With the upcoming launch of Google's newest search engine optimization (SEO) report, Core Web Vitals, we thought it would be beneficial to take a look at what SEO tactics are currently trending in the content marketing world.
First off, let's dive into what the Core Web Vitals report is and why you should care. Ultimately, this report is all about user experience (UX) and will score your pages based on predefined metrics related to the overall UX. According to Backlinko, “Core Web Vitals are made up of three specific page speed and user interaction measurements: largest contentful paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shift.”
So why is this so important? Starting mid-June 2021, Google plans to utilize this score and make page experience an official Google ranking factor. While there will be various factors that are included in the page experience ranking, it’s safe to say that the Core Web Vitals will play a large role. To learn more about the report, how to access it and more visit Google’s support page.
As you can see, user experience is becoming more and more important as it relates to your website. In addition to the Core Web Vitals report, here are three additional SEO trends to keep top of mind as your 2021 strategy continues to evolve and grow.
As of the first quarter of 2021, Statista reported that mobile devices accounted for 59 percent of organic search engine visits. With mobile searches exceeding desktop, it is vital that your website is optimized for smartphones and tablets. A few quick wins for mobile SEO:
Site Configuration (Mobile Responsive) - No longer can a website just be mobile friendly. Websites should be coded to be responsive which means that the website will automatically adapt and optimize to the specific screen the user is on.
Site Design - Even with a fully responsive site, we need our images and other special effects to also be optimized for mobile. A few things to keep in mind, avoid using flash plug-ins (think HTML5 instead), ensure images and pop-ups can be scaled, and create CTA buttons that can be easily clicked with your fingers.
Mobile Site Speed - Always have a pulse check on the page load time for mobile as slow load times will majorly affect bounce rates. To see current load times, there are many different tools available including your basic Google Analytics page report.
Another tactic that is vital in this digital world is routinely staying on top of the search intent of your target audience. This means knowing who your target audience is and having a deep understanding of what they’re searching for and the type of content they are expecting.
This is important because Google recognizes search intent and takes it into consideration for your site's search rank. To improve this, you want to again maintain a pulse check on specific search data and refine page content based on relevance, authority, and user satisfaction. Additional exercises to improve search intent:
Understanding the Searching Engine Results Page (SERP) - Dive into the SERP pages to analyze which pages are ranking ahead of you.
Competitive Research - Always know what your competitors are doing. When you go to refine your content based on any new learnings, build it to provide more value than your competitors.
As we’ve previously covered, it is widely written that video is the most important marketing trend for the next five years. As you and your team work to take advantage of this, make sure you’re optimizing those videos for SEO.
Keywords and Captions - In your videos, ensure that your dialogue includes keywords that your audience will be searching for. Furthermore, include captions with these videos, not only does this help with accessibility but it also enables search bots to find them.
Thumbnails - Create a compelling thumbnail to go with your videos as this is a major factor in the click through rate. The thumbnail should be high quality, relevant to those search terms, and represent the content they’re about to see.
As you can tell, SEO is rapidly evolving. While this is just a snippet into the many different SEO tactics, we always want to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest trends and adapt as needed. Make sure to explore how Cascade CMS can support all of these SEO tactics and more.
Last Updated: Jun 8, 2021 11:00 AM
