Previously, in 2020 Trends to Watch Out for in the SEO Industry (Part 1), I talked about the mobile sector, adding more content, technical SEO, E-A-T, and the newly added BERT.

So, now, we are ready to know the rest of the trends to prepare you this coming year. 

1. Structured Data

As I said, in 2020, it will be still content. In reality, excellent content will never go out of style. Even though algorithms do not know the context at times, improvements like BERT are now slowly being implemented. Now, what can be done is to improve context comprehension. Likewise, there should be structured data for search engines to have a greater understanding on a page and how this connects to the other pages in the site.

2. Knowledge Graph

Google is looking for the means to integrate entity associated data in search results by using enlargement questions. You can make the most of the entities by accomplishing things like maximizing or Google’s Knowledge Graph and to be certain that those will show in Knowledge Panels. In the year 2020, internal linking shall be in the foreground.

If you have that desire for your brand to be looked at as an entity, then, publish business accounts, put together expert suggestions, and those whose voices are foremost in the market place. Then, Google will definitely begin to notice you as an entity. It is also the entity-associated signals that are going to aid you to maintain your ranking.

3. More Links

If you want to have finest links in 2020, you need your link development to the consumer-first strategy. This means you concentrate on 3 kinds of writing:

• Scheduled editorial – These are the subject matters that are included every year anytime. For example, we are talking about Valentine’s Day and other occasion we celebrate.
• Scheduled responsive editorial – A periodical event or topic that are being included because of the time span.
• Responsive editorial – The type that can never be foreseen by anyone,  a breaking news type of story.

When they trust you more, then they will be more than willing to talk about your worth to other people, share your content and that means links, and finally, they will purchase your brand and that means more revenues. More on: 5 Link Development Tips to Help Build Backlinks

4. Pay Attention to Online Visibility

On-SERP SEO will still progress in its importance this coming year. Hence, adjusting to zero-click searches will be the essential. But that is not all, you need to make a strategy. You should go beyond optimizing blue links. Moreover, localization in search results will go on with Map packs ranking and getting clicks that comes from the conventional organic rankings. Read more on: How to Build the Ideal Location Page? (Part 1) and How to Build the Ideal Location Page? (Part 2).

5. Programming

Lastly, utilize programming languages such as Python and R to take away the time-wasting and unnecessary work. SEO computerization will give you the freedom to exploit the strength of the marketing core principles like storytelling, branding, developing a wonderful customer’s experience.

SOURCE: (1)

Bing made the public know about its most recent link penalties. This is to pay more attention to knock off private blog networks or PBNs, devious cross-site linking, and subdomain rentals.

Inorganic Website Structure

As for an inorganic site structure, it is uses internal links for the subdomains and cross-site linkins for external domains in order to skillfully maneuver or influence the search engine rankings.

Though these spam capabilities has been around for a long time, Bing presented the idea of calling them “inorganic site structure” for the purpose of characterizing them. Bing also stated that sites permissibly established subdomains to keep the various parts of the website split up. For example, chat.mywebsite.com is regarded as under the main domain mywebsite.com, categorizing them as signals on a subdomain level.

Additionally, Bing also stated that there are services like WordPress, and other related hosting sites, make websites through subdomains.

What constitutes inorganic website structure?

When a company rents a subdomain to control search engines to enhance ranking, it is called inorganic site structure. Hence, private blog networks are considered as inorganic site structure. According to SEO Round Table, private network blogs, doorways pages, duplicate content are some of the examples.

Domain Boundaries

Bing presented the concept of domain boundaries. Now and then, legitimate subdomains like chat.mywebsite.com the boundaries stretches to the subdomain. In the case of WordPress.com, it does not.

Private blog networks is considered by Bing as a type of spam that violates site boundaries. Though not all link networks distort site boundaries, there are instances when it happens.

Subdomain Rental Penalties

Bing clarifies why subdomain rental is considered to be a spammy operation.

Truthfully, Bing heard what the SEO community has been very anxious regarding the hosting of third-party content or allowing a third party to perform an appointed subdomain or subfolder. Usually, the reason is remuneration. It is like purchasing ranking signals, which is likewise the same as purchasing links.

Therefore, if Bing is giving out penalties, Bing has a lot of updating to do. On the other hand, if you think you were not fairly penalized, the first thing to do is to contact Bing Webmaster Support. Then, submit a reconsideration request. Once you write your appeal, please give specific details. Of course, Bing will decide and for sure, your input will be valuable for them in updating their guidelines.

Cross-Site Linking

Bing indicated that a site that is separated into numerous interlinking sites. Moreover, such websites are breaking other link spam regulations, and this would mean extra penalties. To be honest, these have been happening since it was called interlinked websites.  Typically, they are sectionally connected with each other.

So, if you are thinking of a fresh web enterprise, it is a great idea to build a website that is extensive as against building a horde of sites that centers on just a little piece of the industry.

Conclusion

To be honest, it’s great to see that Bing is gradually progressing. Likewise, it is good to know that search engines may be rivals, but they also help each other improve.

Now that Bing is welcoming new developments, it’s a positive news for users because they have more and more options aside from Google. Hence, people can now rely on other search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo.

SOURCE: (1), (2)

In 2014, Google introduced Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness also known as E-A-T. These 3 words are part of the Search Quality Guidelines. It is utilized in search quality assessment, whereby thousands of reviewers are asked to evaluate webpages and send in their feedback to Google. Furthermore, Google made it their barometer to assess website content. More on: E-A-T And Why Website Owners Should Care.

Thus, E-A-T- is now the guideline to determine if a certain site has offered a thorough and well-written content. The guidelines specifically stated that:

 “For all other pages that have a beneficial purpose, the amount of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) is very important.”

Google told website reviewers to take into account the following:

• The website,
• and its contents,
• The E-A-T of the content.

One Webmaster Central blog stated the importance of it E-A-T. The dialogues regarding E-A-T has caused misunderstanding, misinterpreting, and chaos to the SEO community. Today, I would like to expose the myths around the subject matter and to explain how E-A-T really operates.

1. E-A-T is not part of Google’s algorithm.

By algorithm, one could mean updates such as Penguin, Panda, RankBrain, and many more. As stated earlier, E-A-T is only a guideline.

Remember, Gary Illyes during the Pubcon Q & A said, “Google has a collection of millions of tiny algorithms that work in unison to spit out a ranking score. Many of those baby algorithms look for signals in pages or content” that can be conceptualized as E-A-T.” He likewise added that E-A-T is not a distinct algorithm.

Whether or not a page has a good E-A-T, Google’s algorithms will still seek for signals and look into both on-page and off-page factors.

2. No such thing as an E-A-T score.

Also, Gary Illyes added that there’s no “E-A-T score”. Nothing like that in Google’s algorithms.

3. E-A-T is NOT a ranking factor or a ranking element.

This is where confusion starts. Google never stated that this is a ranking element the way it does when it comes to HTTPS, page speed, or the existence of keywords in the title tag. The connection amongst rankings and E-A-T is indirect. Although, if you are pertaining to technical stuff like page speed or something we can gauge instantly, then, it is a ranking factor.

4. Some sites need to strongly center on E-A-T.

Google has always been clear; when it comes to the Quality Guidelines, it has always stated that it all depends on the content of the website.

An highly rated business advice should be done and produced by those who has the proper education, ability, and certification on the field of business. Without E-A-T, it’s hard to produce such reliable content or topic.

However, for hobbies, it’s a different story. Things such as painting, arts, and crafts do not need such a formal proficiency. Thus, a lower standard in E-A-T review. On the other hand, a company who deals with health, happiness or financial matters, the E-A-T is much needed.

Want more? Debunking Misconceptions on E-A-T (Part 2)

SOURCE: (1)

When it comes to SEO, there are many things to concern yourselves with like the content creation, backlinks, sitemaps, and a lot more. Plus, there are new things to note such as the featured snippets, voice search, and mobile-first feature. With all these things going on, there is one thing you should not overlook and that is hosting.

Your web host establishes the general feel or user experience of your visitors to the website.

For your users not to go back to the search results page, you have to stop server mistakes and page timeouts. Eventually, you need a web host that is stable and one that supports you. It should not be the one that hinders your efforts. Let us discuss the 5 principal elements:

1. Guarantees an extremely large uptime rate.

This a guarantee that your site will be seen for a number of percentage throughout the year. The larger your uptime, the better.

Once your website is down; website visitors will surely go back to Google or switch to another search engines. This jeopardizes your ranking because it will heighten your bounce rates.

To guide you, pick a host that has a 99.9% up uptime guarantee. This number means more or less 1.44 minutes of downtime per day and that is 8.8 hours annually. However, think twice if a web host tells you a 100% of uptime guarantee because it is still normal to have a downtime. The secret is to keep the downtime as brief as you possibly can so it will not hamper any website transaction.

2. Server Location

Uptime pertains to your site content being available to users. Meanwhile, server location decrees how fast it is going to be available to them. Preferably, you need an information center that is near to most of your visitors. The thing is, if your server is too far, it will take time for your website to load.

Problems could arise if you choose a server location that’s considerably at a great distance. An example is a site operating in another country utilizing a host that can be found in the middle of the globe. That is questionable for search engines!

3. Numerous Choices

 Options, options, and more options! Enjoy picking “the one” for your web hosting need. Other site offers add-ons that should enhance your site. Below are some guidelines to follow: 

• Supports automatic backups – you would want to have this in case problems arise; there is another copy for you to go back to. If the hosting company gives it for free that is perfect. If not, then you have to pay an additional cost to be safe.
• Make sure your hosting site has SSL – HTTPS is necessary for ranking. You might find a host that offers this for free as part of the package.
• Flexible hosting plans – When your site go big, so does your needs. When the time comes, you might have to move to your own server so be sure your host can accommodate your needs. 

4. Great Reviews

 First, verify their marketing claims way before your signing of the contract. Go find online reviews about your web hosting site choices.

5. Receptive Support Team

Remember, if something goes wrong, you would want to immediately connect and solve the problem, right? Therefore, a great host will give you a 24/7 support without additional fee. Know what time they operate, and get all the possible means to connect with them like phone number, email, and official help channels on social media.

SOURCE: (1)

Website migration can get complicated so it is important to know the following:

• What caused the mistake?
• What occurred that made it go wrong?
• How to avoid the mistake from recurring?

Last time, I discussed What Are the Difficulties in Changing Domain Names? Changing domain names is actually under website migration. As discussed on Will Changing Domains Affect Search Engine Rankings?, website migrations can have its own share of consequences.

Every mistake gives way to a change to keep the error from ever recurring again. In this situation, no lives will be in danger, but your business can. So, here are the four reasons:

1. Faulty Blueprint

For the website migrations to succeed it has to be plotted very carefully and doing it should be done with perfect accuracy. As a matter of fact, planning should be done the minute the idea comes up. You need to give yourself time to focus on the following:

• Study the migration and then come up with a concrete plan, and a dedicated group for site migration.
• Next, you have to teach your group about website migrations.
• Ask for a fund allocation.
• Make ready the checklists, redirect strategies, etc.

Studying the site migration and determining the objectives for the migration is vital. This will help you assess how it happens.

One generic problem in this process is when SEO experts’ participation is too late. Determine among yourselves, at least those in the website migration group, if you need more time to do the migration. This should be a group decision.

2. Not Enough Knowledge on the Risks

Everybody that are involved in the project should know the risks. When you deal with SEO, nothing is definite. If trouble occurs where it is not welcome, there is danger that things will not work out and you may not be able to recover your past rankings.

It is a good idea to spend some time to train people for everyone in the group will know the dangers that may happen in the process. And when we say group, this is referring to copywriters, SEO team, legal counsel, project managers, and many others. Breathe more life to your training by using case studies. Study the ugly side of website migration. The uglier it gets, the easier people will see the whole picture.

3. No Teamwork

Remember, you work as a team. If you know some vital information, inform your teammates. Start by teaching the basics like:

• 301 redirects.
• Appropriately establishing isolated test environments.
• The significance of modifying content.
• Study the mistakes of unsuccessful site migrations.
• Visually present your data through charts and graphs.

Schedule another training for the decision makers involved in your website migration. You need to let them know the following:

• The danger that may occur.
• What they can anticipate.
• What you demand of them to make the project successful.

4. Feeble Migration Checklist

Lastly, one of the reasons why website migrations fail is due to a feeble migration checklist. You should make sure that you center your concern on the following:

• Content – it is not just what is in your content; it should also have the appropriate page titles and meta descriptions.
• Redirect plan – check if the URLs has no 404 error when clicked.
• Technical checks – make sure page speed isn’t slow, XML sitemaps are updated, and etc.

And if you failed the first time, don’t be too hard on yourself. Failures are part of life. I hope, this article was able to guide you in your quest for a successful website migration.