Although 2020 was a garbage fire of a year for a number of reasons, one thing’s for sure: we all spent a hell of a lot of time sitting in front of our computers. Content creators all over the world saw a huge uptick in engagement and impressions with their creations, setting the stage for a big 2021. But what does our SEO overlord Google have to say about all this? What will SEO in 2021 look like for the legions of eager content creators out there?
How To Optimise SEO In 2021
Before we get onto the changes, let’s not forget the basics: good SEO will always be led by valuable content, a strong, trustworthy brand voice, and keyword-charged copy. No matter what year it is. (Okay, this advice wouldn’t hold water in 1976… but for the foreseeable future, these are the classic ground rules. Don’t forget ’em!)
So what’s shaking up this year? Well, for starters, there are two big changes coming down the pipeline from Google in March and May, so let’s take a look at Google SEO changes in 2021.
SEO changes in 2021: They can’t be any worse than this, an accurate depiction of 2020.
Mobile First Indexing (March 2021)
Mobile First Indexing isn’t exactly new; Google has been doing it for years. Basically, there are two variants of any website – the desktop version and the mobile version. The content on these two doesn’t always match up, but Google only indexes one of the variants, traditionally the desktop one. Over the years, Google has been slowly shifting towards indexing the mobile version instead; this transition will be completed in March, making mobile indexing the default option for all sites.
It’s hard to know exactly what kind of impact this will have until it’s fully implemented, but one thing’s for certain: you need to make sure your mobile site is as good, if not better, than your desktop one. Make sure it loads quickly by enabling ‘lazy loading’. Make sure your content is aligned as much as possible. And make sure you fill out all your relevant meta tags.
Page Experience (May 2021)
Google has a thing called ‘page experience signals’, and in 2021 you can expect this to become a major ranking factor. The term refers to the way visitors feel as they interact with any given website. Sounds a little woo-woo, right? But think of it as the tried-and-tested user experience value dressed up in a new package. All it’s really doing is incorporating established ranking metrics under one umbrella term.
On top of that, Google is introducing Core Web Vitals as part of this page experience framework to aid with the determination of how ‘friendly’ your page is to users. These Core Web Vitals will measure the loading speed, interactivity and visual stability of your site. In other words – it will pay to make sure your page loads fast, responds well and maintains a stable layout!
These are just a couple of things to watch out for as we enter the arena of SEO content in 2021. Basically, if you keep your pages operating smoothly, your content valuable, and your keywords supercharged, you should have no problem hitting the ground running this new year.
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