In May of 2021 Search Engine Journal surveyed 2,830 Search Engine Optimization professionals for the State of SEO report. SEJ looks for insights into what SEO professionals see as the most important ranking trends, threats, and future factors of SEO. In this week’s article the Anvil SEO will break down some of the top trends, threats, and future concepts from that report and how these factors can influence your website’s SEO.

Trends in Website Ranking

The First chart represents the SEO practices that the surveyed individuals felt had played the largest role in ranking over the last year. The results show what those in the digital marketing world know, the success of a website is the sum of many working parts. In Anvil’s SEO Research Phase we audit out client’s websites to ensure that on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, structured data and more are all in place or we have a plan to add them to the website. These on page elements along with the onsite experience they collectively create help drive user search behavior and user experience. As you scan down Search Engine Journals chart you can create a web of further connections between all the elements identified. In order to have deep and accurate content you must consider relevance to your websites topic and you must understand that Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness are cornerstones of any good content. If your website isn’t designed to be accessed on a mobile device and isn’t able to be accessed fast, who is going to stick around to read it. In all this chart can and should help marketers to determine areas of focus for their website, but it is important to remember that search engine optimization works best when all these factors work in harmony.

Threats to SEO

Google has become so synonymous with searching for something on the internet that “Just Google it” is something most of us likely say at least once a day. So it stands to reason that the actions of Google can be seen as some of the biggest threats to SEO. Google holds such a large market share of internet search that any actions they take can dramatically affect the landscape and practice of optimizing websites for search. Google updates are scary for SEO’s because of the unknown ways in which it might affect our websites traffic and rankings. Google has also added features which allow users to get the answer for their query from the search results page without ever having to click through to the website. While these threats tend to cast a big shadow, they are manageable through SEO practices and tactics which websites should already be using. Websites designed with sound content, a strong technical framework and optimized on-page elements should not be majorly affected by Google updates. These updates are designed by Google to improve the search experience and eliminate non-relevant results and low-quality websites.  In addition using on page optimizations like properly optimized meta data and structured data can help websites to capture the rich results and featured snippets displayed on search engine results pages. Anvil works to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and updates made by Google and other search engines. We ensure our clients websites are optimized to withstand and thrive through Google updates and changes.

The Future of SEO

Now for the question every digital marketer asks themselves on a daily basis…”so what’s next?” What factors, tactics, or tools will help a website ascend the rankings and master SEO in 2022 and beyond? The answer mirrors what we have seen again and again throughout this report. Future SEO success is a result of dedicated but balanced optimization of the website’s elements. Your website must be built on a sound technical platform that is optimized for speed and performance to meet Core Web Vitals standards. On page elements like structured data, videos and, keyword focused meta data help ensure that Google understands the purpose of your page. Lastly, ensuring your content answers its queries and adds value to the users searching experience is vital to Google ranking your site highly. Google is focused on user experience, asking, “How can we make the searchers life easier?” A website that is optimized across technical, on-page, and content and is designed to make the users life easier is the website that is set up for success in the future.

The State of SEO Report by Search Engine Journal is a great look into what we SEO professionals see as the current environment of search and digital marketing. What is clear is that there many different factors and elements that make up a successful website. Ranking, authority, and a strong digital presence are built through a balance of technical, on page, and content optimizations. If your business is interested in learning more about the current ranking trends, threats, or future of Search Engine Optimization contact the Anvil SEO team today.