In 2020, we learnt to expect the unexpected, be agile and adapt to constant change.
Thanks to Google, who has shared details on some of its upcoming updates, we can get a glimpse into what 2021 will hold (well, in the SEO world, at least) and how to prepare your website for these changes.
Page experience
Google will be bringing more focus to Core Web Vitals. These are metrics related to user experience on a website, such as speed, responsiveness and visual stability. They measure load time, interactivity and how stable content is when it loads and displays on screen.
However, Google will continue to prioritise pages with the best information, so great page experience should be paired with good, relevant content to be most effective.
Make sure your website content is geared up for niche, specific searches – which ties in with another recent Google indexing update. Learn more about it on our specific searches blog.
Mobile-first indexing for all websites
Does your website work just as well on a mobile device as it does a desktop? If not, this could impact on your search engine rankings, as Google will introduce mobile-first indexing for all websites at the end of March.
A lot of websites that are ‘mobile ready’ have already been moved and notified in Google Search Console. If you need to improve your mobile presence but don’t know where to start, we can help you prioritise essential areas for improvement to your existing website or build you a responsive and mobile optimised website.
Rich Results
Although there are no Google updates around rich results, they will greatly benefit your SEO visibility.
A rich result is when a Google search brings up more than the standard ‘blue link’, description and web address – making it stand out from competitors and encourage click-throughs.
Rich results could include reviews, recipes, product/service information, events, music, videos and additional company information – and is achieved by having structured data within content.
You can test your pages using Google’s rich results testing tool to see if you have this mark-up implemented on your pages, and we can help audit your pages to make sure your content can benefit from these results.
We are here to help
Don’t let your website get left behind with Google’s 2021 updates. Contact our SEO team to find out how we can improve your website’s visibility.