SEO Trends 2024
What a year it was for SEO in 2023. One Google algorithm update followed another, with times seeing two major updates rolled out simultaneously.
But it was crucial, as the updates aimed to enhance the quality of search results and incidentally optimize the shortcomings of Google's AI, Bard.
Consequently, numerous keywords in Google suddenly transformed into "local search phrases" in 2023, yielding significantly different results depending on the location. Google continues to follow a trend that emerged in the fall of 2020.
Unique Texts - SEO Trend #1
Particularly in the era of AI and the expansion of many online shops, duplicate content poses significant challenges. In 2023, the largest shop with the best reputation and the most backlinks prevailed when it came to identical article texts.
For manufacturers selling on Amazon, Otto, eBay, and other major platforms in 2024: Write unique texts that make you distinctive. These can be supported by AI, but please avoid pure AI-generated texts, as some link sellers currently position them.
Relevance of Backlinks - SEO Trend #2
In Germany, there are approximately 4000 websites selling backlinks for years. These are also well-known to Google. In our in-house analysis in 2023, we checked which of these sites still manage to place relevant content in Google.
Link building is evolving. While it hasn't completely shifted in 2023, it will have to for 2024. Many sites are highly priced, although their true value no longer corresponds to that. Strengthening EEAT profiles is now more important than ever. Therefore, experienced link builders will prioritize backlinks for EEAT enhancement in 2024.
Increase in Fake Reviews and Click Fraud - SEO Trend #3
Instead of doing proper SEO work, it has become very easy to discredit competitors for some time now. This is a trend that has been going on for several years, but it has reached new peak levels since October 2023.
False reviews, clicking away good reviews and reporting them as bad reviews to Google, are as much part of it as, for example, Google Ads clickers (software and service providers) who deliberately click on competitors to remove them from the top positions. But also, bad backlinks and malware are part of it.
We see this as a significant increase in our business area CyberCrimeConsulting.
If you are affected by this, contact us.
AI vs. Real Experience - SEO Trend #4
ChatGPT is challenging Google for the position 1 as an answer engine. Users on ChatGPT receive a direct answer, which is less common on Google.
The Google updates in May, June, and November have all aimed at prioritizing real experiences over AI-generated results. The significant power advantage of Reddit as an expert exchange platform in Google search results makes this clear.
So, what works better than leveraging the actual strength against AI? And that is an immensely large base of real answers, from real experts, etc.
We will see many Google updates in 2024 that aggressively target AI and prioritize real experts. But for the user, this means: Publish high-quality content that is not created by AI. Expand backlinks to strengthen EEAT profiles and master the SEO basics: technology, content, backlinks, UX, and EEAT.
