GUESTS & RESOURCES
Episode Overview:
Join host Ben as he continues his 2021 SEO Predictions conversation with Tyson Stockton, VP of Client Services at Searchmetrics, and Jordan Koene, SEO Strategist and Advisor to Searchmetrics.
Moving on from core algorithm updates and technical performance metrics, today’s episode covers emerging alternative forms of search. First up is voice search, as 2020 continued to bring this topic to the forefront. While this technology will likely play a key role in the future of search, it’s mostly been smoke and mirrors for the last decade, as Jordan states. He predicts that we shouldn’t expect much change in 2021 or even the next five years, as currently there’s little incentive for Google.
SEOs should, however, pay attention to the continual verticalization of search by Google. At the end of 2020, we saw the introduction of shopping ads changes including free listings. Expect more changes in 2021, with possibilities in car marketplaces, couponing, travel (as the pandemic eases), etc.
Video search should also see significant changes this year as Google continues to better understand the content within a video. This might alter how video search is presented, such as the integration of video into SERPs. And the explosion of new video streaming services should play an important role as these companies seek to gain SEO traffic. Google will need to differentiate between high-production streaming content vs. existing user-generated content (UGC) like YouTube.