8 SEO Trends That Can Impact Website Rank in 2024
It’s hard to believe that search engine optimization (SEO) as a concept is already more than 25 years old, but it is. SEO trends and best practices change frequently, so the process feels nothing like it did at its inception in the 1990s. It doesn’t even feel the same as it did ten years ago.
We already know some of the SEO trends that are going to influence website rank in 2024, and we’ll find out more as we go. Many of this year’s best practices will remain the same as in 2021: good keyword research, mobile optimization, and high-quality content marketing.
At my agency, we’re also looking at some anticipated changes to the way that search rankings work in 2024, including increased emphasis on voice search and audio content. As you begin to look at your SEO and marketing strategy for this year, here are the top SEO trends and ranking factors to pay attention to:
1. Multimodal machine learning
As we dive into these below, I’ll be referring to Google a lot when discussing SEO best practices. While Google isn’t the only search engine, it’s still the largest, and influences a lot of the way SEO evolves.
1. Multimodal machine learning
Search engine ranking algorithms aren’t the only thing that’s changed in the past 25-plus years. The way we search for things has changed, too. In the early days of search, if you wanted to listen to a song—let’s use the happy birthday song as an example—you might have found yourself typing ““happy birthday” AND download AND free AND full version” into one of the early search engines like Yahoo or Ask Jeeves.
While older search engines combed the web for answers, it wasn’t very efficient. Sometimes, they didn’t even produce the results you desired. Today, you can just toss out your search as a casual request to your phone, smartwatch, or smart speaker—“Hey Google, play the happy birthday song."
This evolution is possible thanks to machine learning and artificial intelligence. In 2019, Google released the BERT update, which improved the search engine’s natural language processing (NLP) ability in English.
The next iteration of this technology, called the Multitask Unified Model (MUM), is multi-modal, which means it can understand more than just English language queries. This multimodal machine learning model is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT. Pretty mind-blowing, right? MUM learns and improves across 75 different languages at once, and can understand both text and image content. We expect it to eventually understand video and audio as well.
This development means that multimedia and multilingual content is going to play a larger role in search. Now, I’m not saying that you should stop creating written long-form content—definitely keep that up. It’s still very important for search. However, supplementing your articles with photos, videos, and audio files can help to give you an edge in organic search during 2024.
2. Original video content
A new form of schema markup, introduced in 2021, allows creators to mark specific sections of a video to appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Because we expect that MUM will learn to understand videos, this type of content is likely to grow in SEO value. Right now, it’s best to create videos and pair them with related content pieces, including transcripts and blog posts. This can help you improve your website rank in 2022 while preparing your site for any future shifts that improve video search result rankings.
If you aren’t doing so already, try hosting your videos on YouTube and embedding them on your site. YouTube is a Google product, and as I tell my clients, it doesn’t hurt to have your content across as many Google properties as possible.
3. Podcasts
While audio content isn’t as fully integrated into search as video is, you can still bring it up in search results. You can play podcasts directly from the SERP if you search for a show by name.
As MUM evolves and gets better at understanding multiple modes of content delivery, it makes sense that audio will become more commonplace in search. To prepare for this, you can begin producing audio content and applying applicable podcast schema markup and structured data. By exploring audio as part of your content strategy now, you can potentially be ahead of the curve later in 2022 and beyond.
4. Privacy-focused search
As a digital marketer and a business owner, I rely on data to help me deliver results for my clients. When the way we collect data changes, it means our SEO strategies have to change, too.
More consumers are becoming interested in their privacy online, and this is liable to change the way we collect data throughout the course of 2022 and into 2023. This is apparent in the fact that DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search app, is the second-most popular mobile search engine in the United States. Even Google’s taking note of this interest in privacy, and plans to end use of third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome browser by 2024.
Now, this doesn’t signal a significant, immediate change to the way we optimize. Keyword research and data from SEO tools won’t go away. The way we get this data, though, may change. It may become harder to do cross-site tracking, and follow your website visitors across platforms. Google is working on alternatives to the third-party cookie, and we’ll need to await their announcement as to what’s next.
In the meantime, you can prepare by building a strong SEO strategy that doesn’t entirely rely on cross- or off-site metrics. Look at the search terms people are using to find your site—Google Search Console is great for this—and how they’re behaving when they move around your webpages.
In addition to keeping an eye on what Google does, it’s also a good idea to make sure your site complies with any relevant privacy laws, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
5. User intent metrics
When it comes to tracking user behavior on my clients’ websites in 2022, here’s what I’ll be looking at:
- Bounce rate: This is the percentage of visitors who come to your site and immediately leave without clicking on another page. If you’re seeing a high bounce rate, that can mean that your site isn’t aligning with visitors’ search intent, or has a bad user experience.
- User retention: This data shows you the frequency with which someone comes back to your site for another visit. A high user retention rate can indicate that you’re providing good value.
- Behavior flow: You can track this metric right in Google Analytics 4. It shows you what page a visitor entered your site on, and how they progressed through clicks and pages from that point.
By looking at these three data points, you can get a feel for what your target audience wants to see. If you notice a particular post day, time, or type of content working well, use that information to influence your strategy going forward.
6. Local search optimization
Climbing the organic SERP listings isn’t the only way to reach Google searchers. You can get excellent visibility—even above the ad spots—by optimizing for local search results.
Because local search listings often appear at the top of Google SERPs, this type of SEO is likely to play a larger role for more businesses going forward. As it becomes harder and harder to reach the top organic spot (the very top spot is held by ads), local search can become a workaround.
Google My Business (GMB) is a great tool for local SEO. Many business owners may not realize that they can create a Google My Business profile even if they don’t have a storefront or an office that serves walk-in customers.
The only caveat is that if you’re a completely digital business, you can’t create a GMB profile. You do need to have a physical business address and some kind of in-person service, even if it’s not all based out of that one location. Mobile pet groomers, event photographers, DJs, professional cleaners, “ghost kitchens”, dog walkers, corporate trainers, consultants and others are all examples of businesses that can take advantage of this feature.
7. Mobile usability
Usability is important across all platforms in 2022, but none more so than mobile. If your site isn’t mobile friendly, or doesn’t contain all the same content as your desktop site, its rank may go down. This is due to Google's focus on mobile-first indexing and core web vitals.
In 2022, it’s time to start thinking beyond “does my website work on mobile devices?” and really explore ways to improve the mobile user experience. Hybrid apps and progressive web apps (PWAs) are a great way to do this. PWAs are sites that blur the line between traditional web pages and a mobile app. When used on a phone, users may save PWA shortcuts to the home screen and launch them like another app. If you want to see what a PWA looks like in action, check out Twitter’s mobile site on your phone. It’s a great example of using a PWA to improve mobile-friendliness.
8. Lightweight websites
It’s possible to optimize and speed up many websites without building a PWA. You need to focus on keeping the code clean and light on extra features.
All websites contain code, even if you don’t see it yourself. Even drag-and-drop website builders create code behind the scenes. You modify this code each time you move or add an element. While a website may look clean on the front end, it doesn’t mean that’s how it appears to Google crawlers. When a website (whether DIY or custom-built) has cluttered code, it can negatively impact page experience and SEO.
Creating the best user experience sometimes means stripping features away from your website, rather than adding them in. Think long and hard before adding more plugins to your website. Do you really need them? Is there another way to achieve your goal? Keeping your website lightweight can increase its page speed, usability, and Google ranking.
Focusing on usability is one of the most important things you can do this year, though it may require the help of an SEO expert or web developer. It’s another one of the many ways that SEO—and the internet—has evolved over the past few decades. A lightweight website with great user experience and a small number of high-quality backlinks is now much more valuable than a plugin-packed site with hundreds of links.
What’s next in SEO?
Future SEO developments are likely to include more changes to data collection, changing mobile optimization best practices, and interactive content that may not even exist yet. Because Google algorithm updates stay under wraps until they happen—and sometimes, even after that—the best thing you can do is keep a close eye on your SEO. Start with what you can control, by regularly checking the metrics mentioned above and making sure that your website is mobile-optimized. If you notice any changes, or aren’t seeing the performance you want, reach out to an SEO expert for help.
Melissa Psihudakis has 21 years of SEO and digital marketing experience. She received her Bachelors degree from Hofstra University and her Master’s from Stony Brook University. Melissa worked for Henry Schein Inc, a Fortune 500 company and Newsday and led a complete redesign of both websites. She also started Melissa Danielle Inc, a NY based property management firm she ran for 6 years. She then joined Protect America Home Security as their VP of Marketing for 3 years where she led the complete redesign and rebranding initiative while increasing sales by more than 53%.
Melissa has worked on large brands on the agency side throughout her career including Lowe’s, Mercedes, Bank of America, Converse, Reese Witherspoon’s Tuckernuck and Tahari ASL. She works in the following niches: Medical, health and wellness, fintech, real estate and e-commerce.
Melissa started Web Rocket Media LLC 5 years ago and trained her team on her proven system of digital marketing methodologies and processes to ensure the success of her clients. Her agency has quickly grown into a professional and multifaceted 50-member full-service digital marketing agency. Each team member possesses unique specializations, advanced education and a library of certifications.
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