SEO is one of the most energetic areas of digital marketing, as Google is always updating its ranking algorithm to provide a better experience to users. This means that marketers can re-evaluate the SEO trends that determine search engine visibility every year.
That said, read on for the top 12 SEO trends to watch in 2024 and how to align your strategy with them.
The top SEO trends to align within 2024
This year, we want to demonstrate our content’s expertise and value and continue providing helpful web pages to users. This tactic has always been important throughout the history of SEO, but Google is improving at evaluating tags and determining what content meets these standards.
Let’s consider what I mean and how you can meet these ideals.
1. First-hand experience on a topic (the new “E” in E-EAT)
As of December 2023, Google’s popular acronym EAT (Experience, Establishment, Trust) is rated E: Added Experience, which stands for E-EAT. Google will now consider the author’s or creator’s experience when assessing the content’s quality.
So what does “experience” actually mean? Google wants the content creator to have direct, real-world experience with the discussed topic.
For example, as the organizer of an SEO agency, I have real-world practice and can speak with authority about the SEO trends that will emerge in 2024. a medical condition that may degrade the quality of the content, as I am not a medical professional and have no experience in the healthcare field.
This means that many websites need to take a closer look at who is creating content and what topics they focus on.
This brings me to the following two methods.
2. Audience-targeted, not traffic-targeted content
One reason for the increased focus on experience is that SEO creation is rising. However, if a website selling financial software publishes blog posts with recipes, Google’s crawlers become suspicious. Is this content useful to the target audience of financial software customers? Or does it help the website rank for some keywords?
You already know the answer. The truth is that companies whose strategy is to follow the search engine, with little thought to what users want, are unlikely to achieve ranking success in 2024. Publishing on your general topic and industry areas is essential to creating decent content. Classify.
Don’t know what topic to look for content on? Content planning tools can help you determine relevant industry topics your target audience seeks. Enter a keyword, and the device will show you more semantically related terms that users can enter into the search bar.
3. Increased emphasis on author authority
Another reason for Google’s emphasis on expert knowledge is to improve the ranking of auto-generated content in search results. Google wants to ensure that content in 2024 is created by real people with real audiences in mind.
So, what can you do to increase the expertise and capabilities of your creatives this year? First, make sure the people creating your content are experts. Then, improve their experience in the following ways:
- Add an author bio to better and more fully convey your author’s knowledge and areas of expertise.
- Create author pages where you link to all articles inscribed by the author on your website.
- Connect your creators’ social media accounts to make it easy for Google to treat social brands as real people and experts.
Here’s an example of a great bio that helps promote the author’s experience and credibility as a PPC expert.
4. Satisfying, helpful content
Google’s August 2023 content update is another major algorithm impacting how we create content in 2024.
Throughout its history, Google has always prioritized high-quality content providers. However, the new emphasis on “usefulness” suggests that users should feel “satisfied” with the content of search results.
However, user approval is not easy to measure or quantify. So, what does Google mean by help? It includes:
- Created for people, not search engines.
- Suitable for the target audience.
- Relevant to the key topic or subject area of the website.
- Created by convincing, experienced creators.
- Displays an in-depth acquaintance with the topic.
Making captivating content is easier said than done. So, how can you kind your content more effective?
First, focus on quality, not quantity. While your 2024 writing schedule will likely include more keywords, creating a large amount of content without some help and experience is unlikely to yield good results in 2024.
Second, expand your keyword research to include information beyond search volume. Please note the following:
- What types of content are placed for specific searches?
- How extensive is the content?
- What questions does it answer?
- What other subtopics or correlated questions does it explore?
- What links are included on the page?
- Who is the creator?
- What is their experience?
Keyword and content research can give you information about quality scores, so don’t just focus on organic traffic.
Check your search enquiries in the Search Console to see what people are searching for that leads to your unique posts. Learn more about ways to use Google Search Console here.
5. A. I content and content-writing software
While all 2024 updates aim to combat auto-generated content, AI content will likely only increase in 2024.
The number of marketing apps that combine SEO and AI is only increasing. And no wonder because this combination can be an incredible time saver! Most content marketers have used some form of AI-powered content generator in the past year.
But is this software safe to use with all the latest Google updates?
Absolutely! Creating automated content is a big challenge, but marketers can use this tool to speed up the content process while still creating original, quality content.
Here are some of the most useful uses of this tool that don’t sacrifice originality or intimacy with people:
- Content briefs: Content tools can help your writers understand the keywords, topics, and subtopics that should be included in their original content.
- Content outlines: Recommendations are a great way to give your writers a roadmap for creating compelling content without relying on AI to do their work.
- Content Ideas: Tools like blog topic creators can speed up brainstorming. Going from a keyword to an effective content idea can be half the battle, and an idea creator can help prevent writer’s block. For example, a blog idea was automatically developed and redesigned to add a brand voice to the website and tailor it to its younger target audience.
6. SEO automation
As with AI content, many SEO tasks will be automated by 2024 as digital marketers continue to use modern and commercial SEO software tools.
For example:
- Keyword research tools can program tasks that once required much manual spreadsheet work.
- Site auditing and monitoring stages like SearchAtlas and Content King can automatically detect website changes and technical issues.
- Website graders can help the less SEO-savvy to categorize needed optimizations and prioritize accordingly.
7. Changes to CTRs by SERP positions
Be prepared to change the way you think about CTR and rankings.
With infinite scrolling now available on mobile and desktop, Google has made it easier for users to navigate multiple pages of SERPs to find the content they want.
Over the years, the bond between ranking position and CTR has remained relatively consistent, with most clicks coming from the first three results.
However, 2024 click-through rates will likely suffer as users scroll through more search results pages.
Regarding the dreaded zero-click search we’ve been hearing about for years, a recent SEMrush study found that only 25.8% of searches resulted in a zero-click. As Google continues to add more visual categories and search features such as People Also Ask, CTR may not have as many clicks as originally expected.
While landing on the first page is still ideal, staying on the second or third page will provide more benefits than before due to infinite scrolling. So be sure to optimize your page titles and meta descriptions and use features like schema markup to make your content more attractive and clickable in search results.
8. Product page SEO
As Google continues to reward long, informative, and meaningful pages like product pages, they can capitalize on 2024 by providing more helpful information on the page.
Drop-down menus, FAQs, and customer reviews can add more content to your product page. While including keywords in your product description is helpful, consider other questions users might want answered about a product before purchasing it.
- Do you offer free delivery?
- What is the return policy?
- Are there pledges, upgrades, or add-ons available with the product?
- Are there customer confirmations or reviews that you can display with the product?
9. SEO competitor analysis
Finding competitors has always been an intelligent way to develop an SEO strategy, and competitor analysis will be easier and more effective in 2024 with SEO tools.
Since Google strongly emphasizes industry expertise and “topic areas” of websites, studying the opinions of leaders in your industry will be a definite way to understand what types of content in your trade will rank.
You can use competitor SEO software to compare competitors’ content, backlinks, domain authority, and more.
Look at how your competitors build expertise, knowledge, credibility, and authority through branding on and off-page, and incorporate these insights into your SEO campaign and content strategy. Learn more in our guide to keyword competition analysis.
10. Less crawling frequency
Google recently set big goals to combat climate change, including being carbon neutral by 2024. To achieve this goal, Google is considering reducing the frequency of crawling web pages.
Minimizing scanning helps save computing resources and is one of the simplest changes Google can make in its sustainability efforts.
However, slowing crawl rates is more likely to affect new crawlers than crawlers creating new content. This means that it may take a long time for Google to notice new changes we make to our website.
That’s why optimizing your search engine with all the on-page elements it needs to rank is the best strategic choice in 2024.
11. Image SEO revitalized
Images on websites are often overlooked, but they always play a role in improving image search rankings.
They may also provide the ability to add keywords and semantically related words to our alternative text content.
Google likes to realize alt text and schema markup, which helps crawlers better recognize the content of images. Google also likes to grasp webmasters who make their content easily accessible to all users. Alt text also helps make the Internet more accessible to visually impaired people with limited Internet speeds or connection limitations.
This image SEO checklist ensures you follow all the must-have image rules in 2024.
12. Fast-loading, high-performing websites
After updating the page interface in 2021, Google has emphasized high-performing and fast-loading websites in its ranking algorithm.
While updating a site may be old news, Google won’t finish rolling out updates until March 2022 and will continue improving its signals to determine whether a site is helpful to users.
In 2024, Page Speed Insights and Web Core Analytics will still be essential tools for monitoring and measuring web speed and performance.
Along with content quality, prioritizing page speed optimization is sure to provide companies with improved keyword rankings for all web pages on their website.
Weave these 2024 SEO trends into your strategy.
In 2024, consider the changes below, as they all directly affect algorithm updates, Google values, and goals. In addition, be sure to use SEO tools to meet the increasing standards of Google content quickly and effectively.
- The original “E” in E.E.A.T
- Enlarged importance of author authority
- Satisfying, helpful content
- Niche-driven, topically-relevant content
- A.I content and content writing software
- SEO automation
- Changes to CTRs by SERP positions
- Product page SEO
- SEO competitor analysis
- Less crawl frequency
- Image SEO revitalized
- Fast-loading, high-performing websites