New to digital marketing or building organic traffic with SEO? There’s a fair chance that you’re in a state of confusion on what exactly is going on with SEO in 2020.

Our SEO best practices guide will lay out everything that's changed in the last few months... and what you need to do about it.
Different ‘authority sources’ are saying different things. Some will tell you not to panic and others will tell you that you need to adapt to the recent changes.
It’s come to a point where you no longer know who to listen to, and what steps you should still be taking (or no longer taking).
Since the 2020 algorithm updates, a lot of things have changed or rendered obsolete.

Well, that’s what we’re here for.

Today, you’ll find out about the significant events that happened during the latter part of 2019. Then, we'll continue along to the early months of 2020 and find out exactly how it affects you.
We’ll also show you the specific steps you need to take to adapt to these changes to get back into the game.

So without further ado, let’s jump in:

Did you know that Google updates its algorithm at least 2000 times per year?!
In fact, it listed a whopping 3200 updates back in 2018. That’s an average of 8-9 updates per day.

That wasn’t meant to scare you. We’re not supposed to be tracking every update Google implements in its algorithm. We can’t anyway, even if we wanted to. Most of these updates aren't made public.
For the ones that do get published, Google was kind enough to let us know. Updates that have a significant effect on organic rankings usually get a silly name.
That said (and this happens most of the time), we get very general information that is of little help. Identifying exactly how these algorithm changes affect us is difficult. Disinformation can also be a problem, whether from newbie SEOs or Google themselves.

Let’s take a look at the most recent updates that made waves in the known SEO world:

What is BERT?
BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This algorithm update rolled out in the latter part of October 2019.
BERT is an upgrade to the current machine learning characteristics of Google’s Algorithm.

Let’s pause there for a moment.

Before we could actually define what BERT does, we’ll need to understand first what it improves upon. The Hummingbird and Rankbrain functions of Google’s algorithm.

Hummingbird is the algorithm’s way of defining keywords based on the context supporting it.
To Hummingbird, the number of times a keyword appears on a page is irrelevant. Hummingbird looks for context within the content.
But, Hummingbird can only do this for keywords and search queries it remembers. It learns but can’t handle new search keywords and keyword combinations.

The problem is, 15% of all search queries processed every day are new . Hummingbird can’t deal with them alone.
That’s where Rankbrain takes the stage.

Rankbrain is a machine-learning system that processes unfamiliar and unique queries. It relates them to existing searches, giving users more relevant search results.

Let’s say Google’s algorithm doesn't recognize the search query that you used today. It gave you irrelevant results. You’ll try different search queries that finally take you to the answer you’re looking for, right?
Rankbrain will remember the next search queries you used after your failed attempts. It will also remember the results you clicked! It will then file away those pages as relevant to your original search query.
Neat, huh? The machine learning ranking process, in a nutshell.

Hummingbird and Rankbrain have one major limitation, though! They make a great team together but can’t deal with the nuances in language on their own.

BERT does.

BERT understands how relationships between words change the meaning of a search query as well as its intent.
It analyzes micro variations in queries that were previously ignored by its predecessors and no longer treats text like “buckets of words”.
It also identifies small variations in a statement that affects the whole intent of the search query.

Here’s one of the samples that Google provided:

Awesome, right? But the real question is:

How Does BERT Affect You?
Ever been outranked by a website that has higher authority than you in terms of backlinks despite your website’s pages having more topical and in-depth content?

BERT evens the playing field for us.

This is great news for small-time SEOs who don’t have 6 figure budgets like big media sites.
For BERT, the number of external pages linking to a website is secondary to the goal of having users get what they’re looking for on their first click.
This means that if you are continuously churning out high-quality, comprehensive content, then BERT will prioritize you over high-authority sites that do not fully deliver exactly what the user is searching for.

Since the algorithm is now sophisticated enough to identify nuances in language and how it changes a keyword’s meaning and search intent, you can be sure that your content will be under very close scrutiny.

While BERT promotes fair play, it does so under extremely strict rules. This means you should narrow down your focus to specific search intents, and create content that answers user queries on point.

Let’s take a look at the MOZ compilation that shows some of the Winners and Losers after the update was rolled out:

2019 was the year when Google finally became ready to directly act on their Company’s Corporate Mission and Vision.

The last bullet point is very important to digital marketers and online entrepreneurs.

It’s critical for us to know at which stage of the buying process our potential customers are currently in (or which part of the marketing funnel they’re in.)
I say critical because providing the right content at the right stages may mean retention or conversion of customers to whatever products or services we’re offering.

Let’s go back to Google’s Mission and Vision Statements and define what this means for us who rely on their search engine.

We’re all consumers of Google.

Whether we’re using Google for our digital marketing process, our online business’ traffic source, or as a customer looking for the next smartphone we’re going to buy.
Google’s search engine will do its best to provide customers with the most relevant information ranked by levels of expertise, authority, and trust signals based on the queries being used.

In the event that it can’t, it will observe which results we clicked and which web pages we spent time on as indicators of relevance. The algorithm will then use that information to catalog relevance for the next users who will be searching for the same thing.
Google’s algorithm will continuously learn and relearn how it defines relevance based on the searches done by its users. And it’s taking into account the overall user experience our websites are giving to searchers.

It’s simple: We can now do marketing “the right way.”

Let’s Do a Quick Throwback:

Before the internet age when businesses were still utilizing traditional “push” marketing methods such as print ads, flyers, and mass media, it was all written for people.

When the internet exploded in popularity, we got stuck with two audiences:

SEO was born because of the need to optimize web pages for search engines.

We need our pages and content to be appealing to search engine algorithms. For higher rankings, naturally. Here’s the dilemma: search engine language and human language aren’t very similar. Creating content that talks to both machines AND humans was the name of the game. For a long time.

Here’s another problem. Any new page we publish online needs to get scanned by search engine crawlers before it’ll be included in the search listings and get found by anyone else.

What happened was we ended up making the internet look like this:
We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor, please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at custom.cigar.humidors@example.com.

We needed a solution.

It didn’t come fast, but it’s here now. A bridge between machine language and human language.
The irony is, Google solved this problem through machine learning.

Now we can stop appeasing the algorithm and start focusing our efforts on what really matters. Reaching our customers with language that’s well written, not “search engine food” nonsense.
We can also focus on converting website visitors into customers through a better user experience.

The message that Google is trying to send to us with all the recent algorithm updates is simple:

Make Your Customers Your Top Priority. Not SEO.

Focus on your customers and how you’ll be presenting the value of your products or services to your website visitors in order to convert them.

Please them with what you provide so they become loyal to your brand. And empower them with social media so your loyal customers become your brand’s biggest advocates. The best advertising often comes from our most satisfied customers.

Don’t get me wrong! SEO is still important. Optimizing your websites’ pages still needs to be done. But this time, instead of strategizing around what Google’s algorithm wants, think instead of how you can communicate your brand’s message to your customers.

Let’s talk about just how we can do that.

Most self-help articles online would introduce keyword research to you in technical terms and provide you with the numerous benefits you’ll gain when you undertake this process.

That’s all and good, but why do we need to do keyword research? What makes it effective in the first place?
And more importantly, how does it help my website gain customers?

The answer to that question is incredibly simple: The products that you sell and the services you provide are the answers that your customers are seeking.

Here’s what your Customer Personas would probably look like once you’re done:

Alright, you now have a clear idea on who your customers are and what’s important to them.
Now we put that knowledge to good use.

Finding Topics that Matters to your Customers

Thanks to the recent updates in Google’s algorithm, you can now focus on doing this more than considering your target keywords for SEO.

Since the focus is now on addressing your customers’ queries directly and accurately, the detailed insights you have gained from your customer personas will help you narrow down on your content creation strategies.
You can also pick different topics that are specific to the needs and pain points of each of your customer personas.

Placing this at the top of your priority will make sure that you’re not just meeting the needs of your customers by targeting their search intent, you’ll also be appeasing Google’s algorithm which would result in higher rankings for your focus pages.
It would also make it easier for you to find your keywords using research tools available online since you already have a starting point.

Metadata, commonly known as “Meta Tags” are the essential entities of your content that represents your web pages in SERP. Think of it as index cards for your website pages’. The ones that they use in a library.

Did you know that if you do not create metadata for your web pages, Google will automatically create one for you? That’s because Google’s algorithm is one of the internet’s ‘librarians’.

However, and this happens a lot: Google doesn’t always create the metadata that best represents your web pages.

And this is why optimizing Meta Tags is part of our process.

Now, we are not gonna go through the character limitations and proper format for your metadata. If you have been doing SEO for quite some time, you know those parameters changes ever so often.

We tell you to keep your meta title shorter than 60 characters and by tomorrow Google tells everybody that you can write a whole novel. We’ll never know. So for that those specifications, it's best to always be updated.

So in line with the title of this article, what we’ll do is give you the best practices for creating your web pages’ metadata:

Keep these guidelines in mind, and you can be sure that your web pages would be properly indexed by Google’s algorithm.

Okay, we got your index card nice and spiffy.
Now we create the plan for creating your books, your website pages. Your pages need to have the ability to not only refer to each other, but also ‘talk to each other’ in terms of context.

And we do that by using a structure called Topic Clusters.

Presentation

Let’s start with this: No one likes a wall of text. As much as you can, keep your paragraphs short without sacrificing supporting value.

A maximum of 4 lines would be best. Anything beyond that and you might as well be looking at the Berlin Wall in the 60’s
If you have a list or several topics you would like to discuss briefly, it’s best to use bullet points to present your ideas.

Another aspect to be particular about is your header tags.
Search engines typically check out the headings on your content, and if multiple posts are competing because they’re both in < h1 > format you’ll have a problem
Make sure that you are following the heading hierarchy correctly. Arrange your article from H1 to H6 tags in an organized and cohesive manner.

Don’t overuse bulleted lists and bolding texts just to catch your readers’ attention, though. Your customers are smart, and they’ll see through it.

Keyword Frontloading

I mentioned this briefly earlier when we were discussing metadata: To strengthen how you answer your customer queries directly, front load your keywords.

This works for your contents as well. Place your focus keywords in front of your content’s title, the introduction, and the headers.
This signals relevance to the algorithm while at the same time, assures your readers that they are in the right place.

Keyword Density

It’s a given that the contents you are creating should be highly relevant to your focus keywords.

However, when using focus keywords on your content, limit it to four appearances per article. This is enough to make significant contextual signals without crossing the line of keyword stuffing.
Besides, there’s another way to strengthen your article’s relevance without having your focus keyword appear over and over on your article:

Strengthening your keywords’ Sphere of Influence through LSI.

Using LSI Keywords

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. It is a mathematical formula that search engine algorithms use to identify patterns in the formation of words and how they are clustered.

Sounds familiar, right?

LSI Keywords function the same way for your focus keywords as how cluster pages function for pillar pages.
These are words that are related to your main keywords and are often found near it since they share the same context.
For example, the word “apple” in itself may mean a number of different things. It could either be a word that represents a fruit or an electronic brand.
Add in the LSI keyword iTunes, and you know exactly what it’s referring to.

This is how LSI Keywords work: By having them near your focus keywords, you give additional context to it that the algorithm will pick up on.
Sounds complicated, right? But isn’t that how we normally structure our sentences?
And the line separating human and machine language blurs further.

Looking for LSI keywords is a process worth automating though, as you would want to make sure that you don’t miss out on including important context keywords.
Online tools like Entity Explorer and Answer the Public are some of the best ones you could find to for hunting down LSI Keywords for your content.

Be Everywhere All At Once

Whenever you pick a topic to discuss, make sure that you create your contents in different formats like video, audio, and not just focus on making articles.

Here’s a solid tip to do that efficiently: Create a video first. Why? Because your video would have an audio track. Which you can now turn into a podcast.
Now the script that you used to create your video? Use that as an outline for your article

Awesome idea, right? Just make sure you keep our next point in mind, though.

Avoid Duplication

This connects to our earlier point about creating different types of content.

Don’t be lazy. Make sure that whatever and however you discussed on one content is not duplicated in the other. Never, ever copy paste texts.
Your readers may not notice, but the algorithm will. And Google’s algorithm is unforgiving when it comes to duplicate contents, even those inside the same domain.

Optimize Images

The images you include on your content aren’t just there to make it look pretty. They’re meant to add context to your article for the two ‘audiences’ that look at it:
Your readers, and Google’s algorithm.

However, no matter how advanced the current algorithm is, it cannot quickly scan the meaning behind the images you include in your articles.

This is why we optimize our images. It does two things:

Here are the several factors that contributes well in optimizing the images on your website’s pages:

When it comes to SEO, size does matter. Well the opposite, actually. Images with bigger file sizes take a while to load on your customers’ browsers. So make sure to compress your images so it loads faster.

Let’s say you just opened a pharmacy in your town. If you’re situated in a good location where there's a lot of foot traffic, you can probably get customers from a percentage of the people passing by.

However, there are other factors you haven’t covered which would help your business grow

Now what you need to do is find local medical practitioners in your area, visit their clinic, introduce yourself, give them a sample of the products you sell, and then ask them to recommend you to their patients whenever they write a prescription.

This does several things for your store:

That same idea works in doing Off-page SEO.

If on-page optimization is all about making sure that your store is ready to receive your customers, then off-page SEO is all about external factors that will influence your store’s ranking.

Factors such as reputation, authority, and referrals which you gain by building backlinks.

Backlinks fall under three different categories:

Not all links are created equal though, as some have higher quality than others. These are several factors that you should consider in link building:

Finding your competitors’ most potent backlinks isn’t rocket science. If you’re new to the process though, powerful online SEO tools like SEMRush, MOZ, or Ubersuggest could provide you with these insights.
Once you’ve found where your competitors’ backlinks are coming from, your next step would be to replicate them. There’s two ways to go about this. The first one is easy to do. The second one would require a little bit of effort.

Let’s take a look:

Method one can only be utilized if your competitors’ backlinks come from public spaces such as social networking sites or forums.
All it takes is for you to create an account on these platforms which will allow you to post freely.
Here’s the tricky part, though: Online public spaces have communities in them. These communities are very vigilant of digital marketers, and they are heavily moderated not only by the admins, but also by its members.

Here are our recommendations to successfully integrate yourself in the community:

The previous step discussed replicating posts by your competitors that produce links. This one talks about replicating highly linked to content in your niche.
A resource page, also known as link listings back in the 90’s is a super non-sexy page that houses a single comprehensive guide that content creators link to as a reference.

Creating a resource page requires research and insights on which current ones are potentially able to produce high quality backlinks.

Here’s two ways to go about creating your resource page:

Use an SEO tool like SEMRush or MOZ to find the highly linked-to pages that your biggest competitors have. Once you have these topics, begin creating resource pages for them and put them up on your site.

To do this, identify the fundamental needs of your niche.
For example, if you’re in real estate, a resource page that discusses the whole process of applying for a mortgage loan in your state or country of origin would be a very useful tool not just for your customers, but for other websites in the same industry.

Did I mention how awfully ‘unsexy’ resource pages are? Yeah, make sure yours aren’t.
It’s 2020, my friend. Appearances matter. Design your resource pages as you would a landing page.
Sure, you’ll probably go heavy on the media and the layout since resource pages tend to be 30-50 scrolls long, but your conversion objective here is different.

You want other sites to link to you, and you want the visitors of your resource pages to bookmark you. So make it look awesome.

This one is pretty simple. Remember yellow pages? Business Directories function similarly.

Having your business’ information included on these sites, especially if you’re a local business is extremely valuable. But you already know that.
What you probably don’t know is that one of the common mistakes that local businesses make when submitting their information for business directories: Different formats for different directories.

Did you know that there are several companies in the US that hire people as information annotators?
The job of these people is to reconcile different occuring business information online and find out if they are indeed one business, different branches of one company, or completely unique entities from each other.

Taking this in consideration, you would want to make sure your information is exactly the same not just across different directories, but different platforms as well including social media.
Your business address is a common example: If you’re going to use the word “Avenue”, then use it across all submissions. Don’t suddenly go for “Ave.” on one of your listings.

Now local citations are simply online mentions of any contact info of a local business.
Mentions or tags of your business’ name or brand, an address or a phone number on different websites like business directories, commercial websites, social media etc.

Local SEO citations help internet users to discover businesses in their area which can also impact local search engine rankings
If you’re an owner of a new website, you’ll want to start with the most authoritative citations first.
There are several Digital Marketing companies online who offer citation services for a fee. Just make sure to do your research before virtually swiping your credit card.

Big Citations by Marketer’s Center for example, will provide you with high-authority citations for only $29. It is a relatively cost-efficient deal in comparison to what MOZ offers at $99.00.

This is a method that has been around for quite some time, and yet so many marketers fail at being successful at it, it’s dumbfounding.

You already know how the process goes, right?
First, find a site that exists under the same industry or niche’s umbrella as your business and then look for dead links on their site.

The next part is where things start going sideways:

Here’s what you need to understand because this is where the pitfall is:

Fixing broken links is a “You scratch my back, I scratch yours” deal. Never think of it as you doing the website owner a favor, because you are also benefiting from having your link on their site.

With that said, let’s answer the questions above:

The answer: New, customized content.

When your site gains enough traction and popularity, you will find yourself in the website owner’s position. Other webmasters or blog owners will be asking to fix your broken links for you with one of theirs.

How would you feel if you receive a link to a content dated a couple of weeks or worse, months back?
What if the content you receive is of low quality and does not benefit your site at all aside from the fact that it would prevent a 404?
Therefore, and similar to guest posting, do your best to produce high quality customized content for your submission.

Let’s move on to our next question:

Here are several pointers:

When creating Anchor Texts for your links, it is best that you are first familiar with the different types available for you to use:

The 6 Types of Anchor Texts

Alright, we’ve now covered the best off-page SEO practices you should follow in 2020. Let’s give you some useful tools to make your optimization process easier.