your brand.
Your mobile-first strategy and domain portfolio allows you to diversify your content for different audiences and devices while zero-click and voice searches create a cycle of authority. The more you land at the top of these rankings, the more you’ll establish yourself as a thought leader. The more you establish yourself as a thought leader, the more often you’ll top the rankings.
SEO has experienced many changes in the past few years, which are likely to continue as time goes on. With these tips, you’ll find that your content marketing strategy is ready for 2024.
Author Bio:
John is a digital marketing specialist for global brands like Datanyze. He spends most of his time A/B testing and different strategies and in his spare time, argues his findings with his dog. Zeus.
