SEO Guides, Tips & More!

The SEO world is changing rapidly. There are so many different SEO techniques available that you simply don’t have the time and resources to apply them all. Also, what used to work 5-10 years ago can be totally useless today. To rank a site it’s vital to keep up with all the Google algorithms’ updates and take all the factors into consideration.

To help you make up a plan that you can use in 2020, we asked Minuca Elena to reach out with 34 SEO experts and ask them the following question:

What are the most effective SEO techniques to consider in 2020?

We received a variety of answers concerning things like content, keyword research, link building, voice search, videos, on-site optimization. Keep reading to find out what are the best SEO techniques that you should focus on in 2020.

Andy Crestodina – Orbit Media

Search has changed but the key to ranking has not. In 2020, as in years past, you’ll need to check the competition and only target phrases if they’re within reach for your site’s level of authority. This can be time-consuming, but there is a shortcut.

If you have a low authority, target long phrases (5+ words). If you have higher authority, you can go ahead and target shorter, more competitive, more popular phrases.

Use this handy chart from our keyphrase research guide.  This aspect of SEO has never and will never change!

Bruce Clay

It is an evolution that answers via video will continue to become the new normal search result. Video has been around for a while, and with AI advances, and more use of voice search focused on Q&A, video is a clear winner. Now imagine a world where video provided competent answers to queries.

Imagine a world where half of the top 10 results were video answers. Now imagine a world where Google-owned YouTube. And imagine a world where when you clicked on an organically ranked video the answer played a video starting with an ad. Do you believe that Google is in the business of making money?

IMO the most effective SEO technique will be to optimize the script/content that appears in your now frequently produced videos.

BTW, this changes the life of virtually every company and especially blogger on the planet… almost none are video ready.

Julie Joyce – Link Fish Media

As a link builder, I think that I’m naturally biased towards link building as a way of boosting online visibility, but I truly think that links matter as much as they always have.

One thing that I see clients not focusing on is their internal link structure though, so I’m hoping that in 2020 we’ll see more businesses taking that seriously. Simply adding a few internal links to your important pages can make a world of difference.

I’m still surprised by sites that have link-worthy content buried deep down with no easy ways to get to it. Giving users and search engines a more direct path to that content is definitely something worth pursuing.

Brian Massey – Conversion Sciences

The most important effective SEO techniques to consider in 2020 all fall into the category of monetizing traffic.

As it gets harder and harder to rank, it becomes important to extract value from the visits you are getting. Don’t expect visitors to search your site for reasons to take action. Give them reasons. This means providing relevant calls to action on all pages. By relevant, the offer should be related to the content. Then, test a variety of calls to action:

* Sidebar offers work but they are often ignored. Feature related products on your blog sidebars.
* Feature products or offers in the content.
* Exit-intent overlays are great for building lists.
* Scroll-triggered overlays put offers in front of interested readers.
* Always place an offer at the bottom of the page to catch your most engaged readers.
* Test offering a discount in exchange for permission to contact them on Facebook Messenger.

Most of these tactics are list-building. Your list is a valuable asset even if you are an eCommerce business. This means you are going to need to get good at email.

For those who won’t respond to your offers, pixel the pages and begin targeting audiences on Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram.

Wring every bit of value from your visitors to make your SEO program a measurable success.

Sam Soh

Most things regarding SEO is technical, and that includes link building and outreach. For example, you need to know how to get a good DR before anyone would actually link to the page you are promoting, otherwise, it will always end up being a paid link.

Therefore in 2020, one of the most effective SEO techniques to consider would be brand building and improving brand awareness. This helps you stand out from your competitors. This is assuming that you are already ranking in the top 3-5 positions for the keywords you are targeting.

Why do I say this? It is because most SEO specialists are techies and only focus on using all sorts of methods to get their desired rankings. But the main purpose of SEO is leads and sales generation.

Being customer-centric and making them trust your brand and services is very important to get them to buy from you. Personally, I feel that in such a matured stage for SEO, a domain name which is [theservicesiprovide].com no longer works.

One of the things which you can “instantly” improve your brand on the SERPs alongside your competitors is to get your logo trademarked. Therefore, you can add the TM mark onto your logo right away in your META title and description.

In about 9 months from getting the actual trademark, you will be able to use the (R) symbol. This fairly simple but long process tells potential customers who are looking through the SERPs that your company is built for the long-term and increases your service’s trustworthiness and reliability as compared to your competitors.

Sabrina Bomberger – Greenlane Marketing

SEO is increasingly less about gaming the system and more about providing genuinely helpful information to users – in the places where they are looking for that information.

In 2020, consider techniques that are most likely to get your site seen by the right folks. A good place to start is by looking at the questions that are being asked about your given subject. Explore relevant People Also Ask features, and be sure that you have quality content that directly addresses them. Bonus points if you aggregate those questions onto a content page with valid schema markup.

Quality links are as important as ever in 2020, but with so many SEOs out there looking for a link, it’s increasingly difficult to get your outreach emails opened. To counter this, put time into forming relationships with other content creators and influencers in your niche. Join reddit communities and contribute to the conversation without selling your product.

If you can become a truly helpful resource in your given area, you’re way more likely to earn natural and built links than with a cold outreach pitch.

While these techniques are simple, they are by no means easy. It takes time to create truly useful content, and even more to make sure that your content is seen by the right people. Not to mention all the essentials that you have to get right, like ensuring your site is fast-loading, easy to navigate, and doesn’t have any technical issues keeping it out of search engine indexes.

SEO is more time-intensive (and costly) than ever, but the rewards for doing it right can be huge.

Andrew Holland – Zoogly

In 2020 the playing field has leveled. Experts are sharing how they get links in their blogs, their YouTube channels, and their courses.

So, in 2020 you need to focus on 3 areas.

1. Website build. Cost-effective websites have been around a while now, maybe 10 years or so.

The result is that many sites are creaking with the strain of too many plugins, poor outdated design, poor user experience, and slow speeds. In 2020 it is time to reinvest in your website.

2. Emerging link builders: Everyone is going after the big name websites to get links. In 2020 you need to be looking at the low authority sites that have an aggressive SEO strategy behind them.

These sites are a) more likely to link out and b) going to grow in authority quickly.

So, how do you spot them? Simple, start connecting with freelance SEO writers and see what content they are sharing on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Anyone hiring SEO writers is keen to grow their site, so finding niche relevant SEO focused sites at early stages is a great investment of your time.

3) Content that drives results: There is an abundance of how to style content pieces out there. In 2020 it is time to use ‘how I did it’ content.

Did you land 15 clients this week, great, how did you do it? So you achieved xyz results, what did you do? This content is going to grab eyeballs and links.

Ultimately you want any outreach email to make people’s day and you will soon see results.

Steve Wiideman

The most effective SEO techniques for most businesses will be centered around improving mobile user experience, including speed, ease-of-use, ADA compliance, and trust factors.

For sales content, immediately providing enough visual stimulation to earn the user’s confidence in a transaction. For marketing or upper-funnel content, using a common “fake news” checklist should be more than enough to get a leg up.

We’ve also been recommending that our clients start exploring voice search, including swapping their magnifying glass for a microphone icon in the site search box, sharing their short answers as a response to Google Alerts when questions are asked and indexed, and lastly through registering their business with Google Actions Console and creating Skills for Amazon Echo.

Sean Si – SEO Hacker

Mastering search intent. That’s one of the most effective and underrated strategies we, at SEO Hacker, have tried in 2019 and I’m sure search intent will only increase in important this 2020.

Why? Because understanding the intent behind your target audience’s search term and experience will enable you, as a content creator, to appropriately and accurately model your content to satisfy your audience’s intent.

Aside from answering your audience’s queries, mastering search intent and producing the coinciding content sends positive signals to Google. Featured Snippets, increase in rankings, increase in traffic, increase in click-through rate, and many more.

All of these effects are great for your website’s search presence and we’ve already enjoyed these things since we’ve adjusted our strategies for search intent.

With the recent algorithm updates, especially the BERT update, Google is continuously improving their understanding of content found inside our websites.

So, improving our content’s technical factors such as keyword density, word count, etc isn’t all that important, but being able to provide the BEST answer to users is more important. I’ve written extensively about this in my blog and now, we’re just enjoying the effects of satisfying our audience’s search intent.

David Leonhardt – SEO Writer

In 2020, I think we will really see how SEO evolves – it is evolution more than revolution. Most people in the know have already dealt with mobile-friendly and secure websites. But voice search is the wave descending upon us now. That doesn’t require us to do something new to our websites; it requires us to do something better.

Voice search is in natural language. It means the search engines try to better understand the intent of the search, understand the meaning of web pages, and then match the two.

In other words, our web pages have to get the semantics of natural language right. That does not mean leaving “keywords” behind, as they will remain useful for the foreseeable future. It does mean working them in more naturally.

It also means hiring real writers who can write quality English that makes sense to real readers…because search engine algorithms are becoming more and more like real readers, asking real questions in search of real answers, thanks to voice search.

Chris Makara

For me, it’s still all about links for SEO. But not just any link – relevant, topical links.

It’s the same thing that is tried and true over the years. Links are what have the most impact on your rankings.

Of course, you’ll want to also work on making sure your sites are loading fast as well as ensuring you have all the proper on page elements in place.

And you’ll also want to be more mindful of writing content for voice search. Basically, write how a person talks – be conversational.

Be sure that you focus on the things that make the biggest impact, that’s when you’ll see the most improvements.

Bobby Reed – Capitol Tech Solutions

Voice search is probably the biggest consideration for SEO because so many people are using devices like Google Home and Amazon. Thus, featured snippets is the critical big one that ties in with voice search.

For instance, I asked my Google home how much does Invisalign cost in Sacramento and it responded with the featured snippet from a local dentist and it references that local dentist.

Voice Search takes longer to read a result, so most likely people will just go with the first answer, and that is why the featured snippet will be so critical in the future.

Sameer Somal – Blue Ocean Global Technology

SEO 2020 Techniques

SEO is one of the most important considerations when ensuring that your content reaches the right audience. The following actionable strategies will help you drive results and positively impact your digital presence on search engines.

Featured Snippet Opportunities

Featured Snippets are a relatively new technique and can best be described as an “answer box.” Featured Snippets are the brief answers which appear on Google in response to the queries users search for. They are effective for attracting more traffic because they appear atop organic search engine results pages (SERPs).

To make the most of these opportunities, one must adopt optimal keyword and long-tail keywords; optimal here refers to the keywords that appear within the top 10 search results on Google.

Another key factor for implementation is originating relevant content that reflects recent search trends and Google algorithm updates.

Voice Search

Reach a wider audience and amplify your message by optimizing your content for the voice search. People have started to use voice search with increased frequency through helpful virtual assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Home Appliances.

The integration of the aforementioned into our daily lives makes audio-based searches a compelling opportunity for your 2020 SEO efforts. Because most users ask questions when conducting a voice search, consider adding thoughtful questions and answers.

Adding Videos and Infographics on the Website

Everyone loves visuals! People connect with photos and infographics. Furthermore, relative to written content, the right images are significantly more engaging and memorable.

Making videos a part of your SEO plan will definitely help you drive more traffic towards your website properties. Ensure that your videos are optimized and feature transcripts and tags.

Antonella Pisani – Eyeful Media

One of my favorite techniques, which I believe will still be effective in 2020, is running content gap analyses against competitors and then writing more comprehensive and visually interesting articles.

We usually start with competitive keyword research and then seek to understand which pages are ranking well.

That can often lead to the development of glossary type content, or to other informational pieces that have a shot at showing up in the answer boxes.

While it’s not revolutionary, we find that most of the companies we work with still require help getting the foundation right.

Mandy McEwen – Mod Girl Marketing

In 2020, we will see more voice search and visual search. This means you need to ensure your content is optimized for both. If you want your site to rank for voice searches, you’ll need to be in the top 3 results.

You’ll also want to include questions and answers in your content. FAQ pages are great for voice search SEO as they have loads of questions and answers.

When it comes to visual search you’ll want to make sure your images on your website are SEO friendly. You should always include an alt tag and title tag for every image. But, just that alone isn’t going to have you magically appearing for visual searches.

Your website’s authority is a major SEO factor. Google also has stated that they favor websites with fresh content. You’ll also want to include a featured image that is optimized at the top of the page you are trying to rank.

While the rise of voice search, visual search, and videos are inevitable, the fundamentals of SEO still remain.

Paige Arnof- Fenn – Mavens & Moguls

I started a global branding and marketing firm 18 years ago when websites were basically a brochure online and search was a novelty The sites have gotten fancier over the years and search engines have changed their algorithms to keep up with customer demand for a better and more relevant search capability. The most effective techniques I predict are:

Websites must be optimized for voice search

Voice user interface allows users to interact with websites through voice commands so it adds usability and functionality to your site making it accessible to all users including those with limitations and disabilities.

It is not just about complying with the ADA, responsible web design and corporate social responsibility goals but it is also good for the bottom line by reaching a broader audience. Inclusion is the right thing to do and it is good for business.

Smart speakers are only getting more popular going forward so being able to optimize for voice search will be key to maximize the marketing and advertising opportunities on Siri, Alexa, Google Home, etc. Brands that perfect the “branded skill” with more customer-friendly, less invasive ads are going to win big.

Are you prepared when customers ask for help like “Alexa what is the best Mexican restaurant in Boston?” or “Alexa ask Nestle for an oatmeal cookie recipe.” if not you are missing a big opportunity!

There are always new shiny objects in marketing to distract you, social media and technology are 24/7 but SEO is here to stay whether it is via Google or voice. You get one chance to make a great first impression so if you want to improve the impression you are making and give your business a boost make sure your site is optimized and voice search is very important.

Content quality and length matter for ranking

Web pages that contain long high-quality content get more visibility and shares so becoming that trusted source and influencer with timely and helpful answers to questions gets rewarded quickly.

Search engines notice when sites publish consistently and can see how long people stay so building a strong reputation as a site that informs and educates pays off in higher organic search results too. Users are savvy and can tell if the content is too salesy or self-promoting which gets ignored.

Mobile UX determines your ranking

In a mobile-first world, you have less time to grab people, attention spans are shorter than ever so videos will be used even more to boost rankings, show don’t tell for maximum impact, rich content drives engagement, traction, and growth.

The world is moving to mobile-first or mobile-only, fewer people accessing the web on big screens so everyone is tailoring their site, message and content accordingly. More people watch videos than TV now so adding videos to your site and using the right keywords for video descriptions and headlines will ensure you do better in searches too.

Raymond Lowe – WL Media HK

As Google continues its ever-increasing improvements to understanding and satisfying real-world queries it becomes more important than ever to focus not directly on SEO, but on satisfying user intent.

The focus of Google search is to satisfy the query that people enter or, increasingly often, speak aloud. When webmasters and content creators align their direction with that of Google then it becomes a win-win instead of an adversarial relationship.

From Hummingbird through RankBrain to BERT there is an ever heightened incremental development of the ability of Google to understand what people really want.

That means that more than ever it is essential that SEOs have a strong understanding of what their target visitors want.

What they want to know, what they want to do, and how they plan to get there.

Although the buyer/researcher journey is now more fragmented than the traditional view, the individual elements still do exist even if not always in the conventional straight path that was originally described.

Researching the behavior of customers, and weighting this particularly towards high-value visitors to the website, therefore becomes essential. And for many companies, this is a challenge to go beyond the obvious of “the customer wants to buy a widget”.

Why does the customer want the widget in the first place?

Answer that, in an independent article, or as a section of a deeper piece of content, then the chance of being ranked in the SERP. There isn’t a need to particularly target a “keyword” phrase, because Google is going to successfully match a wide range of different long-tail terms to your article, provided it addresses the relevant topics.

This topic-based approach SEO is efficient and can be guided by internal information that a company has. Front-line staff from call center teams, through salespeople and social media managers, are likely to have a great window into the mind state of customers.

Content that talks to that state of mind will feed Google with material to list in SERPs, and at the same time can be powerful attractors for links and social exposure.

The new schema.org markup for Q&A and Answers shows a perfect way to jump-start Google’s understanding that your material satisfies real-world inquiry in short items that are focused on a particular focused question.

At the same time, the long-form comprehensive articles that touch on every aspect of a core concept continue to rank well even without markup, with subsection headers guiding Google to a better understanding even without any expect matching of vocabulary.

Experiment with both long and short ways to answer questions in 2020 and see which works better in the competitive landscape for a particular target industry.

Jon Tromans

I think the most important thing to focus on is content. I know it’s boring and how many times do you see that awful phrase ‘Content Is King’… but with the introduction of BERT, Google is trying to understand the context of questions and queries you ask it which means your content has to be absolutely top-notch and targeted at answering peoples questions in a much more focused way.

This means that content writers and SEOs need to deeply understand their audience and what they want.

It’s no good *thinking you know* what information your audience wants. You need to *really know* what they want.

This means research, interviewing potential customers and discovering all the questions and pain points that a customer may have on the journey to buying your product or service. You then answer all these questions within your content.

Another thing I think is going to become more popular within the field of SEO is Conversion Rate Optimisation. More SEOs will need to be analyzing audience behavior, tracking goals and running A/B tests. This will give then an enormous amount of information on how to convert leads and sales much more efficiently and build better websites.

It’s great to have an SEO strategy that brings in lots of traffic but if it doesn’t convert you’ve wasted your time.

Floyd Buenavente – SEO Philippines

Honestly, I think that one of the best SEO techniques so far is to create highly valuable content and then have that content placed in front of the people who are hungry for that information.

The tricky part is how one is going to share these streams of content and how fast will google be able to extract this info in the shortest amount of time. Ergo this is where link building comes in, Guest posting still works but I think right now if you want to increase your guest post links you would need to have an allocated budget for it as a lot of websites request payment. (I am just being honest here)

You can still get some free links in high authority sites but then this is very rare and if at all time-consuming.

Therefore most of the work to be done should be aimed in getting more interactions in your website and targeting highly searched keywords with great emphasis on adding value in your content depending on the industry you are in.

It is more complicated than what one can imagine, yet this is the shortest answer I could ever come up with and hopefully, it makes sense to every SEO’s out there.

Bailey Hahn – Summit Digital Marketing

I would say for Summit Digital Marketing, one of the SEO techniques that we are focusing on in 2020 is the concept of using guest blogging as a link building campaign for our clients. We have so many diverse clients that are in so many different industries so a “one size fits all” link building strategy doesn’t exactly work efficiently.

With guest blogging, we can find sites or organizations that perfectly fit and accommodate each individual client, as well as their products and services. At Summit, we really focus on a “custom fit” digital marketing experience and believe this link building tactic will bring success to all of our clients in 2020!

Christina Nicholson – Media Maven

Video is huge. So are podcasts. Many times, people expect others to find and watch the video or listen to the podcast. In 2020, you need to take it a step further.

I suggest getting those videos and podcast episodes transcribed. Once they are transcribed, turn them into blog posts with headers, sub-headers, backlinks, internal links, and images. \You can also embed the video and link to the podcast to drive blog traffic to those outlets. This way, you are drawing more people to your content in a variety of ways.

Agnieszka Podemska – MiroMind

In 2020, the popularity of mobile personal assistants is expected to grow and with it the need for mastering optimization for voice search.

Successful optimization will require SEO specialists to know how the audience speaks about specific products or services.

Understanding how voice queries differ from typed searches will be crucial.

Marcus Miller – Bowler Hat

It is always tough to provide a generic answer to this kind of question as the most effective technique for one industry may not be the same for another. You also have to take into account the utterly unique set of circumstances of any business.

So, there are two answers here I guess.

1. Perform an SEO audit and identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. Then, implement the tactics and techniques that will be most effective for your business.

2. Content. It’s the oldest answer in the book. But it is, and always will be the right answer. As Google moves ever more away from links as a quality signal and iterates and improves their understanding of content, ensuring you have the very best answers to the questions that people ask is always going to be the smart move.

Going with the SEO philosophy of being the best answer to the customer’s question – be that for a local business, a product or an informational article just makes everything else that you have to do under the SEO umbrella just so much easier. Make sure your site provides content that is truly useful to your customers and that improves on the content provided by your competitors.

Hazel Jarrett – SEO+

There’s no doubt that technology is changing rapidly and keeping up with this where SEO is concerned can feel daunting. My advice is to focus on the user experience (UX) in 2020 and use that as your starting point for how tech might best serve your site. It’s OK to keep things simple.

Above all, talk to your customers. Ask them what they want and need at every stage of the buying journey. Listen to how they talk; forget about keywords and think about intent. UX is all about focusing on – and meeting – the needs of searchers.

Why do they come to your website?

Look at how you can offer a great UX. Clean site architecture, user-focused content, clear calls to action all make a difference.

Expertise, authority and trust (E-A-T) are going to continue to be essential to how websites are evaluated in 2020. Google wants to know that your content can be trusted. Link to your sources, support your knowledge with evidence and show search engines and searchers alike that you care about giving them relevant, helpful information packaged within a fantastic UX.

Kristopher Jones – LSEO.com

Google’s mobile-first index requires SEO techniques that favor mobile optimization.

In 2020 webmasters should focus on maximizing page speed, mobile-friendly design, and local search ranking factors.

Keep in mind that an increasing amount of people will find your business via mobile – therefore, prioritize your SEO strategy accordingly.

Harris Brown – HFB Advertising

The most effective technique in 2020 will be to optimized your old content for your end-user and not the search engines.

Whatever content that you ignored in the past and just let sit around to collect dust now is the time to update your content.
Instead of creating new content with the same information or close to it just add it on to a similar page or post.

By updating your content that is similar to a new post topic that you were going to post you will be competing with the same keywords, topics and search engine page rank within your pages. This usually confuses the search engines and they will only rank one of them.

It is much easier to add on to an older post than to start a new post.

This will be the most effective impact on your page rank in the shortest time.

Eagan Heath – Get Found Madison

Here’s what we’ll be focusing on for our clients in 2020: keyword cannibalization and discovering opportunities in Google Search Console.

Basically, we want to ensure that our client’s websites don’t have multiple pages competing for the same keyword phrases. That’s why we create keyword to URL maps and check them against actual Google rankings to make sure the right page is showing up for the right phrase.

We also want to discover new phrases for which pages were not originally optimized but which Google started showing them for. For blog posts, in particular, these web pages are often on page 2 or worse for these unintentional keyword phrases, but can fairly easily be brought to page one by incorporating this “in the wild” keyword research.

Corey Trojanowski – Valve+Meter

One of the biggest gains in a company can make from an SEO perspective is removing redundant content from their website. Too often we have new clients that come to us and we first perform a blog audit for them. Our blog audit looks at organic traffic performance, but we also map how often keywords are used in multiple posts or pages.

When you are trying to use the same keyword phrases across multiple pages it is difficult for any of them to rank. Map out all of your content and determine what keyword phrase you’re trying to win for each post and page.

If you find yourself trying to rank for the same keyword phrases in multiple pages you need to consolidate those pages. While you’re in the process of reworking and rewriting these pages you will consolidate, do some reconnaissance and see what web pages are currently on page one of Google for the keyword phrases you’re trying to win.

Look for certain subheadings and subtopics they talk about on their pages. This is content you should skyscraper and incorporate it into the posts you are reworking. The better you are at turning multiple jalopies into one super-powered Tesla, the better your SEO will perform.

Nick Leffler – Exprance

The most important SEO technique to consider first in 2020 is your on-site SEO. Without getting on-site SEO perfected with good content then no matter what you do off-site will fall flat.

A website with content that’s useful to searches and offers something another website can’t always outperform a website that doesn’t no matter how many links the lacking website has.

In fact, if you create a website and create tons of great content for it that is well-targeted and better than other content out there, it’s going to start ranking with a few links even if they aren’t the highest quality. I recently created a website that is heavy on helpful content (that’s based on help articles for specific technical tasks) and it ranks with very few valuable links.

In contrast, content that’s not rich in value will be easy to outrank in search results and is a contributing factor for my content ranking much easier.

So, to sum it all up, the most effective SEO technique to consider in 2020 is good on-site SEO and great content too.

David Krauter – Websites That Sell

Hands down the No.1 MUST USE SEO technique for 2020 is data drive on-page optimization.

When you know the exact equation in content Google is looking for ranking becomes so much simpler.

In 2019 we have outranked major authority sites with little local and affiliate sites, not by links, social signals or whatever the latest trick sold by the “goooroos”.

No, it’s analyzing the data of the actual websites that are ranking, deciphering why and what kind of pages Google is ranking and then creating, optimizing the exact kind of page Google wants to see for those keywords.

With the release of the BERT update in late 2019 it made doing SEO this way even more powerful.

There are several pieces of software in the market that can help aid in getting the data, however, it still takes brain power and marketing knowledge to analyze this data and then make the right choices in your content piece that gives Google exactly what it wants.

However, rather than just applying a shot-gun approach to content creation for targeted keywords, on-page optimization in 2020 and beyond now comes down to a data-driven science.

Sam Bretzmann – Local SEO Machine

I focus a lot on local businesses and right now, the most effective thing to be doing is fully utilizing your Google My Business account.

Fill the whole thing out as completely as possible.

Send people to leave reviews there. Post regularly there.

Basically, be as active as you can on it.

Randy Mitchelson – iPartnerMedia

Your website may be breathtaking, but if it doesn’t load fast Google will take notice. Worse, your website visitors will not have the best experience and you will risk a higher abandon rate. Why? Because most users won’t wait.

Speed is a necessity. Our digital marketing team continues to observe companies investing in beautifully designed websites that result in a heavy payload when being called by a web browser. A beautiful design must be balanced with load speed. Proper compression techniques, use of content development networks and other code related efficiencies must be embraced in order to ensure fast load speeds.

Not to mention hosting. Getting cheap on hosting also presents load speed risk. High-speed servers that are not encumbered by too much traffic and storage play a big role in ensuring fast load times. Yes, you get what you pay for.

Patrick Leonard – Brighter Digital

My thoughts on effective SEO for 2020 basically echo Gary Vaynerchuk’s thoughts on sales in general – it’s all about context and experience.

At a local search conference in 2018 Google suggested that 46% of searches have local intent. Even big brands that don’t have a specific local presence are starting to localize their search strategies because of that statistic and changing behavior.

It’s really no different than creating “personas” to make your marketing message more effective. We know Google shows localized results for local intent searches so why not write content specifically for your audience ie. people from a specific city or even a specific neighborhood.

Sure it’s more effort but the boosted value, personalization, and context for users is one-way businesses can continue to stand out in an increasingly crowded field.

Bernice Quek – Traffic Bees

Reverse Guest Blogging

When it comes to building backlinks and traffic, guest blogging is highly effective and popular. However, a similar SEO strategy that you can also employ that involves less work and more control is reverse guest blogging.

Instead of guest blogging on other sites, you identify and pitch to subject experts to guest blog on your site. Pitching will be much easier if your blog is already receiving decent traffic since most experts will want to work with established blogs.

In addition to benefits such as increased exposure for both parties, other advantages of employing this technique include:

• Better control of the type of content and topic
• Less work for you (as compared to writing a new article or guest posting on another site)
• Your audience will enjoy a fresh perspective
• You get to build stronger partnerships

When using this method, do take note of these:

• Be selective about who to pitch to – they should have a decent amount of audience of their own
• The expert should cover a topic that you haven’t written about yet
• Always ensure the content, title tag and meta description is fully optimized – make edits if you need to

To find a guest blogger, you can also use search strings on Google, e.g. [“guest post” + your target topic]. This way, you’ll be able to find authors that have written similar topics on other websites.

Once you’ve found suitable bloggers, reach out to them with a personalized email to let them know why you want to feature them and what you have to offer.

Reverse guest blogging is relatively easy to implement and is definitely worth trying!

Thank you so much to all the experts that contributed to this expert roundup! If you enjoyed reading this post please share it with your friends and followers on social media.