AI in 2020

AI in 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes

SEO trends for 2020

AI, or artificial intelligence, has become almost commonplace. Once upon a time, when we thought of AI, we would imagine robots, like those in Star Wars. In reality, AI is just as common, but in places where we don’t even notice it. Google makes extensive use of AI and its machine learning capabilities to direct user queries to the information they’re looking for.

If you’ve ever wondered how Google got so smart, it’s because it’s using AI! It’s not just Google that can use AI. Many companies are now investing in their own artificial intelligence. What can companies do to best take advantage of AI, both Google’s and their own?

Visual Content

It used to be that Google could only interpret text-based content, rendering videos and images useless for SEO, although they were good content for users. Technically this is still true, but there are a lot of opportunities for adding text to images and video. Especially since videos are the most-viewed type of content on the Internet, it’s increasingly important to optimize your images and videos properly.

File names, tags, descriptions, alt text, and even the length of the video can all be optimized to include your keywords.

User Intent

With its latest update, BERT, Google is getting better than ever before at understanding exactly what users intend when they make a query. Google will be able to understand words like “to” that are vital to the meaning of a sentence but that were previously discounted in searches. The goal is to direct users to the search results that they’re really looking for, whether they searched for exactly that or not.

What this means for businesses and content creators is that they’ll need to focus more on their users’ intent. If companies can use AI themselves to understand their customers’ intent when visiting their site, they can better provide the content that their customers are looking for. AI can help companies determine exactly what their target audience is and what they want.

Voice Searching

AI features like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and others allow users to search Google with their voices. This has changed how keyword research needs to be done. When typing a query, users often type a few short keywords together. When voice searching, however, users speak in full sentences like they’re talking to someone. With so many searches now being done via voice search, it’s important to research and select long-tail keywords, especially those that either ask or answer a question.

No More Black Hat

The smarter Google gets, the more websites will be punished for using black hat SEO techniques. Any SEO strategy that prioritizes the search engine over the users is generally considered black hat. If your website is designed for Google and not for the people visiting it, you’ll need to rethink your SEO strategy. Google has had UX as its primary goal almost since the founding of the company and has been frequently updating its algorithms specifically in order to reward sites that provide high-quality content to users and to punish those that game the system and try to trick search engines into ranking them higher.

The best way to use AI for SEO is to create good content. Keep user experience in mind and determine your users’ intent when they are searching for the keywords that will direct them to your site. Google is getting better at interpreting what users mean when they make search queries, so the users directed to your site will be the ones who are looking for what your site can provide.

Need some help growing your web presence and strengthening your brand? You’ve come to the right place.

SEO Trends for 2020

SEO Trends for 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes

SEO trends for 2020

2020 isn’t just a new year. It’s also a new decade. And that means it’s time to look at what the year ahead of us will bring. Google has recently released a new update to its algorithm that will affect SEO in 2020, but there are other trends that you should keep an eye on this coming year.

UX-Friendly SEO and Google’s BERT

Google’s BERT update was released in 2019 and is the latest of Google’s refinements to its search algorithm. This update will help Google understand better exactly what people are searching for. Prior to the update, some Google searches produced results that weren’t necessarily exactly what the user was looking for, even if they were related to the question asked or keywords used. BERT will help Google better understand words like “to” that change the meaning of a search.

For companies, what this means is that your content will need to be even more user-friendly than ever before. With BERT, Google aims to understand not just what users type but their intent in It’s not enough anymore to have your titles and headers in question format to match what users might be searching. It’s essential now more than ever before that the content is focused fully on the customer and what they are looking for as well as their intent in making their search.

high-quality content

High-Quality Content

The best way to make your content UX-friendly for BERT is to make sure that it’s very high-quality content. Google’s goal since its first updates has been to make Internet searching about the users and the quality of their experience the best possible. In the beginning, SEO was all about gaming the search engines, which made for poor user experience. Google pays attention to users’ actions and if you have a high bounce rate because your content isn’t what users are looking for, then Google will decrease your rankings for a specific search.

Users want quality content. That’s what will bring them to your site and what will keep them there. It’s also what will get users to share your content with others.

ux mobile first

Mobile-First Optimization

The need to optimize for mobile isn’t new. However, it’s even more important in 2020 than it has been in previous years. Mobile usage has only increased. Google now indexes the mobile version of websites first, so optimizing for mobile is even more important now than it has been in previous years. If your website is optimized for mobile, that will benefit your rankings on both mobile devices and computers. However, if your site isn’t optimized for use on mobile devices, then that could harm your rankings across the board.

UX friendly

Zero-Click Searching

A lot of searches result in zero clicks at all. These are searches for things that Google provides the answer for in the SERP (search engine results page), such as a company’s address, contact information, and hours. Because the information is already right there on the results page, users don’t actually click on your website. They already have what they need.

Because Google’s RankBrain is smart enough to provide this kind of information on its own, it’s a waste of your time to focus on keywords that rank for these searches. In your keyword research, it’s important to determine which keywords will actually bring in clicks. It’s not worth your time to earn the top ranking for your business’ address when users won’t click on your site anyway. Find the keywords that will bring in the visitors and focus on those.

Need some help growing your web presence and strengthening your brand? You’ve come to the right place.