SEO Marketing in 2024: Major Changes You Should Pay Attention To

The world of SEO never truly stands still as search engines are constantly updating, upgrading, and optimizing their performance. Every year noticeable changes are made to how search engines adapt to current user behavior, strategize, and update search algorithms.

As we continue forward into this year and the next, it’s time to sit down and look at the way SEO has already shifted. Together with Production Director of the digital company HotHeads, we will find out what SEO promotion will look like, and what trends will help you stay on top of search results.

User Trends of 2024

With the world around us rapidly changing, we are already seeing such behavior reflected in user trends. Down below we’ll look at the most notable changes in user behavior and what these could mean for their aspect of the SEO market:

Changes Related to Foreign Policy Developments: As foreign policy changes what apps, platforms, and sites are available in different countries, user bases shift to follow. As certain apps like TikTok become obsolete and unavailable due to legal issues, new platforms move to take its place.
Significant Audience Migration: A significant portion of traffic has been lost for Youtube Ads and TikTok as users move to different platforms that better support their interests. We see this, especially with Russian audiences that have moved away from the once prevalent social media platforms. These significant changes are already leading to revisions in advertising budgets, ad campaigns, and even SEO promotion.
Popularity Growth in Online Stores: As the online market continues to grow and become more aggressive, users now have a wider array of options to choose from. This aggressive growth of competition and increased attention to the quality of content have led to users being more likely to search for niche products. Now, in order to truly stand out, content must be optimized based on specific requests.

Dominant positions in search are still occupied with large brands so users are consistently focused on these as they choose products and services. And when looking at the main factors influencing ranking the focus lies heavily on traffic quality, behavioral factors, and brand popularity.

Small and medium-sized businesses that focus on services rather than products (cafes, clinics, offline stores, etc.) making the most of local SEO can be a game-changer. This type of SEO allows businesses to reach locally targeted customers faster and reduces competition with large brands.

Optimization Trends of 2024

One of the most notable things we see for various search engines like Google or Yandex is the continued fight against bots and other tools used to manipulate user behavior. For some time, this was a popular method used to increase ranking in search results. But it is now being combated by search engine precautions. As search engines have begun making great progress in determining robots from human users, this method is no longer as effective as it once was and can even be detrimental to your site.

Previously, little-known EMD domains were able to reach the top search results using this method. Now we’re seeing these types of sites less and less. With every update, this method becomes more obsolete. Anti-spam algorithms are becoming increasingly smarter

With anti-spam algorithms becoming smarter and more sophisticated in detecting unnatural user behavior, at best, they don’t take these factors into consideration. But in a more negative scenario, they can apply restrictive measures to a site.

With this, we’re seeing an even bigger demand for SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management). And as customers are increasingly paying more attention to reviews, working with these remains an integral part of the promotion strategy. The aim of the promotional strategy is to further affect the site’s reputation and ranking. A negative assessment can completely undermine the site’s ranking, while a positive one can strengthen it.

A trend that continues to hold a strong position is classical optimization. A close amount of attention is paid to the site’s structure. By expanding this and improving on it you can maximize the visibility of organic content and expand your project’s query index.

Something else worth noting in the field of e-commerce is how major players have begun to not only cover commercial aspects through regular ad campaigns but also drive more traffic from the regular content they’re putting out. This happens when marketing blocks are added to content as a call-to-action, for example.

Search Engine Algorithm Trends

One of the current top algorithm trends is the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) algorithm. This algorithm requires content to reach a certain standard. Here are the standards your content should meet to maximize the use of this algorithm:

Expertise, Credibility, and Reliability: Initially, the E-A-T algorithm focused on sites that address health and financial topics. But it’s now gone beyond that and covers other topics as well. An example of this is that now the content from a site dedicated to technology must be created or verified by professionals. Research, expert opinions, and accuracy are all factors that strongly influence your ranking in search results.
Reducing the Role of Neural Networks: Expert content has become a large part of a successful SEO strategy. Users want information from trusted sources. Neural networks that are used to generate content will not convey the level of authority and experience inherent in experts.
Reducing the Weight of Links in Google: In Google, where previously external links were very important, we see a gradual decrease in their weight and ability in the overall ranking formula. Algorithms become smarter and focus on understanding context and content.

Changes in search engine algorithms make SEO promotion more dynamic and smarter. Because of this, we have to reconsider how we approach website optimization as a whole. Now, it’s no longer about becoming more visible in search results, but about becoming a trusted source for your audience.

Should I Be Updating My Already Posted Content Regularly?

A common and popular trend we see is regular site updates. Updating and revamping content you’ve already posted can be beneficial, let’s look at why here:

Keep a better grasp on your audience’s attention: If your site is providing content that’s fresh and relevant, users are more likely to spend longer on your site. Search engines take into account the time users spend on each page and it utilize this information when determining the relevance of a page.
Repeated Visitors: Bringing visitors to your content again and again is a great way to improve your relevance. Regularly updating old articles not only keeps the site up-to-date but also keeps the audience engaged as new information comes out. This is especially important in the context of a zero-click search when users get brief information directly in the search results.

Updating your site’s content does more than just keep your users engaged and active, it can greatly affect your ranking as well. Fresh content is highly valued by search engines. Including popular queries and meta tags are also important factors when updating. With all of this, search engines will better index your site in their index pages and will improve your site’s position in search results.

Understanding Zero-Click Search

A new function that Google has implemented is the zero-click search result. With this, when a question is searched in Google, an accurate answer will be displayed at the very top of the page above the other search results. Having your content shown like this is a great way to attract more traffic. We’ll place an example for you here:

Another trend we’re also seeing with Google is quick answers generated by AI like ChatGPT. For example, when you go to search for a question, an answer will be generated using ChatGPT and will be displayed similarly to how zero-click search results are. But at the bottom, it will specify that this was a generated answer. And while this function isn’t available for all searches, it will be available for some.

What are the Advantages Of This Approach?

The user immediately receives the necessary information.
Content becomes more visible, and sites attract more traffic.

This is another reason why user-friendly, accurate, and informative content is important. It not only satisfies your users but also improves your site’s search ranking.

Understanding Marketplace Promotion

Despite the difficulties of global economies, last year was very successful for marketplaces. In 2023 alone, more than 64% of merchants experienced a significant increase in sales through marketplaces, while online stores grew by only 46%.

The reason for this isn’t hard to understand: With marketplaces, you can find almost anything! From toys and gadgets to stylish clothes and makeup, marketplaces bring any product right to the customer.

Customers love this. A large assortment of items means convenience. Customers are able to save time and compare products on the same site. If you add in some competitive pricing, you’ve got the perfect combination to generate sales.

But How Do Sellers Stand Out in This Huge Market?

When it comes to standing out amongst the crowd, last year’s recipe for success is still relevant for SEO optimization:

Reviews with the store’s rating are still a big priority — a positive online reputation greatly affects the ranking of products.
Descriptions with relevant keywords, hashtags, and other types of tagging will help your products stand out.
Photos with useful infographics that properly display your product will attract users ‘ attention.
Promotions with discounts will allow you to give your audience a direct benefit on using the marketplace.

Competition on marketplaces is fierce, but by following proven SEO optimization strategies, you can stand out from other sellers. The main thing is to emphasize the uniqueness of the products, provide useful information, and use searches aimed at the target audience.

What Else Can You Do?

Utilizing the marketplace doesn’t have to be the be-all-end-all for your products. With the help of competent SEO optimization, you can get traffic for low-frequency searches not only inside the marketplace itself but also from organic search results.

Conclusion

Many trends we see are quite predictable. And what we know for sure is that users will become more demanding, optimizers will master their tools, and algorithms will find newer and smarter ways to evaluate content. When you consider all of this, personalizing content is the best way to attract a larger audience. Updating content is something you should be doing regularly as it plays a large role in any successful SEO strategy.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to follow trends blindly! Flexibility is still important. Trends reflect the world around us which can change rapidly from day to day. On platforms that ads would’ve never been considered, are now rolling out new ads every day. The best way to ensure stable customer growth is by implementing new ideas as they come. If you can hit the ground running on new optimization trends, you’ll immediately set yourself apart from many.