This month for our Google Marketing Platform meetup we talked about 2020 SEO and what brands need to know to achieve SEO success in 2020. We followed up with our SEO Director, Leigh-San Mo, and asked a few questions about SEO and what to expect in the new year.
Find out more about 2020 SEO with Leigh’s GMP meetup presentation on SEO for 2020 Vision: What to Focus on for SEO Success in the New Year.
GMP Sydney Meet up. 02.10.2019 from Don’t Shoot Yourself on Vimeo.
2020 SEO Interview with Leigh-San Mo, SEO Director
Have you noticed much has changed for SEOs since the September 2019 Core Update? And what do you suggest SEOs do about it?
Not specifically but have read about Your Money Your Life pages (YMYL) being specifically impacted especially on the bottom of the first page. If you are in the health, finance or legal industry, then you should take a look at your page 1 keywords and content to ensure that you are showing the right authority signals and offering value in your content.
Find out what else Google has changed recently with our monthly Google Search and Tool Updates.
Is SEO Dead?
Is SEO dead? (sorry I couldn’t help myself)
Not yet 🙂
Why do you think people proclaim SEO is dead every year—I’m sure they will in 2020 too—when search drives 8x more traffic than all the major social platforms combined?
Sometimes it’s from the social platforms themselves as they want to push the value of their social platforms. It’s also the challenge/difficulty/work involved that has fueled this rise; it’s becoming more difficult to rank well as opposed to the old days of simply adding keywords to a tag or easy links.
Will SEO ever die?
As long as people are searching for things, whether it’s on their computer, mobile, wrist, car or home, there will always be search engines and there will always be SEO. It’s possible that one day in the future that there could be A.I. that could make SEO by digital marketers obsolete.
No-Click Search
49% of searchers don’t click. How do you feel about the rise of the no-click search?
It’s the future. Users have shown that they like it and use it. Google is also a business and they want to capture more and more of the audience rather than give it to other websites so they will continue to grow this trend.
Should brands be fighting against no-click search or embracing it?
They should embrace it; if they don’t appear for it then someone else will. There is a tool that Google released that enables you to say you don’t want to appear for it but I don’t understand why you wouldn’t. The fact that it appears means that people will use it.
Likewise, with the rise in voice search, what can brands do to optimise for voice search and maximise conversions?
Voice search is strongly linked to position zero so I would optimise to position zero as much as possible. Find questions within keyword research that could be answered and write the content in an inverted pyramid style with the important parts in a summary or list format.
Other 2020 SEO Strategies
Will link building be just as important in 2020?
I think so. But it depends on your business. If you’re a big brand with millions of dollars spent on offline media e.g. TV or you are a multinational conglomerate, then perhaps you don’t need to spend much time link building. If you’re a local business, and you get a tonne of links in national publications; then you’re highly likely to outrank everyone in your market.
What other strategies should brands adopt in 2020 to maximise their organic reach?
Fix up their technical issues; ensure their page load speeds are optimal for key pages. Keep keyword research and targeting up to date; identify what trends are happening in the market for content and keep content fresh and relevant. Build a community and get more user-generated content. Consolidate websites if you own multiple websites that are competing for the same set of keywords.
Last, but not least. What’s your favourite Google Marketing Platform tool and why?
Google Search Console — you can find key issues to fix up straight from the Lion’s mouth.
Get more expert digital marketing tips for 2020. Join us for our next Google Marketing Platform meetup.
