SEO in 2020: Getting You Started
2019 has been full of wins and losses for us SEOs. Multiple announced and some unconfirmed algorithm updates have kept us on our toes and made us adapt accordingly. These updates steadily shape how Google will process search in the years to come and we want you, our readers, to be ready and stay ahead of the game this 2020. SEO is an ever-changing industry and we should be in-the-know about the most recent updates and we should also possess a mastery of the past updates that happened.
SEO in 2019’s defining trait is the continuous shift of importance to intent-focused, query-answering content. It’s not all about word count, meta tags, and links anymore. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, these are the articles that will help you stay ahead of the SEO game in 2020! Happy New Year, SEO Hackers!
How BERT Affects SEO and How You Can Optimize For It
BERT or otherwise known as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers is one of the most recent updates by Google. However, we have to note that this isn’t an update to their ranking algorithm. This update is solely to improve their understanding of the content found in the millions of websites on the world wide web.
Through BERT, Google’s understanding of words and their context & meaning deepens. They’ll be able to correctly ascertain what your content is all about. This means that most of us content creators will not be limited to using simple and easily understood words.
2020 won’t be different from the latter part of 2019 since most of the major updates happened during this time. I believe that the start of 2020 is when they’ll finalize and smoothen out all the updates they’ve released this year. So, it would be great for you to learn and understand how BERT affects Google’s search processes.
Google Chrome Will Start Blocking HTTP Resources in HTTPS Pages
This wasn’t a major update but this does affect how users interact with your website. Google has been pushing for a safer and more secure search experience for all the users. This wasn’t unexpected but a good number of webmasters have been affected by this update since this is more a gray area with regards to our websites. Since most of us, as long as the image or resource does the job, we put it in our pages. This is why I’ve made it a practice to produce my own images and upload them to my site for them to automatically be regarded as from an https source.
Make sure to adapt to this update since you’ll not only look good to your visitors but you’ll also be sending positive signals to Google and other search engines.
Blog SEO: Guide Questions to Writing Your Blog Posts
Content is still king. That hasn’t changed since the year the phrase has been introduced. As Google improves its content learning process, blogging for SEO is more important than ever. Having optimized technical factors and backlinks won’t cut it. You’ll need content to be successful in search.
Through the guide questions, you’ll have a checklist that will not only ensure that you have a perfectly optimized content but you’ll also be able to perfectly answer the user’s query you’re targeting.
Official Google Advice on Core Update Recovery
This year has been full of core algorithm updates. SEOs and webmasters have been clamoring to find out the “solution” to these updates. Finally, Google has released its official “advice” to recovering from being hit by these continuous core updates.
One thing we have to understand is that core updates are never about a single search factor. It’s a holistic update to their core algorithm. This means that you can’t optimize a single technical factor inside your website. You have to improve your website as a whole.
Everything You Should Know About E-A-T
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, otherwise known as E-A-T has been a buzzword in the SEO industry for some time now. It all started in 2018 and through numerous updates that hit numerous sites, E-A-T started gaining traction as one of the most important factors a site should have.
This 2020, I believe it won’t be any different. E-A-T is still a problem many websites are dealing with up to today and the best way, through numerous experiments and tests on my side and through Google’s official advice, improving your content to better fit your user’s needs is the best way to mitigate this problem.
Happy New Year, SEO Hackers!
2020 is just around the corner. Are you ready for what’s coming? 2019 has been a year full of opportunities and adversities and I doubt 2020 would be any different. It’s our job and responsibility as SEOs and webmasters to always be on the top of our game and bring about a great search experience for all the users in the search market.
Happy New Year, SEO Hackers! I’m so happy to go into 2020 with all the support and attention you guys are giving us. I hope 2020 is a year of growth, improvement, and innovation for all of us. Cheers!
