SEO Trends in 2024: Tips to Stay Ahead of Competitors

Optimize for These SEO Trends in 2024 

Knowing that SEO trends come directly from Google’s continual strides to provide the best, most helpful content to users from an expert, trusted, authoritative source, being aware of the specifics of core updates – and ultimately understanding SEO trends – is crucial for organic success.  

So let’s take a look at SEO trends for 2024 and how to capitalize on them.  

Trend #1: Voice Search Optimization 

Did you know that voice assistants are expected to reach 8.4 billion units this year alone? That’s roughly 400 million more voice assistants than people in the world! Whether you’re asking Alexa or Google a question or vocalizing directly to your smartwatch or smartphone, the evolution of voice search is upon us – and from the looks of it, it’s not going away. 

Optimizing for voice search essentially means optimizing for longtail keywords, which are naturally more conversational in nature. A longtail keyword is a phrase using three words or more.

For example, "what is a longtail keyword" is a longtail keyword. People use voice search to ask questions, so finding longtail keywords using “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, and “how” is a great place to start.  

When you start to write content to answer longtail question keywords, make sure you include a brief answer right at the top of the page. This is a tried-and-true SEO strategy to attempt to gain the zero position in search, aka the “featured snippet”, but it also works incredibly well for voice search.  

Because let’s face it. No one wants Alexa reading them a 1500-word blog. They’re looking for a quick, direct answer to their question. So that’s what you need to give them right off the bat to optimize for voice search.

Trend #2: AI and Machine Learning in SEO 

Search engines have been using AI (artificial intelligence) technology for years now but it hasn’t been until recently that people can use GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) tools to help with some basic SEO tasks, like keyword research and creating content outlines. 

Starting last year and moving into this year, we’re seeing two major changes to organic search thanks to AI.  

First, AI is being used to find and understand websites and content that is truly helpful to users, not just those that have been optimized for SEO. When optimizing any content, it’s important to take a user-first approach, as AI is also taking this approach. Websites that just have keywords stuffed into them without providing any new information will not rank well, because they’re simply not helpful to users. 

In 2023, we saw the introduction of Search Generative Experience (SGE), which was only available to users (like myself) who signed up for beta testing on Google Labs. During that time, I was able to understand a little more about how SGE might impact organic search. On May 14, 2024, Google’s SGE was rolled out to all users in the United States. 

Now that SGE has rolled out to all users, the true impact of SGE will become apparent and quantifiable over the next few months. 

A Brief Use Case on SGE 

There's been a lot of talk in the SEO and search world about how generative AI is going to take away organic traffic. 

As I mentioned above, I have been beta testing Google’s SGE since 2023, which let me do some testing on the possible impact on organic traffic. So let’s dive in! 

My query was "how do I disconnect a hot water heater", because I know a blog that I wrote years ago still appears in the top 3 results for this query. 

Do you see how Google generated the steps, but still provided links to the top three organic results on the search engine results page (SERP)? 

First of all, we have to ask ourselves if users can get everything they need just from the numbered list with the steps. If they are Googling how to do this, it's likely they need a little more support, whether it be video or pictures. 

Since Google is showing three of the top listings right there in the AI-generated answer — which Google does plan on showing in the "zero" spot but has historically been reserved for a featured snippet — it essentially allows three pieces of content to share the "zero" spot.  

I noticed that the number one organic result and featured snippet – my blog – was listed first, and that SGE utilized a version of the “how to” steps that I included.  

Next, I looked at the numbered list provided by generative -AI vs. the numbered list my blog included as a table of contents (TOC). I created this TOC, with anchor links for each step, to help increase organic ranking. 

The bottom line is that the list Google provided is very close to the list I created, which, by the way, also uses structured data (HowTo schema markup), making it easier for machines to understand. However, HowTo schema markup was deprecated in September 14, 2023. Although HowTo schema no longer shows rich results in SERPs, it might still have a functional benefit in helping machines understand data. 

Now, no one can say for sure, but it appears that AI might have used the structured data on my blog as a building block, and then rewrote some steps to be more conversational, as AI does. 

So let's ask ourselves — is generative AI in search really a threat, or can we use it to our advantage to essentially get a featured snippet by ensuring our content is well optimized, allowing it to appear in the generative AI results above the fold? Seems like it's even more reason to optimize as much as possible. 

SEO is all about making your website awesome for visitors. By using AI tools and keeping up with how search engines work, you can make your website stand out and get found by the people who matter most. 

Trend #3: E-E-A-T and Content Quality 

E-E-A-T stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness”, and although it’s not part of Google’s core algorithm, it directly impacts the ability for content to rank well in search results. 

After releasing their Search Quality Rating Guidelines in March 2013, Google added the concept of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to those guidelines in 2014.  

Google has a gigantic team of Search Quality Raters – 16,000 of them, to be exact. These are real people whose job is to manually visit websites and rate them based on Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, a massive 167-page document.  

Almost 10 years later, in December 2022, Google added an additional “E” for “Experience”, meaning Google values content written from first-hand experience. 

It should be clear by now that Google’s emphasis on, and favoring of, strong, authoritative, trustworthy content isn’t going anywhere. In fact, core algorithm updates are almost always slated to improve the results shown in search results based explicitly on E-E-A-T. This isn’t going away, and failure to align with best practices to capitalize on E-E-A-T is not only a missed opportunity, but also a huge mistake that is likely to cost you valuable traffic-driving positions. 

So, if you don’t think that E-E-A-T should be a priority for your website, think again. E-E-A-T becomes even more important if your business publishes “Your Money, Your Life” (YMYL) content, which refers to “content that could impact a person’s financial stability, health, safety, or well-being". Due to these potential impacts, Google considers YMYL content more important and actually holds it to a higher quality (E-E-A-T) standard. 

How to Optimize for E-E-A-T 

Every good content strategy should include optimizing for E-E-A-T. 

Let’s start by looking at the first E for “experience”. A SME’s experience should be reflected within the content itself.  When experience is included in content, it not only personalizes and humanizes it, it also builds trust with your readers and showcases your authority. 

Optimizing for the last three letters of the acronym becomes slightly more technical, since this is best done through bylines and author pages. However, other techniques that shouldn’t be overlooked are citing reputable sources within your content, and publishing content that has been well-researched. 

Bylines should include a paragraph that speaks to why the author is qualified to write the content, and should include their name, professional title, the number of years of experience in their industry, education, any important certifications or awards that showcase them as a thought-leader.  

If you want to take it to the next level, creating dedicated author pages is a perfect SEO enhancement. Where the byline briefly tells the reader about the author of the article they’re currently reading, author pages house links to all of the articles that author has written.  

Author pages help establish website authority and expertise, which helps increase website visibility in search results. Plus, author page URLs can be added to your article’s schema markup, providing Google with an even more meaningful signal by way of structured data. 

Trend #4: Visual Search Optimization 

You’ve probably heard this before, but in search, “content is king”. And content isn’t just limited to articles but includes images, too!  

About The Author:

Dylan Goldman, Sr. SEO & Web Content Manager | Sagepath Reply

Dylan is a search engine optimization and web content expert with over 15 years of experience successfully optimizing websites to increase their organic visibility and drive organic traffic. Working with Fortune 500 and 1000 companies, he specializes in keyword research, high-level SEO strategizing, schema markup, technical SEO, and more.