Top 10 Hot Predictions for SEO in 2024

SEO?

It depends!

Every year, new website owners and experts battle to master SEO because it is an ever-changing field. Some new developments and adjustments require website owners to be on their toes to befit the new standards.

Google alone changes its indexing algorithm more than once a year, which means a trend that could rank you today may not have the same results a couple of years later. 

Before you can worry too much over your competitors taking over your spot on the first page of Google, you might want to consider using social signals together with SEO tools like Google Trends to get the best of both worlds.

Besides, if you're going to anticipate what the future holds for your websites as concerns SEO in 2024, these ten predictions should fill you in:

1. Optimize for AI Search

Yes, AI Search is the term that we are going to create here as nobody is really used it for take sake of SEO predications and trends in 2024.

So, after claiming our credit for coining the name "AI Search" as the #1 hot prediction for SEO in 2024, we want to help you understand it in a few words and here's why AI Search in SEO is important:

• People want to interact with questions and answers
• Search engine users want to chat with the search engine
• Users are asking questions and want authentic answers
• If you can optimize for chat-oriented answers, you can win at SERP

Thanks to OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft and Microsoft's decision to use ChatGPT in Bing Search Engine as Bing Chat by utilising the power of their index of millions of websites on the internet.

All you have to do is just optimize your content in a social way, add more frequently asked questions and answers into your content, and start writing content that is engaging and easy to understand.

Try to answer as many relevant questions as possible for every topic you are writing an article on. This is the best way to rank for AI Search queries that users are now performing on Bing Chat and even on Google as Google also released Bard and integrated this new AI Search feature in Google search engine. All the other search engines are also following the same thing. That's why this is the hottest prediction for SEO in 2024.

2. Short Form Video Content could be a priority

Looking at how fast Google and other platforms are adapting to short form video content is projecting that this media format will soon hit digital marketing world with storm and will make a dent to other marketing tactics.

In 2024, we are seeing a rise in short-video content in Google as the search is currently adapting to this content form by showing TikTok videos, YouTube shorts and Web Stories in the Google search result pages to comply with what internet users are already consuming from out side of Google apps.

We recommend search engine marketing experts to optimize for this new content format and always make sure they are repurposing the content (blog posts, videos, images, studies and etc) to short videos that can easily rank on Google today.

3. Video SEO

YouTube is a Google product that is gaining popularity for video type of content. People are resolving for videos for entertainment, information, and persuasion. This trend is set to grow bigger in 2024 and beyond as Google is now showing Video Pages in Search Console for all the sites that has a video uploaded or embed on any publicly available page.

Consolidate your content ideas and topic areas to generate video-based material that can stand the test of time. You can use video as an alternative for text-based content, or better still, complementary to each other. Learn all about video optimization including enhancing quality, increasing video length, adding descriptions and use of keywords, all of which will give you an upper-hand in the year 2024.

4. Google will remain the dominant search engine

Over a couple of years now, Google has retained its status as the leading search engines with more than 53% of the world’s population using Google. Even though search engines like Bing are catching on with Google, in 2024, Google will still be the dominant search engine, especially for the new advancements meant to improve website indexing like RankBrain Artificial Intelligence machine and Google Bard.

To be on the safe side, optimize for Google by relying on Google affiliated SEO tools like Google Trends, Google Console, and Google Keyword Planner. Ensure you also submit your site to Google, predominantly when you redesign your website.

5. Voice search to go bigger

Google is among the leading developers to incorporate voice searches for users through paths like Google Home. In fact, research indicates that so far, over 30% of Google’s total searches are accounted for by voice search, even more detailed, from mobile sites. Make sure to create link building strategies that are constructed for your targeted audience, as you would only need to do links that are relevant to your niche. Building backlinks will increase your overall authority and metrics on Google.

Amazon has set forth with Alexa that has made is sweat-free to get solutions to queries for audiences. If you are keen to optimize your site for voice searches and to consider search entries through voice search for your keywords, you will surely do well in 2024 and the following years.

6. The traffic count from Amazon will increase in Google searches

It is already clear that voice search has taken over the world. Amazon has already earned a considerable market share for Alexa although with a low search volume for all Google’s web searches.

However, this is not permanent. More people are embracing this technology, and in 2024 and the years to come, Amazon will account for a much higher search result due to Alexa, with the help of screens like Echo Show.

7. Mobile-first optimization

Mobile technology has taken over because of convenience and flexibility of use. More than 58% of the world access the net with their mobile devices every day, which means desktop technology might be overthrown in a couple of years’ time.

This means more concentration towards mobile-first optimization to ensure a site is fully optimized to offer an excellent user experience for the mobile audience. You might want to start shopping for website themes for your mobile site, optimizing your pages for speed, and navigation, among others.

8. Brand mention

Blogger outreach, relevant guest posting, quality link building is still going to be important for SEO, but in 2024 and the years to come, a newer technique might take root. Brand mentions account for linkless backlinks that can make a brand prominent, whether on social media or within other sites.

Bing search engine has already admitted to using brand mention for indexing, and Google can be seen to lean towards the same. The more times your brand is mentioned or referenced to might mean a lot for your ranking on search engines.

Fortunately, you can keep yourself in the loop by relying on Ahrefs, SEMrush, UberSuggest or Serpbook for all matters SERP.

9. Audience engagement

Although Google hasn’t yet admitted to using audience engagement for ranking, it is bound to become a central factor in 2024. The internet audience is beyond the point of consuming promotional messages that seem to be pushed on them. People prefer to have social interaction with content, brands and website owners, which might explain the reason why social media is significant, and so is voice search.

As a website owner, you had better figure out a way to get your audience engaged with your brand, whether through sharing their content and personal interaction with them on different platforms.

10. Page speed

There is a reason why SEO tools like Google PageSpeed Insights are prevalent and why Google is urging you to pay attention to Core Web Vitals and Page Experience.

People want to explore things at a fast speed. Even search engines are considerate of speed, so that you do not have to wait a long time to receive results for your search and that's why Google introduced AMP to load pages faster than even before.

Page speed is yet to grow in demand because as at now, people have admitted that they cannot wait for a page that takes for than 3 seconds, some 2 seconds. If your site is not optimized for speed, you might want to get started immediately and grab the SEO benefits in 2024.

11. Visualization

As it is right now, visual is an important part of SEO and accounts for high click-through rates and conversion rates. Typically, visualization fosters retention and has a way to capture the attention of your audience, long enough to pass your message across.

In 2024, it is highly likely that content with visual appeal will be used to feature images, GIFs, info-graphs, charts and screenshots.

12. Featured snippets

A featured snippet is usually a compilation of an answer to user’s queries and usually appears as the first thing on SERP. The snippet is taken from a website that provides an ideal response to the searched query. Featured snippets involve ranking higher than other search results; ‘position zero.'

To nail it on featured snippets, come up with conversational questions with which to provide answers within your content.

Overall, SEO is growing big and newer advancements are yet to be noticed in 2024 and the years to come.