9 SEO Trends You Need to Follow in 2021

9 SEO Trends You Need to Follow in 2021

SEO is constantly evolving, and you need to stay tuned to provide top-notch marketing strategies for your website. This year brought some hard lessons to all of us and, mainly as a result of the widespread pandemic that forced us to stay at home, introduced many changes to the e-commerce world that were impossible to predict. So what can we expect this year? Check the most important SEO trends in 2021 which you simply need to follow. For sure, with them in mind you will prepare an effective SEO campaign. So let’s discover what to anticipate in the upcoming year!

Table of Contents:

Top SEO Trends in 2021 Every Marketer Should Know

1. Long-Form Content

Google really loves high-quality content and values above all those sites that have top-notch unique content which response to users’ needs and expectations. But there is one thing about your content you must pay special attention to in 2021 – focus on long-form content. Different surveys show that the longer the content, the greater the chance for high positions in organic search results.

Let’s take, for example, a study conducted by Orbit Media, which showed that the average length of a blog post in 2020 was 1269 words. For comparison, in 2014 it was just 808 words. That’s quite a big change, right? What’s more, the same study brought other interesting conclusions:

  • bloggers who create blog posts longer than 3000 words get strong results,
  • year after year, users spend more time reading long-form content: in 2020 the average blog post took 3 minutes and 55 seconds to read,
  • how-to articles are the most popular type of blog content (77% of bloggers admit they incorporate how-to articles into their content marketing strategies).
google in 2021 how to do it
source: orbitmedia.com

In turn, according to HubSpot, the perfect length of blog posts is around 2500 words. You need to find your sweet spot to figure out how long should the content on your blog be to improve your SERPs.

However, keep in mind that not only the quantity but also the quality (and the appropriate optimization) of the content matters. Read my content marketing guide as well – I hope you will find some inspirations there to include in your content marketing strategies for 2021.

2. Mobile-Friendliness

Do you want to achieve great success with your SEO strategies and make Google fully appreciate your website? In this case, mobile SEO is something you absolutely shouldn’t neglect. And yes, I know, mobile-friendliness is nothing new, it has been shaking the SEO world for some time now, especially since in 2019 Google decided to analyze mobile versions of websites as the primary ones. But the future will be even more mobile than it is now! Look at this chart comparing mobile, desktop, and tablet market share worldwide in the last 5 years which shows that mobile traffic is becoming more and more powerful:

seo trends 2021 guide
Desktop vs mobile vs tablet market share worldwide in the last 5 years; source: gs.statcounter.com

Google considers mobile versions as the main ones and that’s why the search engine has been preparing for mobile-first indexing for years. Initially, Google planned to enable mobile-first indexing for all websites from 2020, however, due to the pandemic and the global crisis, Google webmasters decided to postpone it until March 2021.

So, mobile-first indexing soon will be a reality and most likely this all-changing moment will happen in 2021. If you still haven’t optimized your website for mobile devices, you have no time to waste. I have prepared for you a mobile SEO guide, which I hope will make this process easier.

3. Core Web Vitals & Page Experience

Google wants all users to have a very enjoyable page experience and to be able to find all necessary information quickly and easily. For this reason, in May 2020 this search engine introduced Core Web Vitals. We’ve already described them on our blog, but it’s worth reminding what they actually consist of and what they relate to.

So, in a nutshell, Core Web Vitals are metrics that are intended to provide the best page experience possible and take three specific aspects into account: page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

google in 2021 core web vitals

The three most important aspects analyzed by this algorithm are:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – monitors the exact time it takes for the most important elements on the website to be loaded,
  • First Input Delay (FID) – the time from the first user interaction with the site to the browser response,
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – measures all changes in the page layout (e.g. when a given element changes its position) during the user’s visit.

Other important aspects you need to optimize to provide the ultimate page experience:

  • mobile-friendliness – every page should be optimized for mobile devices (above, I explained it in more details);
  • safe browsing – every page should be fully secure to protect data;
  • HTTPS – checks whether websites have the HTTPS or HTTP protocols;
  • no intrusive interstitials – websites with pop-ups that hide the content and make it difficult to reach it will be penalized.

If you would like to verify all the issues connected with Core Web Vitals, you will find all the necessary information in your Google Search Console account:

google in 2021 check core web vitals

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Author
Managing Partner - Matt Calik

Managing Partner

Technical SEO specialist experienced in creating scalable processes based on agile methodologies. Responsible for international SEO strategies. He has strongly analytical approach to online marketing supported by over 12 years of experience. Previously associated with IT, motorsport, tobacco and financial markets. He has been building Delante for 5 years where he is Head of SEO and SEM department.
Comments (3)
  1. Everyone mentions the Web Core Vitals like it’s something scary on the horizon – I think that it’s actually the basic work that all websites should got covered a long time ago. UX is a big deal for a while now, after all.

  2. I love your article! Very informative and easy to understand one of the best blogs about SEO trends. Thank you for sharing this it really helps a lot!

  3. These are great trends to follow. I think the last year 2021 we got a lot of SEO trends that really pump up Digital Marketing Industry

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