Top 10 SEO trends for 2024

SEO is one of the most dynamic areas of digital marketing.

That's because Google is constantly updating its algorithms to improve its user experience

This means that as a site owner, you need to be on top of what's new in SEO.

With that said, read on to learn the top 10 SEO trends to watch closely this year... Then, align your strategy accordingly!

1. What about voice search?

 To get your website's SEO right, follow the 2024 trends and apply them carefully.

Let's get started...

The voice search trend, that was very popular a few years ago, is no longer significant. 

The pandemic has led to a loss of interest in the practice, which was once very promising.

This may be due to the widespread use of masks. 😷

We don't know, but it turns out that people don't use voice search much at all, except when driving.

2. Changes in SERPs

In 2024, Google’s infinite scrolling for searches arrives and websites will continue to get less organic clicks.

What are organic clicks?

It's when users click on a link to a website from SERPs.

For some time now, Google has been giving direct answers to users' queries, within the search engine itself. For example, via Google My Business or Google Shopping.

In fact, Google strives to keep users in its site or app as long as possible, as this allows it to provide relevant information.

In addition, the more time users spend on Google, the more ads it can display, and the more users will use its services such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Shopping, etc.

We believe this trend will continue to grow.

However, a recent study by SEMrush showed that only 25.8 % of searches resulted in no clicks at all.

To go further

At the same time, thanks to infinite scrolling, while it's still better to be on the first page of Google, being on the second or third page will have less of an impact than it used to.

3. AI-generated content in the top SEO trends in 2024

Given recent technological advances, more companies are expected to use AI-generated text.

Today, search engines have a hard time distinguishing between artificial content and human made content.

Thus, a new war is brewing between Google and OpenAI, as the latter has achieved unprecedented progress in natural language processing.

Google has long discouraged the use of artificial intelligence-generated content. The search engine has recently released two updates to counter this.

However, in the last two years, generators like Jasper and Copy ai have been using powerful technologies.

Open AI recently launched its ChatGPT, which intends to compete with Google by providing users with the answers they need, without having to scroll through many pages.

We think the future of AI-based content is very bright.

Watch out

However, Google will certainly continue to try to crack down on poor-quality AI-generated content.

Google's efforts to identify AI content will continue

Google's ongoing quest to identify and evaluate AI-generated content is likely to be an exciting show full of twists.

The search engine has launched several updates in this regard, in 2022. However, their impact has not been significant.

And even if Google was able to infallibly identify AI content, questions remain about how they will be able to assess its quality and reliability.

In short, this is likely to be a significant challenge for Google in the very near future.

How to use AI to produce content?

We do not recommend using these programs to create texts from scratch, without any human intervention.

But when given relevant data and suggestions, AI is able to produce useful content for readers.

Of course, the technologies will continue to improve. But for now, without proper input and consistent adjustments, the result still leaves something to be desired.

Let's stay tuned on the topic, it might change soon! 👀

Here are some of the possible applications of these tools, which do not sacrifice expressibility or quality:

• Text summaries: generating summaries can help add keywords, topics, and subtopics that need to be included.

• Article outlines: this is a great way to generate a writing plan.

• Content ideas: some tools can speed up the brainstorming process. Going from a keyword to a topic can make your job easier, and can be a great boost if you're experiencing writer's block.

4. The growth of personal branding

Very few personal bloggers manage to find their audience.

Therefore, most of them look for reputable sites in their specific niche to publish content. This is to get more readers.

More and more people will adopt a personal branding strategy, as Google seems to develop into an entity-based search engine.

Indeed, it associates each author (=an entity) with a particular domain (=another entity). Thus, the algorithms are able to determine the expertise of the writer, and adapt the ranking accordingly.

Thus, bloggers and brands need to make sure they have enough digital evidence to demonstrate their credibility in a specific area.

To go further

What can be done to increase writers' trust in the eyes of Google? 👊

• Include author bios.

• Create pages with links to all articles on the site written by the writer in question.

• Add links to the writer's social media, so Google understands they are real people and experts.

Example of a page listing author contributions. 👆

5. Keep an eye on the E.E.A.T.

E.A.T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This has already been governing SEO for several years.

But Google decided to add another E (for Experience) to this acronym.

These four factors are intended to help the search engine understand how accurate, honest, safe and reliable the content is, in order to rank it in the search results.

Special cases depending on the type of websites:

• If your site is about health, finance, safety… it falls into a category called YMYL (Your Money or Your Life). This means that users accessing the site can potentially suffer negative consequences, if they decide to trust what they see.

In this case, E-A-T requirements are even higher.

• For online stores, Google will make sure they have safe online payment options and reliable customer service.

• For product review sites, the search engine will check if it consists of honest and in-depth reviews that help readers make informed buying decisions.

What about this new ranking signal?

According to Google, this new signal will help it evaluate whether the author or website has direct experience with what is conveyed in the main content.

In many cases, information produced by people with extensive personal experience is more reliable and effective.

So we expect Google to roll out more updates along these lines, in the near future.

6. CALM, Google's answer to GPT3

Google recently introduced a new approach called CALM (Confident Adaptive Language Modeling), to improve the speed of text generation in language models. This is done without compromising the quality of the result.

This performance is achieved by dynamically adjusting the amount of computation used in language processing, allowing the program to speed up when it is confident enough.

Google has been working for years to improve its search results, using sophisticated artificial intelligence.

The biggest breakthrough in this area came first with the introduction of RankBrain, and then later with BERT in 2019. Then they introduced the Multitask United Model (MUM) in 2021, followed by CALM in 2022.

MUM is said to be 1000 times more powerful than BERT and is capable of multitasking. This allows it to analyse videos, images, and text in 75 languages, to give answers to complex questions.

This means that MUM will combine different aspects, and try to understand the feelings, the context, the entities and, most importantly, the user's intention. In order to provide answers that are close to the user's expectations.

Google is still testing MUM, but it should soon be released, and part of the Search ecosystem.

This could mean more no-click search results, which we are already seeing.

Using structured data to adapt to MUM

Google pulls its data from what it calls the Knowledge Graph, and the Knowledge Graph is derived from an enormous pool of diverse data sources.

Example of a conceptual diagram | Source: Wikipedia 👆

So long-form content will make a comeback. Because if a single source can provide much of the information required, these pages will be at the top of Google rankings.

So forget about keyword stuffing. And focus on natural, well-structured content that addresses as many of your customer's needs as possible.

7. Passage indexing

Have you heard about a new algorithm called Passage Indexing?

If you're tired of writing long content that fails to grab attention, Passage Indexing can be a game changer.

The search engine will now try to understand the meaning of each passage.

This means that a particular section of an article may appear in the search results, even if it is deep in the text.

Thus, websites with highly structured content will benefit from this new algorithm.

Holistic content

A holistic content strategy looks at a topic in depth and tries to answer user questions.

In addition, passage indexing will have a big impact on search results for long-tail queries and question-based queries.

This is obvious, since a specific question requires a “needle in a haystack” approach to finding the right answer.

This is precisely what Google is trying to achieve with passage indexing.

👉 How does it work?

According to Google, every day, 15% of all searches have never been searched before. Most of the time, these are the long tail keywords.

With passage indexing, the results will display appropriate answers to these very specific queries.

Importance of structuring your content

The structure of your content will become as important as its quality once passage indexing goes live on Google.

It is important to divide the content into several sections, each of which should address a specific theme.

So use tags to organize your content.

Also, if you write a short article, the benefit of passage indexing may not be as obvious.

8. Prioritize so-called "useful content"

Throughout its history, Google has always prioritized delivering high-quality content to users. But the emphasis on the word "useful" means that users should feel "satisfied."

However, user satisfaction is not easy to measure or quantify. So what does “useful” mean for Google? Content that:

• Is created for humans, not for search engines.

• Is appropriate for the target audience.

• Is relevant to the website's main topic

• Is created by experienced and trustworthy individuals,

• Demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the subject matter.

How to make your content more useful?

1. First, focus on quality, not quantity.

2. Second, expand your keyword research. Don’t just focus on search volume.

Consider the following questions:

• What content types are ranking?

• How long is the text?

• What questions is it answering?

• What subtopics does it cover?

• What links are added to the article?

• Who is the author of the article?

• What is their experience?

Focus on the user and search intent

2024 is the year you prioritize search intent and user behavior over everything else.

If you understand what users are searching for and provide content that answers their questions, everyone wins.

Google's next updates will focus on ensuring that only quality content makes it to the top rank.

Announced for August 2024, it is aimed at taking down the sites with superficial content.

The use of artificial intelligence may also be impacted by this update.

In general, Google recommends that websites use real people to write content for real users.

Brands should respond to the needs of the audience, rather than promote their brand, or their products and services. This means not forcing users to register on their website nor redirecting them to registration forms, and stop displaying unnecessary pop-ups.

In addition to understanding what users are looking for, you should also note what they prefer (videos, podcasts, articles, etc.), and publish accordingly.

9. Localization of SEO

In 2024, local businesses will get more attention from Google as search results become more localized.

This means it's time to focus on generating customer reviews on Google My Business and other platforms.

In the future, websites that target a local audience will need to add a city, state or country name to improve their rankings.

10. Long-form content

An SEO trend that will help you outrank your competitors in 2024 is the publication of long form content on your website. This content should follow the E.A.T. guidelines and be at least 2000 words long.

You can even go beyond and reach 3000–3500 words.

All that's left is for you to incorporate these 2024 SEO trends into your strategy! 🥊