2024 Predictions for SEO: Key Trends and Forecasts

The last year was very successful for the evolution of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As the new year has started, there are already some new forecasts for SEO in 2024. Keeping up with the trends is very important, as more and more companies are beginning to utilize SEO services and update their strategies. 

So, let’s understand why it is essential to learn the predictions beforehand and know the present state of SEO. This information will help you easily understand the roots of SEO trends and utilize them more successfully. 

The Importance of SEO Trends and Forecasts

We suppose that search engine algorithms change faster than anything else these days. That’s why adjusting your SEO strategy and keeping up with trends is highly important. There are several reasons why staying ahead of the curve and following SEO trends is essential. Let’s discuss some of them:

1. It gives you a competitive advantage: Keeping up with SEO trends gives you a substantial competitive advantage over the companies that don’t. Any trend will help you boost your website's visibility in search engine results much quicker. This way, your website will be more visible, and you will get increased sales. 

2. Helps learn the changing user behavior: Following SEO trends involves learning the constantly changing user behavior. For instance, you will find the specific keywords or phrases they use while searching for information or products. With that information, you can better tailor your content to match their needs and interests by improving its relevance.

3. Improving User Experience: When you learn the user behavior and use that information to optimize your content and website design, you will get a more user-friendly website. Accordingly, user engagement and average time spent on the website will also increase. 

4. Maximizing Opportunities: Staying updated with SEO forecasts and trends helps you find new chances online. It lets you discover new websites, tools, or ways to improve your site. You can quickly change and get ahead of others when you try these new things. This way, you can maximize these opportunities before your competition.

As long as we know the importance of trends and forecasts, let’s discuss what is happening in the SEO world by 2023.

The Present State of SEO

Search Engine Optimization has always been about creating and optimizing engaging content and making easy-navigatable, simple-to-use websites. Here are some of the basics of SEO these days:

• AI and Machine Learning: One of the SEO trends and popular tools for the last few years is using AI and Machine learning. They tend to provide relevant and accurate information.

• Voice search: Optimizing content for longer keywords and addressing specific questions is crucial, as voice searches are often conversational.

• Keyword optimization: One of the primary things that has always been important for SEO is keywords. All keywords must be relevant and used naturally in the content. The usage should also be natural from the context of the number and not be overstuffed with keywords. 

• High-Quality Content: Valuable content is one of the basics for successful SEO strategies. Search engines prefer relevant content that is specialized and attractive to the target audience. 

• User Experience: User Experience (UX) is SEO's next most valued thing. For maximizing UX, websites should be engaging, user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and easily navigable. This will enhance the average time spent on the website and improve user satisfaction. 

• Technical SEO: The technical part of SEO is of high importance as well. It involves technical elements like the website load speed, structure, and mobile compatibility. This way, Google, Yahoo, and other search engines better organize your website and help you rank higher in search results. 

• Local SEO: Local SEO should be the highest priority if the business's target audience is local customers. Companies that use local SEO utilize relevant and localized keywords, use precise information, and are engaged in local directories. These steps significantly improve visibility for local searches, increasing the likelihood of connecting with nearby customers searching for products or services like yours.

Top 5 Trends and SEO Forecasts

1. The Rise of Video Content over Written Content

Video continues to be used by the majority of businesses. 91% of businesses used video as a marketing tool in 2023. One of the main predictions is the rise of video content over written content. Trendy video formats such as podcasts, shorts, and reels are becoming increasingly popular daily. Traditional written content, like articles, fades into the background, and videos get more views. In addition, videos are a great way to show that your content is created by a human and not AI-generated. 

Another common practice in the world of SEO is influencer marketing. It is another reason for video content expansion. On the one hand, influencer marketing improves the visibility of a company and increases traffic. On the other hand, it can help generate social signals—likes, shares, and comments. You will get engaging content that is interesting for the target audience and improve your SEO.

2. Immense Influence of AI

AI affects almost all areas of life, and SEO is no exception. It will remain the number one trend for content writing and keyword research. AI can give a considerable number of benefits to any company and help them succeed in SEO campaigns. The number of benefits and roles of AI rises day by day. So, we will talk about two crucial AI areas that will still be 2024 SEO trends.

• AI-writing tools

AI writing tools are widely used these days by thousands of SEO specialists and content writers. They help generate content, answer questions, find information, and rewrite sentences. AI-powered tools generate text based on instructions given to them. Some of the popular tools are ChatGPT, Copy.ai, and Jasper AI.

The generated content is not always accurate and has to be checked, edited, and used as a tool to help and not do the writer’s work.

According to Statista, this is how marketers worldwide use AI-assisted writing tools. 

As you can see majority just make minor edits to the AI-generated text before publishing it. The AI-generated content can be detected by search engines and be considered low-quality. So, using the whole generated text with AI patterns is not a good idea from the context of SEO.

• Search Generative Experience

The second SEO forecast for 2024 regarding AI is Search Generative Experience, also known as SGE. It’s intended to improve user experience and make any search easier. SGE uses generative AI to help users quickly understand their search query by showing a large information block. So this way, the need to enter a website is eliminated, and the user can find the relevant information without effort. Indeed, it will significantly hurt SEO efforts and considerably decrease traffic, and it is being criticized now.

3. Google Becoming an E-commerce Store

The following SEO trend, which is very popular in Google US, is the usage of Google as an E-commerce store. It will likely be used in other countries by the 2024 year, as well. There is also a possibility of connecting your e-commerce stores to Google and list them. 

This will accordingly change SEO strategies, and companies must optimize their product listings for Google. Doing this may become necessary for visibility and sales growth. 

4. Voice Search Optimization Significance 

According to many professionals, voice search is predicted to become more popular via personal assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, smart speakers, and mobile devices. Due to voice search, a lot will change in the use of search engines. The voice search optimization differs from traditional SEO. Experts should concentrate on long-tail keywords and more conversational search queries. According to Upcity research, half оf US consumers use voice search every day, so this SEO trend is, indeed, going to spread around the world. 

5. Building a Strong Backlink Profile

Last but not least, one of the SEO trends on our list is building a solid backlink profile. Google released a link spam update in December 2022, which uses Spambrain and took a month, finally rolling out from January 12, 2023. This means that Google Penguin ignores and does not count spammy or unnatural links. Link building becomes a more important part of SEO that works in order to create the perfect backlink profile. Undoubtedly, a website's content is just as important as the overall link-building process. 

Conclusion

The five SEO predictions and trends are not the only ones that will happen in 2024. They are just basics that will outline the evolution and progress (sometimes even regress) happening in the world of Search Engine Optimization. As the world moves forward quicker than ever, we should adapt and learn every day to be current and successful. 

So don’t forget about the importance of link building, and follow our blog for further updates and research. Book a call to get valuable backlinks with LinkyJuice!