SEO: The SEO Landscape: Trends You Need to Know in 2024

The SEO industry is like the weather, constantly changing and evolving. Keeping up with the latest trends is crucial for success. While some time-tested tactics remain important, others are fading away as search engine algorithms become more sophisticated. Here, we’ll delve into the top SEO trends that will dominate 2024, helping you stay ahead of the curve:

1. Content Revamps: The Evergreen Approach

Updating website content is paramount for several reasons. Fresh, relevant content enhances user experience, potentially boosting search engine rankings. Regularly updating content ensures your website stays accurate and up-to-date.

Our own blog serves as a testament to this. We consistently update our content with the latest information, like the one on Google Algorithm Updates. This practice has demonstrably improved the performance of this particular page.

Here’s the key takeaway: Don’t consider a high-traffic page a finished job. It’s the beginning! Over time, other websites will likely publish content surpassing yours, potentially incorporating new data and insights that grab Google’s attention. To stay competitive, regularly update your content with valuable information and fresh perspectives.

Think of evergreen content as a plant. To flourish, it needs consistent watering with valuable information and enrichment. Conversely, stagnant content gets pushed down search engine rankings and eventually disappears from top results. Content that’s relevant and helpful today might become outdated and useless in a year or two if neglected.

That’s why we emphasize content updates as the most crucial SEO trend for 2024 and beyond. SEO expert Tanyo McKnight, of ODP Media Group, conducted an experiment to prove the positive impact of content updates on rankings. You can listen to him discuss it in our SEO On-Air podcast episode.

2. Brace Yourself for Lower Organic CTRs

We’ve observed a significant decrease in click-through rates (CTRs) since Google introduced multiple SERP features that directly answer user queries.

It all started with Google’s instant answers, providing users with the information they need without leaving the search results page. With the Search Generative Experience (SGE), CTRs are expected to decline even further due to the in-depth, comprehensive answers Google curates by compiling the best results from across the web.

Here’s a screenshot showcasing how SGE impacted the CTR of the very blog post you’re reading.

Google is strategically keeping users within its ecosystem, allowing them more control over delivering relevant information. Additionally, increased user time on Google translates to more ad revenue and opportunities to steer users towards its associated services like Maps, YouTube, Shopping, and “People also ask.”

Let’s consider a product-based search query with high buyer intent, like “buy iphone 15 pro max.” A quick Google search reveals ads at the top and on the sidebar, pushing the official Apple website further down.

As you can see, Google has also incorporated an Amazon-like filter on the left sidebar for buyer intent queries.

Google recognizes that Amazon and other e-commerce giants are transforming into search engines themselves, prompting them to adapt the search experience to retain their user base.

As you can see from this example, the majority of screen space is occupied by Google’s SERP features, making it incredibly difficult for websites other than the official Apple site to garner clicks.

According to Smart Insights, the #1 ranking position in Google’s organic search results now has an average CTR of 39.8%. The CTR for the 2nd position is 18.7%, and for the 3rd position, it’s 10.2%. Backlinko’s analysis reveals similar trends: the top result gets an average CTR of 27.6%, while the top 3 results cumulatively receive 54.4% of all clicks. This data highlights the significant CTR variance based on ranking position, emphasizing the importance of striving for the top spot.

However, with Google planning to roll out SGE-based search results globally by 2024, the organic page CTR is likely to be much lower. This is not only due to most traditional organic pages appearing significantly lower in SERPs but also due to the extensive AI-generated answer that Google offers users without requiring them to click on any results.

We believe this trend will continue as Google prioritizes keeping users within its vertical products. In fact, in 2020, data from Similar Web analyzed by Sparktro’s Rand Fishkin estimated that 64.82% of searches on Google end without a click. Over the past four years, these numbers have likely grown even higher, considering Google’s efforts to keep users within its ecosystem.

3. Google’s AI Revolution: Redefining SERP Layouts and Functionality

Google is actively shaping an AI-powered future for its ecosystem. In fact, “AI” has been a prominent term in many recent Google announcements, including those regarding their latest Pixel 8 series smartphones.

The Search Generative Experience is currently undergoing beta testing, with a projected public release in 2024. This is expected to significantly impact the overall user experience, potentially leading to a fundamental shift in how people interact with Google search in the future.

While beta testing SGE, I observed Google initially taking a rather intrusive approach, with the AI-generated result occupying at least 50% of the above-the-fold space. However, they later opted to position the results within a dropdown menu, offering slightly more visibility to top-ranking results. This change likely stems from the low click-through rate on their ads.

But here’s the catch: Google will likely attempt to display relevant ads alongside the AI answer box in the future. Imagine it as a personalized shopping assistant. The AI search engine will present ads based on users’ preferences, facilitating purchases without leaving the answer box. From a business perspective, this presents a significant opportunity for product and service websites. A smooth user experience can lead directly to conversions.

Google is making these AI advancements possible by leveraging Language Learning Models like MUM and PaLM2.

4. Google to Reduce Crawling and Indexing Frequency

There’s concrete evidence that Google is significantly reducing the frequency of website crawls and indexing. We’ve analyzed crawl data from multiple websites and observed a substantial decrease in crawl rate since 2021.

Google has yet to adopt a protocol like Index Now, which Bing and Yandex have implemented. This protocol allows search engines to be notified of website content changes, facilitating faster crawling and indexing. This method saves search engines significant resources, which would otherwise be required to crawl an entire website to identify new content.

We’ve heard from John Mueller at Google that they might adopt a protocol similar to Index Now, but there hasn’t been any concrete progress yet.

So, why are search engines limiting crawls?

Crawling and indexing are processes used by search engines to discover and add web pages to their databases. Crawling involves using bots or spiders to scan the web and follow links from one page to another, while indexing involves storing and organizing the information found during the crawling process.

In terms of environmental impact, indexing and crawling have a relatively minimal footprint, primarily involving the use of computer servers and other digital technologies. However, like any other form of computing, it can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems if the electricity used to power the computers and servers comes from non-renewable sources.

For instance, Bitcoin mining has resulted in climate damage exceeding the actual coin value, raising serious sustainability concerns.

Google, committed to its carbon-neutral policy, is striving for complete carbon neutrality by 2030. This can be achieved through two primary methods: reducing the environmental impact of their indexing and crawling operations by using renewable energy sources like solar or wind power, or optimizing their algorithms and employing other technologies to minimize the energy required for indexing and crawling.

We believe Google is opting for the second option due to its faster implementation compared to a complete shift to renewable energy. However, long-term efforts will likely involve Google pursuing more sustainable crawling and indexing practices without compromising efficiency.

5. Links Still Matter in 2024

In November 2023, Jamie Jones, during an office hour session, mentioned Google’s potential reduction in reliance on backlinks as a ranking factor.

While Google has been actively spreading fear about link-building penalties, the truth is that they haven’t been entirely successful in cracking down on practices like blogger outreach, guest posting, and link exchange.

These strategies often involve sharing high-quality content on highly relevant websites. While some methods incentivize this process, they are often executed discreetly, making them difficult for Google to trace.

That being said, Google’s SpamBrain algorithm, added to the core algorithm back in 2018, has become significantly more efficient. According to Google, in 2020, SpamBrain was able to keep 75% of spam results out of Google search results. By December 2022, the search engine giant claims its spam filtering system can thwart 99% of spam results from appearing to users.

Based on our observations, there’s still high potential in link-building strategies like manual blogger outreach, influencer outreach, and genuine forms of guest posting.

Here’s an important point: Smart SEO agencies like Stan Ventures will likely prioritize brand mentions moving forward, recognizing the growing importance of sentiment around a brand as a key ranking factor.

Specifically, guest posting and manual blogger outreach, both offering value to users without financial exchange, will remain