2024 continues the significant shift that had already begun in the previous year. This shift concerns how search engines interpret and value online content to respond more precisely to users’ search intents.
To be honest, it’s not at all easy to keep up with the many changes that Google subjects us to quite frequently now. And when you read this article, we’re sure they won’t hold it against us!
After all, if we start thinking about the fact that in the last 5 years, the world’s largest search engine has served us more than 30 updates to its algorithm… no, better not to think about it!
It’s better to get straight to the point and take a good look at what will happen, or rather is already happening, and delve into the SEO news, particularly those that come directly from John Mueller, Google’s undisputed guiding light for developers and creators of optimized websites, and from Gary Illyes, Google analyst.
2024 Updates in the World’s Most Used Search Engine: Making Way for Voice Search
With the “evolution of technology and” adaptation of lifestyles, voice search is increasingly becoming a fundamental component in Google search and SEO strategies. Insights reported by Statista research indicate that by 2024, about 8 billion voice assistants will be in use! This really says a lot about how much this trend is growing.
Voice queries, obviously, tend to be longer and more conversational compared to classic text input. Consequently, content optimization will need to adapt to respond to these more natural and direct requests.
Voice searches are often localized and require quick answers. This means that local SEO will have greater visibility opportunities if it optimizes content for voice search.
Let’s not forget the “importance of”accessibility. Thanks to voice search, “digital inclusivity is promoted and” access to information is facilitated for people with disabilities.
SEO strategies and content marketing techniques will need to evolve to include optimization for voice search, considering aspects such as tone, context, and search intent.
Image Search: One of the Growing Trends in 2024 SEO
With the “evolution of technology and” increasing integration of artificial intelligence in search engines, the ability to recognize and interpret images is becoming increasingly sophisticated. This pushes us to focus on 5 aspects:
- importance of image optimization, both for quality and relevance, including descriptive alt tags and pertinent titles.
- Advanced visual search: users are more likely to use Google visual search to find products and information, so businesses need to be present and visible in these types of searches.
- Integration with eCommerce: image search is particularly relevant for eCommerce sites, where consumers often search for products based on visual appearance.
- Quality visual content: creating high-quality visual content, not just images but also graphics and videos, is becoming increasingly important to attract and engage users.
- Automatic identification and tagging: AI allows for automatic identification and tagging of elements in images, improving the accuracy of visual search results.
Let’s keep in mind that image search is a growing component of SEO. It represents an important challenge to focus on in 2024 for digital marketing strategies.
Zero-click searches: Increasing importance of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
No-click searches, or zero-click searches, are searches where the user obtains the desired information directly from the search engine results page, without having to click on any link.
This phenomenon is growing, especially with the evolution of search engines into answer engines, capable of providing direct answers to users’ questions.
In this context, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) becomes a fundamental SEO strategy, focusing on understanding and satisfying users’ informational needs, anticipating the questions they might ask, and providing direct and immediate answers.
Here are 7 key points to know to adapt to this trend:
- Optimize your content to appear in Featured Snippets, which are often the source of answers provided in these no-click searches.
- Structure your content to clearly and directly answer users’ frequent questions. Use titles and subtitles to formulate these questions and provide concise answers.
- Implement schema markup to help search engines understand and display your content more effectively in search results.
- With the increase in voice search, optimize your content to answer questions posed in a conversational manner.
- Produce authoritative, accurate, and high-quality content. Search engines tend to prefer reliable sources for direct answers.
- Understand the intentions behind user queries and adapt your content to meet these informational needs.
- For local businesses, local SEO is necessary to appear in direct answers related to local searches, such as opening hours and addresses.
Search Generative Experience: An advanced, personalized, and interactive search experience is coming
The Search Generative Experience is a revolutionary technology based on the “integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning,” to transform the way we interact with search engines.
It marks the “beginning of a new era in online search, where human-machine interaction reaches levels of naturalness,” personalization, and intelligence without precedent. For now, however, it is only available in the United States.
Here are some key aspects of the Search Generative Experience:
- AI allows for an “almost human interaction, and users can dialogue with the search engine in a natural and intuitive way, making” search more fluid and less mechanical.
- Each search experience is unique, adapted to the individual user’s preferences, search history, and current context. This ensures that results are extremely relevant and personalized.
- Search engines are capable of generating real-time content, such as answers to specific questions, summaries of complex topics, or personalized suggestions, elevating the level of usefulness and relevance of the information provided.
- The technology is predictive, because it not only responds to queries but also anticipates users’ needs, suggesting relevant information before it is explicitly requested.
- In addition to text, the search incorporates visual and audio elements for a deeper understanding and an enriched user experience.
- This technology breaks down barriers, offering a search experience accessible to all, regardless of individual abilities or limitations.
- Despite the intensive use of data for personalization, privacy and security remain priorities, with advanced protocols to protect user information.
The evolution of Featured Snippets in 2024: SEO news to know
Some significant developments in 2024 concern Featured Snippets in search engines. Featured Snippets, also known as featured answers, are those information boxes that appear at the top of search results and provide direct answers to users’ questions. Here are the main updates to know:
- Search engines are working to make Featured Snippets more personalized, based on users’ search behavior and individual preferences.
- The use of AI to improve the accuracy and relevance of Featured Snippets is increasing. This leads to more precise and contextualized answers.
- In addition to text, Featured Snippets increasingly include multimedia elements such as images, graphs, and videos, to provide more comprehensive and engaging answers.
- The criteria for selecting content in Featured Snippets are more sophisticated, offering greater visibility opportunities for a variety of websites, including those with niche content.
- There “’s a” growing emphasis on answering very specific and detailed questions, which require concise but informative responses.
Offer the best user experience and Google will reward you
How important has it been, and how important will it be in 2024, to ensure a positive user experience (user experience – UX) in creating and optimizing websites and online content! The latest SEO news confirms this without any reservation.
Translated from theory to practice, it means meticulously taking care of:
- Website usability: a website must be easy to navigate, with a clear and intuitive structure.
- Loading speed: websites that load quickly offer a better user experience. And our Google considers loading speed an important factor in ranking a site. Let’s make good use of it!
- Quality content: providing relevant, informative, and valuable content is crucial. Google positively evaluates sites that meet users’ informational needs and offer relevant answers to their search queries. No more garbage thrown in just to fill space. Epic fail!
- Responsive design: a website that adapts well to various devices, especially mobile ones, is essential to offer an optimal user experience. Google favors responsive sites in its ranking, also because today more than ever, we browse almost always from smartphones and very little from desktops.
- User interaction and engagement: encouraging user interaction and engagement through comments, reviews, and other forms of participation improves user experience and positively influences visibility on Google. Yes, social proof is part of SEO dynamics, let’s get that straight once and for all!
- Accessibility: making websites accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities, is not only an ethical practice but is also positively evaluated by Google. Behind the algorithms and the screen, there are always people, let’s not forget that.
What role will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning play in Search Engine Optimization in 2024?
In 2023, the revolution unleashed by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning was one of the hottest topics, perhaps the most discussed and controversial. There “’s those who cried miracle, those who cried scandal, those who glimpsed the” Apocalypse.
There are also those who, like us at Qreativa, have tried to understand its advantages and disadvantages, using a lot of common sense. But let’s see better in which direction we are proceeding in the web marketing sector.
During 2024, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will play an increasingly significant role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). How will they influence it? Here’s the answer:
- Natural language understanding: thanks to AI and ML, search engines will be able to better understand human language in its various nuances, interpreting users’ search intent with greater precision.
- Personalization of search results: AI will allow search engines to offer increasingly personalized results, based on users’ search behavior, preferences, and habits.
- Content analysis and optimization: AI-based SEO tools will be able to provide increasingly detailed content analyses, suggesting optimizations to improve visibility and effectiveness in reaching the target audience.
- AI and ML will help predict emerging trends, allowing us SEO professionals to quickly adapt and leverage new market opportunities.
- User experience improvement: with the help of AI, it will be possible to enhance user experience through more intuitive and responsive websites, positively influencing search engine rankings.
- SEO process automation: many SEO activities, such as keyword research, backlink analysis, and report generation, will be further automated, allowing industry professionals to focus on more complex strategies.
- Adaptation to algorithm changes: AI and ML will help us understand and adapt more quickly to continuous updates in search engine algorithms.
The importance of quality backlinks for ranking in top Google positions is growing
Yes, the importance of quality backlinks in ranking in the top positions of Google’s SERP is constantly growing.
Google considers them as votes of confidence from other sources and uses them to evaluate your site’s reputation and authority.
A backlink from an authoritative and reliable website has a positive impact on your website’s ranking, while backlinks from low-quality or spam sites damage your online reputation.
To maximize the effectiveness of backlinks, it’s important to focus on ethical and targeted link building strategies.
This means seeking opportunities to obtain backlinks from sites relevant to your industry or niche, creating high-quality content that others will want to share, thus avoiding unreliable link building practices.
Google, and not only, is tired of hosting unfair practices and junk. Sometimes it has turned a blind eye, but in 2024, thanks to an increasingly refined algorithm and the power of AI and Machine Learning, it’s ready to sweep away and penalize crafty websites, to say the least.
Profile of the average user browsing the web in 2024: 8 key characteristics
- The average user in 2024 uses mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to access the Internet.
- They are often active on social media, using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok to share content, interact with friends, and follow their interests.
- An avid consumer of multimedia content, they are passionate about YouTube videos, streaming TV series, podcasts, and online music.
- They shop online for both consumer goods and services. They make purchases on sites like Amazon, eBay, and other online stores.
- They are increasingly aware of online privacy and seek to protect their personal data. The use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and encryption tools is becoming more widespread.
- They often show a growing interest in social, environmental, and political issues. They actively participate in online discussions on important matters and seek reliable sources of information.
- They use online platforms and courses to improve their skills and acquire new knowledge.
- They want everything right away because they are used to fast internet connections and expect a seamless browsing experience. Page loading speed is crucial to meet their expectations. Pay attention to your website’s loading times!
In general, the average user browsing the web in 2024 is highly connected, mobile-oriented, socially engaged, and interested in a wide range of online content. To be competitive, we must give them what they want and how they want it, no ifs and buts!
Content is still king as long as it’s well-curated and valuable
The saying Content is King for those working in SEO and Content Marketing is like a Commandment, a written law, and it will be so, now and forever.
This is precisely why the creation of high-quality, curated, and value-rich content is fundamental to attracting users’ attention and earning their trust. But why is content so important and why will it be even more so in 2024?
- Well-written and informative content captures users’ attention and encourages them to visit your website or interact with your brand.
- Publishing quality content demonstrates your competence and authority in the industry, building trust between you and your audience.
- Valuable content is more likely to be shared on social media and attract attention from other sources, increasing your brand’s visibility.
- Search engines like Google reward websites with relevant and quality content, helping to improve positioning in search results pages.
- The consistent creation of quality content keeps your audience interested and loyal over time.
- Quality content addresses your users’ needs and problems, providing them with useful solutions and information.
- In a highly competitive digital environment, high-quality content sets you apart from the competition and highlights your uniqueness.
Let’s always keep in mind that quality is more important than quantity, so it’s always better to focus on producing content that meets the needs and interests of the target audience.
SEO 2024: The Keyword is More EEAT for Websites
The concept of EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), launched by Google’s algorithm in 2023, will continue to be a fundamental pillar in SEO strategies and content positioning on search engines in 2024.
It is a framework used by Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of websites. These factors are not directly tied to ranking but serve as a guide for Google’s quality raters, whose feedback influences future algorithm updates.
To ensure a lasting online presence, it’s necessary to recognize the importance of the EEAT concept, focusing efforts on improving the experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the site.
This approach not only avoids the risk of becoming irrelevant online but also allows you to emerge as a leader in your industry.
After this nice journey discovering SEO trends in 2024, it’s clear that only those who are willing to ride the “wave, without being intimidated or discouraged, and do so with great care and competence, will manage not to fall into the” blackest abyss.
