SEO 2020

What have we learned about SEO in 2020?

The tail-end of any year offers the perfect opportunity for reflection, but 2020, in all its weirdness, offers more scope for that than usual. Most importantly, we hope you and those close to you have remained well during this challenging and difficult period.

You may not have given this much thought with everything else going on, but, in fact, 2020 has offered a number of lessons we can all take on board as far as Search Engine Optimisation is concerned. Here, we summarise a few of them – they’re not all related to the pandemic – and some of them may surprise you!

  • Look ahead, but don’t lose sight of what’s important now

It can be easy to get carried away with what seem to be the most exciting new developments in SEO, but don’t lose focus on what you need to do now to meet your most immediate goals.

  • Google is better at content extraction

Google has improved dramatically when it comes to featured snippets of content and ranking passages of text. It could even one day be able to blend multiple passages from various articles into one answer.

  • Don’t rely on your rankings to be 100% precise

You should understand that the Google rankings do not give a 100% precise indications of search queries. Expect something which is more like a rough approximation. You can still usefully keep tabs on your positions with rank trackers, but don’t rely on them exclusively; use things like Analytics data and Google Search Console for a fuller picture.

  • Sending the right (and consistent) signals

Send the right crawling and indexing signals to the likes of Google, especially now while the ‘Request Indexing’ feature in Google Search Console is temporarily disabled. Stick to best practice around these issues – we at Front Page can help with this.

  • Google has got stricter at indexing

While this has been something of a trend in the last couple of years, it seems that Google really has had enough of poor-quality content. When it comes to getting into the search giant’s good books, with high-quality content, you really will need to work that little bit harder.

Season’s greetings from all of us at Front Page

Here at Front Page, we hope you enjoy a relaxing, peaceful and well-earned festive break and that you’ll be able to safely enjoy quality time with those who mean most to you. When we all return after the holiday, we’ll be here to help you reflect on what you can learn from the past as we look forward to what we all hope will be a brighter 2021.