A new year has dawned and for "SEOs", agency operators or marketing managers, the question arises: What will change in 2021 with regard to search engine optimization (SEO)? What trends will shape SEO in 2021? Which ranking factors are likely to play a major role this year and how can you prepare for them? This article provides the answers.
Looking back: The year 2020 from an SEO perspective
True to the motto "Only those who know the past can understand the present and shape the future", we will first take a look at the year 2020 from an SEO perspective.
Confirmed core updates in 2020
The following core updates were carried out in 2020 and have therefore been officially confirmed by Google. If you want to go back another year in Google's history, you can read about all confirmed core updates from 2019 in last year's article.
13.01.2020 - January 2020 Core Update
The year was only a few days old when Google announced the first core update and rolled it out a few minutes later.
04.05.2020 - May 2020 Core Update
Despite Covid-19, Google did not stop at another core update in May. Sistrix also analyzed which domains were among the winners and losers in this update. You can find more information here.
03.12.2020 - December 2020 Core Update
Almost six months after the May Core Update and shortly before the end of the year, Google surprised us once again with a third and final Core Update for 2020. Google also pointed out in this Core Update that it can take up to two weeks for the updates to be fully rolled out and recommends the following document as a guide for webmasters.
Google's "Christmas present" changed the way the search engine giant views dictionaries and encyclopaedias in particular. These were among the obvious losers of the update.
Search Console API Update & Request Indexing Feature
The Search Console API has also been updated and therefore receives fresh data and new filters. Among other things, Google has introduced
- more up-to-date data and a new filter function,
- Domain property support in the Sitemaps API and
- Guidelines for the migration of the Discovery doc.
Google recently revised some other Search Console functions and deactivated the "Request Indexing" feature in order to improve this, according to Google in a Webmaster Hangout.
Much to the delight of many SEO managers, this function has recently been reactivated in the Google Search Console. This means that website operators are once again free to inform Google about new subpages of a domain and thus speed up the indexing of new websites.
Google Core Web Vitals
First things first: May 2021 should be marked in everyone's calendar. Why is that? Google announced that it will make the so-called "Core Web Vitals" a ranking factor as part of the page experience. Until now, Google also included user experience as a ranking factor in the algorithm. How exactly, however, remained a mystery for a long time. Now, however, with the planned update in May 2021, Google is providing concrete and measurable KPIs that form the Core Web Vitals.
What key figures are meant by Core Web Vitals and what do they mean?
The Core Web Vitals are formed from the metrics "Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)", "First Input Delay (FID)" and "Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)". In simplified terms, the new metrics answer the following questions:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long does it take for the main content of your website to load?
There are various methods and ways to measure the loading time of a website. For example, the key figure "First Contentful Paint" indicates when the website first displays content. The key figure LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), on the other hand, measures the loading time in a much cleverer way. It measures how long it takes for the main content of the website to load. If you follow Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, the main content is the content that serves the purpose of the respective website.
LCP, FID & CLS are the first Core Web Vitals
First Input Delay (FID): When can a user interact with the loaded website for the first time?
You visit a website, it builds up while loading and while it is still loading you try to click on a button or something similar. In some cases, not much happens because the website has not yet fully built up. On the one hand, this is bad for the user experience and, with the Core Web Vitals from May 2021, also bad for the ranking. Google provides a detailed guide to improving the FID specifically for this purpose.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): What about the visual stability of your website?
Everyone is familiar with websites where elements move around unnecessarily or build up on top of each other when loading. Most people are already aware that such websites do not offer the best user experience. Google also shares this view, which is why the metric is now included in the assessment of user experience as part of the Core Web Vitals.
The so-called "impact fraction" and "distance fraction" are the starting point for calculating the metric. The former clarifies the question of what percentage of the screen is moved during loading. The latter provides information on how far content moves during loading in relation to the viewport.
Basically, the new metrics can be described as part of the "page experience". All three of the metrics mentioned now join the previous signals (https, mobile usability, safe browsing, non-intrusive interstitials) for the page experience, as illustrated by the following figure from Google:
What values should my website ideally have and which values need improvement?
Google itself provides the following value ranges as a guide. According to this, a loading time of the main content (LCP) of less than 2.5 seconds is considered good. Values in the range between 2.5 and 4 seconds require improvement. Anything above this is considered poor, meaning that ranking losses must be expected for such websites.
In order not to be negatively affected by the upcoming update in May, your users should be able to interact with the website after 100 ms at the latest when loading the website (FID). You should also aim for a CLS value of less than 0.1.
Where can I view or measure the values of the Core Web Vitals?
There are various ways to measure the metrics of a website. On the one hand, the values can be retrieved via the Chrome User Experience Report. This provides empirical values on how real Chrome users experience different websites. However, the easiest way for webmasters to determine the values should be via PageSpeed Insights.
Alternatively, website operators can use the "Core Web Vitals Report" added to the Search Console. The three key figures can also be retrieved quite quickly via the Web Vitals extension.
Google itself provides a comprehensive guide with frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the topic of Core Web Vitals. Google also mentions the possibility that websites that meet all the user-friendliness criteria may be displayed in the search results in a different way using an indicator.
It is likely to be a similar function to that used for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). These are provided with a flash in front of the search result in the mobile search in order to signal a fast loading time to the user in advance.
Voice search: Increasing importance & influencing search queries
Thanks to inventions such as Siri, Amazon Alexa or the Google voice assistant, almost every household now has the option of entering voice commands or searches. It is hardly surprising that the importance of this will continue to increase in 2021, especially with regard to SEO.
All of these voice assistants enable searches in Google & Co. in a way that is fundamentally different from conventional searches. The main difference is the search query itself.
While someone might use voice search to enter a query such as: "Hey Google, what are the SEO trends for 2021?", someone using search engines in the traditional way is more likely to enter a query such as "SEO trends 2021" via text.
It is clear that much longer and natural search queries are relevant for voice search. In order to optimize website content for voice search in particular, it is therefore advisable to use precisely these complex questions and natural sentences instead of short search queries.
This is also confirmed by a study conducted by SEMrush on the topic of voice search. This looked at the differences between the local search results of various voice assistants.
If it makes sense for your industry, products or services, it is definitely advisable to prepare content for voice search.
Artificial intelligence (AI) & RankBrain
With the development of Google's AI algorithm called RankBrain, artificial intelligence found its way into the Google algorithm for the first time. RankBrain is sometimes suitable for providing relevant search results even for new, previously unanswered search queries.
One of the key developers of this technology, which is based on machine learning and AI, is the scientific director of Google, Greg Corrado. He already emphasized the algorithm's ability to learn during its development. It can therefore be assumed that it will improve with every new search query.
Social Signals
Likes and shares are referred to as social signals in terms of search engine optimization. It is not for nothing that they are called "social signals", as they serve as a signal of authority and expertise, especially for users who see the content on social media. Social signals can also serve as a signal for Google, for example to classify content that is frequently shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as particularly relevant.
If your content is shared frequently on social media, you will appear to other users as an expert in a certain subject area. Google sees this in a similar way and may reward you with better rankings.
EAT principles for better rankings
While we're on the subject of authority and expert status, it makes sense to take a look at the EAT score. Google has labeled content that expresses expertise, authority and trustworthiness as EAT content. Especially in industries or subject areas that are considered YMLF (your money, your life) such as finance, investment, health, this type of content is essential.
These factors underline the importance of high-quality content for Google. Considering the fact that Google is ultimately most interested in delivering the best possible search result for the searcher, EAT content should continue to gain in importance in 2021.
Optimization for mobile devices
First introduced in 2019 and still growing in importance: the "Mobile First Index". Google thus laid the foundation for primary optimization for mobile devices. The search engine primarily looks at the mobile version of a website instead of the desktop version.
The importance of mobile-first optimization is likely to continue to increase in 2021. On the one hand, this is due to the continued increase in the number of mobile device users compared to desktop devices. On the other hand, John Müller (Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google) announced that a complete switch to the Mobile First Index will take place in March 2021. In plain language this means: From March 2021, Google will ignore content from websites that are only visible on desktop.
Tip: Test mobile optimization
Zero Click Searches & structured data
The increasing number of so-called zero click searches, i.e. search queries that do not result in a click, has already worried some SEOs and website operators in recent years, leading some to say that "SEO is dead".
The number of zero-click searches already increased in the period from 2016 to 2019, as the following figure illustrates. On mobile devices, both the percentage share and the increase in zero-click searches are higher than on desktop searches.
Why is that? For example, if you search for the weather or want to see the time in a particular country, you will receive a direct response from Google via the One Box. On the one hand, this increases search convenience, but reduces traffic to relevant websites. In addition, the majority of search queries can already be answered by rich snippets (i.e. extended search results) in Google.
However, this should not deter you from avoiding structured data - on the contrary. They help Google to better understand your website and generally lead to a higher CTR(click through rate).
Long content still performs better
The adage "content is king" continues to apply in 2021. Long and, above all, in-depth content will continue to perform better than short and less informative content. It is therefore undisputed that you should continue to publish high-quality content in order to land in the top rankings of the search results (SERPs).
But is the length of my content the only deciding factor? No. Various studies have found a correlation between long content and good rankings, but no causality. In plain language: long content does not necessarily have to be of high quality and informative and certainly does not have to appear in the top positions in Google.
However, it is highly likely that an article with 2000 words will be far more informative than an article with only 500 words. Therefore, focus on creating high-quality and informative content rather than focusing solely on the length of your texts.
A study by Backlinko backs up this statement. It states that long content achieves far better positions in the SERPS than content that is less long.
According to the study, the average length of the top 10 search results is 1,447 words. Hubspot, on the other hand, recommended a content length of around 2,100 - 2,400 words for 2020. Again, a similar study by SerpIQ provides different data, as the following graphic illustrates:
How long your content will be in the new year is of course up to you. However, the basic message is clear: longer and more informative content inevitably performs better. The Backlinko study also identified another advantage: The longer the content, the more domains link to a particular article. This in turn leads to better rankings. So there is nothing to be said against putting a little more effort into content creation and covering a topic in depth.
Semantic search & search intent
Whereas a few years ago, the focus was largely on the focus keyword of a text, this usually resulted in over-optimized and unnatural texts. It should be clear that things like keyword stuffing are no longer appropriate these days, let alone sensible.
In 2021, the importance of search intent and semantic search will continue to grow significantly. It will therefore be far more important to scrutinize the searcher's objective and provide relevant answers accordingly.
Particularly with regard to the aforementioned increasing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, it makes far more sense to write texts for people - not machines.
Google works hard to understand and interpret texts in the right context. In order to make your texts as relevant as possible, it makes sense to use WFD*IDF tools in addition to keyword research to find keywords that are related to the respective topic. Semantic keywords in particular can be read out simply and easily using a tool such as LSIGraph.
Another tool that I find ideal for the data-driven optimization of text content is Surfer. This takes into account the ideal length of the content mentioned above as well as other relevant keywords.
Basically, such tools should only serve as a guide and less as a strict guideline that the text must follow. After all, the text should be written by people for people.
Other recommendations for 2021
John Müller (Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google) gave his predictions for 2021 at SMX Virtual at the end of 2020, which SEO expert Glenn Gabe (columnist at Search Engine Land) summarized on Twitter:
This means that the upcoming core updates will be much more difficult to explain, as they focus more on general aspects such as quality and relevance than on individual, clearly definable things.
At the same time, John Müller announced that websites that are technically optimized will have a significant advantage over non-optimized websites. Technical SEO should therefore be taken into account, especially in 2021.
In addition, one of his statements was that some upcoming updates will also have advantages for websites that are not explicitly optimized. A reason to rejoice for all those who have not yet taken advantage of SEO.
It therefore remains exciting to see what changes, innovations and developments we can expect in terms of search engine optimization in 2021.
I love your article! Very informative and easy to understand one of the best blogs about SEO trends. Thank you for sharing this it really helps a lot!