How to Plan Your SEO Strategy for 2020

If there’s one thing that’s a constant when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s that it is always evolving. What worked last year might not work this year, so it’s important to adjust your strategy to keep ahead of the competition. Sometimes you have to change because search engine algorithms have evolved, or it could just be that you need something new to stand out. Whatever the reason, here are some effective ways to create a successful SEO game plan for the remainder of 2020.

Quality and Originality

The evolution of SEO and of search engine algorithms mean that you can no longer just plug in your keywords as much as possible and shoot up the rankings. Every business out there is using SEO strategies, and if you are producing similar content with similar keywords you will not be able to get ahead. That’s why it’s so important for your content to be of excellent quality and originality.

Originality

Originality is so important, since all of your competitors are going to be using similar keywords. Since your businesses are similar, then your content will probably be similar, too, unless you make an effort to stand out. If you are running a lawn care business and searched a common keyword, you would get similar content results in Google. The posts would read “10 ways to keep your lawn green,” or “3 Tips For Planting Your Garden.” Don’t fall into that trap with your title. Instead of a list of tips and tricks, why not create a guide, such as “The Smart Gardener’s Guide to Lawn and Garden Care.” A more interesting title will lead to more shares, which gives you those oh-so valuable backlinks.

Quality

The other way to stand out is by producing content that is simply better than the competition. Better can mean more than one thing. It means that your content must be well-written and engaging, for starters. However, it can also mean bigger. You can show that you are an authority. If you are writing a gardening tips article, try going with 50 tips, or even more. Going well beyond the standard 5 or 10 list of tips will get you noticed and will provide more information for potential buyers and for search engines to see how relevant your site is.

Topics Are Key

In 2020, you still need to use keywords as the basis for your on-site SEO plan. However, the first thing you need to do is develop a list of topics that are relevant to your business and engaging to your potential customers. To do this, you can start with around 10 words and short phrases that relate to your business. These can be your base keywords for the content you will start producing. However, there is a good chance that these are the same or similar keywords to what your competition is using, so they might not be effective at improving your rankings.

You can then use the tools available through Google to find out how many searches there are for these keywords. With that information you can come up with longer keywords that will probably have fewer searches, but are less likely to be as competitive. Long-tail keywords are more specific, which means that it is easier to rank for them, since fewer people search for that term. For example, your business may be selling paper cups. Your short-tail keyword could be “tall paper cups”, but your competition will also use that term. This can be your overarching topic, whereas “red tall paper cups” can be your keyword. You can develop several long-tail keywords related to the original topic to be as authoritative as possible to search engines, and to provide a strong base to your content.

Build Out From Your Topics

It’s close to impossible to get a single page to rank for several keywords. However, by using the topics you’ve created from your keyword research, you can build pages that can rank for those keywords. Build a page for each topic, and then fill it with content based on the long-tail keywords that you have developed from those topic keywords. So one page might be about paper cups, but then have subsections on tall cups, short cups, red cups, and other types of cups.

These pillar pages can relate to the different products and services that you offer. That way you’ll have entire pages dedicated to each thing that you want to highlight. Using this strategy, your potential customers will be able to easily find you when they put in any keyword related to your business.

AI and Neural Matching

Keywords are of course vital to any SEO strategy, but the problem is that not everyone writes and searches the same way. There are people who will search for things by asking questions, and those who search with simple terms, and those who are vague with their searches. What search engines like Google are now trying to do is to get their algorithm to understand what someone is trying to say when they don’t say it exactly. This goes beyond synonyms to focusing on what users are attempting to do, rather than what they literally do.

This concept is called neural matching. It is usually artificial intelligence to gain meaning. If someone wants information about something, but they don’t know what it’s called, then in the past they may not have been able to search for it. The example that Google used in a presentation was “why does my TV look strange?” Google’s algorithm recognizes that a common issue with TV’s is they have what is called “soap opera effect,” and the results were mostly about turning that effect off. As SEO strategists, we need to make sure that our content is based around answering questions that consumers might. Using topics as pillars is a powerful way to take advantage of question-based queries and neural matching results.

Make it Look Great

Since SEO is also about user experience, you need to make sure that your content hooks readers and keeps them on your pages. That’s why making every page look great is so important. Use graphs, screenshots, and graphics to make information more clear, or just to look amazing. Nobody likes to look at a page of dense text. There needs to be something to draw the eye and provide relevant information. Even blog post banners, which do not serve any practical function, can make your page look and feel great to a user.

Link-Building

Link-building is the main component of any off-site action plan for SEO. It involves getting others to link to your content. More reputable backlinks will signal to search engines that your site is legitimate and relevant. There are many ways to try to build backlinks. You can share your content with other businesses and offer to link to their sites. You can also use your social media platforms to engage with the public and get them sharing your content with their followers. If your posts are related to current events, then there is a chance that an influencer or large outfit will share your work with their followers as well.

When it comes to SEO, there is nothing more important than staying ahead of the competition. Ranking is the entire point of the process. Use these tips in 2020 in your SEO marketing plan to help your website thrive to start the new decade.