6 SEO Marketing Strategy Lessons Learned In 2020

The trends that stood out this year have always been fundamental to SEO but were really brought to the forefront during Covid-19. As we approach the end of the year, let’s take a look at some of the most important 2020 SEO trends and what lessons we learned from them.

Lesson #1: Capitalize on what is working right now

For better or for worse, pretty much every industry has been turned upside down in 2020. Many marketing professionals might be used to long term planning and really looking into the future for how they will reach their goals. A huge (and most likely challenging) lesson learned for many this year was keeping sight of what is working right now and thinking about how to capitalize on that even more. With everything changing so fast and no guaranteed certainty, many of us have learned the importance of shorter-term planning in an SEO marketing strategy.

Lesson #2: Your content might now be working as well as it used to

Like previous years, content marketing was at the top of SEO trends in 2020. This year content marketing has not only taught us the importance of evaluating your content but also in adapting. We’ve seen a rise in user-generated content, more engaging content, informational focused content, and the importance of messaging and brand tone. Because we’ve been inundated with even more high-quality visual content and videos, a lot of people learned that their written content isn’t cutting it anymore. With this comes lessons in being flexible as a marketer but also what a high pay-off you can receive from trying something new.

Lesson #3: Optimize for local SEO

Another important 2020 SEO trend has been local SEO and optimizing for geographic locations. If you haven’t been completely invested in local SEO in the past, it’s likely 2020 helped push you in headfirst. Consumers aren’t traveling and they aren’t traveling far when they do need products and services. This year has taught us how to value our communities even more and how competitive local SEO can become. This lesson was not only for B2C businesses either. With supply chains impacted and money being tighter, many B2B companies learned how to leverage local SEO to reach others closer to them.

Lesson #4: Keywords and traffic are not making or breaking success

If your organic keyword rankings or website traffic were consistently fluctuating or not where they used to be, you’re not alone. This year, we learned important lessons in search behavior. Technology has become more important to many staying at home or working remotely. Users are searching more, search intents are vast, phrased and words vary, and there’s more competition in search engine results. A big lesson learned in SEO marketing this year is that keyword rankings and traffic might not be exactly where you want it to be, but it does not mean you aren’t succeeding.

Lesson #5: Your website can and will eventually hurt you

SEO marketing strategies can be tough to make successful if you don’t have a strong, functional website. Many businesses that have been coasting on a poor website learned how it is really impacting them in 2020. Slow mobile and desktop pages, a confusing user experience, poor e-commerce functionality, lack of e-commerce functionality, or minimal content are essential website elements that aren’t going away anytime soon. This year has made a lot of businesses finally take the steps to update their websites to be efficient, more functional, and support their customers’ needs.

Lesson #6: If you’re not staying up to date, it’s hurting you

In general, many professionals and business owners learned a lesson about simply being visible and staying up to date in 2020. Whether it’s keeping your Google My Business profile information up to date or your website information, you are doing yourself a disservice. Customers have demanded clear information and transparency from their favorite products and services. 2020 was not only a great reminder of the importance of your online visibility but also customer retention and how to make sure you’re still there for them.

Reflecting on some of the most important SEO trends that emerged this year and what they’ve taught marketers, it’s never too late to capitalize on new SEO trends.
Many of these trends are here to stay going into the new year so don’t think you’ve missed your chance. Interested in more SEO topics? Check out our latest blogs to read about more relevant trends for your business.