SEO Updates 2021: The use of natural language and the reorganization of SERPs are in the drawers of Google for this year. But SEOs will also be entitled to surprises.
If he wants to stay on the page, and SEO updates 2021 must know which way Google is blowing. In 2019, the search engine worked hard to improve page rendering in JavaScript and added a layer of machine learning in its algorithms to improve its understanding of natural language. Both in the pages of the sites and in the requests of Internet users. And now, what awaits SEOs for 2021? Here are four tips and tips to prepare for it.
1. Technical SEO updates 2021: be more efficient, faster and more secure
There is still a lot to do on the technical field for Google, which is considering several avenues in 2021. “We don’t talk much about HTTPS anymore, but there are a lot of sites that are not there yet.
Encouraging them to come is nevertheless important for the whole web, “said John Mueller, webmaster trends analyst at Google at JDN at the last SMX Paris in November. “The mobile experience, especially the speed with which a page is loaded, is really a priority, otherwise people will prefer to do their research on Twitter or other faster platforms,” he adds.
SEOs also see other leads to exploit quickly. For Philippe Yonnet, president of Know Y, “the opening of Googlebot user-agents in evergreen last May to follow the rendering of pages containing a lot of JavaScript opens up new perspectives for sites”. The SEO expert concedes, however, that “the system is still perfectible, since indexing remains slower”, even if progress has taken place in recent months.
2. Bert, to learn to understand yourself better?
Understanding natural language (and not just strings of keywords) is the goal shared by Google and Bing today. “With regard to NLP (natural language processing, editor’s note), Bing has integrated more machine learning into organic search than Google because it can take more risks”, analyzes Philippe Yonnet.
The deployment in France in December of Bert, Google’s machine learning algorithm, encourages the president of Know Y to anticipate increasingly precise results for queries in natural language, in vocal or written format.
For SEOs, this means knowing the questions that Internet users are asking with precision and providing accurate and complete answers. “The tools to assist in the production of content will be gradually put into difficulty, except on queries in the form of keywords,” warns Philippe Yonnet.
In the coming year, the movement initiated by Google which consists of removing SERP sites which are not legitimate in its eyes on specific requests will therefore continue. “It’s a gain for the world of search, but there are going to be victims,” concluded the SEO specialist. And gaining its legitimacy in the eyes of the search engine requires more and more resources.
3. From SERP to click: an increasingly tough fight
Google regularly looks for and tests new opportunities to satisfy the curiosity of Internet users from the results page. The featured snippet, people also ask, knowledge graph and other enriched results, are gradually nibbling the space dedicated to the blue SERP links.
We are thus witnessing two phenomena: on the one hand, according to Bright Edge, the strengthening of the role of organic, which represents on average 53.3% of site traffic, a figure slightly increasing since the previous study in 2014. On the other hand, the click-through rate on the SERP is reduced. The result, even if natural referencing remains a privileged channel, the competition to click on SERPs is increasingly tense.
Now, “pushing the right information at the right time on the SERP is no longer enough,” says Olivier de Segonzac, associate director at Resoneo. To convert a position on a SERP visiting his site, “you have to analyze what arouses the emotions and creates a bond with the Internet user,” he advocates.
To do this, you need to combine good business knowledge and creative minds. “For example, illustrates the SEO expert, imagine a SERP selling motorcycle helmets. All the descriptions present the products. If one says” high-end full-face motorcycle helmet seeks owner “, it creates an effect of surprise and stands out. “
4. Schema.org tags: what will be next?
Search engines are attaching increasing importance to the tagging of structured data which allows them to understand the content in great detail. This is why, regularly, new tags are taken into account by the engines to enrich their results and refine their responses. In 2020, Philippe Yonnet expects to see the new schema.org markup for high-definition images, already announced, become real. For his part, Olivier de Segonzac hopes the arrival of the tag schema.org <speakable> France.