30-second summary:
- The pace of technological advances and progress in the SEO sector isn’t slowing down, and you should expect major changes and updates in 2021.
- Google has already announced two algorithm updates slated for March and May 2021.
- There are various trends for SEO in 2020 like UX SEO and feature snippets which appear to become more prominent in the upcoming year.
From the humble beginnings of the Internet and online advertising, we’ve reached an era where the Internet is an essential communication tool, and online advertising is valued at more than 400 billion dollars a year, more prominent than even the TV ad industry. The global pandemic only accelerated this trend and pushed more companies online. So, what can we expect out of SEO in 2021? Which trends should we be looking forward to? Which changes will impact the industry? In this article, we’ll discuss the main trends we expect to have an impact and change the direction of SEO in the coming year.
Direct changes to search engines
SEO is entirely dependent on the major search engines, primarily Google. Any changes to Google’s modus operandi, algorithm, and priorities will have direct, wide-ranging impacts on SEO in 2021. These changes lead to losses in billions of dollars for some businesses while leading to gains of billions of dollars for others. It is important to be aware of the upcoming changes and how to best prepare for them.
#1 Page experience as a ranking factor on Google [May 2021]
As of May 2021[1], you should expect what Google dubs as “page experience signals” to be a ranking factor. The page experience refers to the way the visitors feel as they interact with the web page. It is determined by a multitude of attributes