6 Google Search Trends For Small Businesses to Rank Higher in 2024
Landing on Google’s first page is great for a business. But staying on top requires dedication.
Being found in the first few search results on Google is a good indicator your SEO marketing is working. It feels great to see your efforts pay off and your business gain visibility through organic search. But the work isn’t over.
One of the biggest challenges with SEO is that Google's algorithms are constantly updated, changing what gets indexed. Plus, different trends emerge that give other websites and businesses a competitive edge to outrank you. SEO is an ongoing process.
That's why maintaining your search ranking position requires continuous adaptation to new trends and algorithms. Just like in your business, you have to adjust and keep on top of the latest trends in your industry to be successful.
To help you stay on top and make the most of your SEO efforts, this article explores six key trends in search that small businesses can leverage to rank higher in 2024. This guide will provide you with actionable tips and strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
By leveraging these Google trends, small businesses like yours can improve online visibility, attract more local customers, and drive growth. Let's dive into the trends!
Google Trends With High Search Interest in 2024
The way people search online is always changing, and Google updates its algorithms to keep up.
Once you gain an understanding of the search trends with the highest impact for small businesses, you can create content that matches what people are looking for, making it easier for customers to find you online.
For small businesses, staying on top of these trends means adapting quickly.
This includes ensuring your business appears in local searches, optimizing for voice searches, and making your website mobile-friendly.
1. Local SEO: The Power of "Near Me" Searches
The rise of "Near Me" searches offers an incredible opportunity for small businesses to boost their visibility within their communities through local SEO. These searches, where users seek services or products in their immediate vicinity simply by using the term “Near Me” (i.e. "restaurants near me" or "plumbers near me"), have become increasingly popular.
"Near Me" searches have seen a staggering 500% growth according to WordStream. This Google trend underscores the critical need for small businesses to optimize for local search queries to capture high-intent customers actively looking for what they offer. To take advantage of the benefits offered by the search interest for "Near Me", here’s what you can do:
Steps You Can Take to Get Found Locally
Google My Business Listings
Make sure your business is listed on Google My Business with accurate and up-to-date information. This enhances your visibility on local searches and Google Maps.
Local Keywords
Integrate local keywords into your website content and metadata. Use terms that potential customers in your area are likely to search for.
NAP Data
Ensure your business's Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistently displayed across all online platforms and directories. This consistency helps search engines trust your business information.
Customer Reviews
Encourage your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on Google and other review sites. Positive reviews build credibility and attract more local traffic, boosting your local SEO efforts.
By harnessing the power and search volume of "near me" searches, small businesses can significantly enhance their local presence, drive more targeted traffic to their websites, and ultimately increase sales.
2. Voice Search Optimization
"Hey Alexa", "Hey Siri", "Hey Google"... do you find yourself saying one of these on a daily basis?
The widespread adoption of voice-activated devices has made voice search optimization a new factor to consider in modern SEO strategies. The main reason for this change is that people use conversational language when searching with voice technology, unlike when they type.
This Google trend necessitates that small businesses adjust their SEO approaches to effectively capture voice search traffic, which is characterized by more nuanced, spoken queries. That often means using long-tail keywords, simple terms, and terms that answer questions for the search term you are optimizing for.
Action Items to Optimize for Voice Search Findability
Conversational Content
Optimize your website content to include natural language and long-tail keywords that mirror how people speak in everyday conversations. This will make your content more accessible to voice search algorithms.
FAQ Pages
Develop an FAQ page that addresses common questions in a conversational tone. These pages should mimic the way people ask questions verbally using popular terms and specific phrases, making it easier for voice search tools to find and present your information.
Structured Data
This step is more technical. Implement structured data (schema markup) on your website to enhance how search engines interpret and display your content in voice search results. This markup provides context to your content, improving its visibility and accuracy in voice search responses.
When it comes to emerging trends, voice search is definitely one that isn't going away anytime soon. Using these steps, small businesses can optimize their websites for voice search, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of their audience and stay competitive.
3. Mobile-First Indexing
Mobile devices dominate local business searches, often used by people already out seeking a restaurant or place to shop.
Google’s mobile-first indexing policy prioritizes the mobile version of your website, making it the primary source for indexing and ranking. This shift from the traditional desktop website emphasizes the necessity for a mobile-friendly website with a responsive design, especially as mobile search interest continues to rise.
Setting Up a Mobile-First Website Checklist:
Responsive Design
Ensure your website features a responsive design that seamlessly adapts to various screen sizes and devices, providing a consistent user experience whether accessed via smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
Optimized Images
Compress and optimize all images to significantly reduce loading times, enhancing overall mobile performance and ensuring faster access to content. You can also optimize your images with Alt-Text to get found in Google image search.
High-Quality UX
Prioritize a high-quality, intuitive user experience (UX) tailored specifically for mobile users, focusing on easy navigation, clear calls to action, and efficient content delivery.
Mobile Usability Testing
Conduct regular and thorough mobile usability testing to identify and fix any issues that make the user experience anything but seamless. This means testing for the look and feel, load times, and navigation. Take a proactive approach to ensure that your website remains user-friendly and performs optimally on all mobile devices.
By aligning with Google’s mobile-first indexing policy and addressing the growing indexed search interest in mobile-friendly sites, small businesses can improve their search rankings and provide a better experience to meet customer needs.
4. Enhancing User Experience
User experience has been important to Google algorithms for a long time. As UX becomes increasingly important every year, it’s become one of the timeless Google trends.
User experience is a major ranking factor, especially with Google's emphasis on Core Web Vitals. These vital metrics focus on key aspects of your website's performance: loading time, interactivity, and visual stability.
Enhancing these elements not only improves user engagement but also boosts your search engine rankings.
Get Technical to Improve User Experience
Loading Speeds
Speed up your website by minimizing code, using browser caching, and compressing images. Faster loading times keep visitors from bouncing off your site, improving overall user satisfaction.
Interactivity
Improve interactivity by reducing the time it takes for your website to respond to user actions. This makes your site feel more responsive and engaging, encouraging users to stay longer.
Visual Stability
Ensure visual stability by preventing unexpected layout shifts as the page loads. This helps maintain a smooth and pleasant browsing experience, preventing users from getting frustrated by sudden content movements.
Regular Monitoring
Regularly check your website’s performance using resources like Google Search Console (a free tool!). This helps you keep track of your Core Web Vitals metrics and identify areas for improvement.
By focusing on Core Web Vitals, small businesses can significantly upgrade their website’s user experience, leading to happier visitors and higher search rankings. This user-centric approach helps you attract more traffic and keep customers coming back to the website they trust.
5. E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
When determining search rankings, Google places high value on what they call E-A-T; Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness..
Showcasing E-A-T is essential for building trust with potential customers searching for a product or service they want to purchase. A high-quality website with credibility-building content helps your business to stand out.
Search engines want to provide users with a good experience by connecting them to high-quality content. When your content showcases E-A-T, Google considers it the type of content its users want, ultimately leading to higher rankings and more engaged users.
Gain Trust From Being Found on Web Search Through:
High-Quality Content
Consistently publish content that is well-researched and authoritative. Share your expertise through informative blog posts, articles, and guides that address the needs, interests, search terms, and related queries of your audience.
Backlinks
Strengthen your website’s authority by securing backlinks from reputable and relevant websites. These links act as endorsements, signalling to Google that your site is a trusted source of information.
Accurate Information
Ensure all your business information is accurate and up-to-date across your website and other online platforms. This includes your business name, address, phone number, and operating hours.
Author Credentials
Build credibility by highlighting the qualifications and expertise of the authors who contribute to your content. Showcasing their credentials and experience reassures users of the reliability and quality of your information.
By focusing on E-A-T, small businesses can boost their online presence and build a reputation for reliability and expertise, while also improving visibility on Google shopping pages and YouTube search.
Use Google E-A-T to improve your search rankings and also build trust and loyalty among your customers.
6. Leveraging AI and Machine Learning
The use of AI and machine learning has had a huge impact in digital marketing, significantly impacting how content is understood and ranked by Google’s search algorithms like RankBrain and BERT. For small businesses, making your content AI-friendly is crucial to staying competitive and visible online.
Start Gaining Insights With AI:
AI Tools
Incorporate AI-driven tools into your marketing strategy for content creation, keyword research, and trend analysis. These tools can help you identify what your audience is searching for and generate content that meets those needs effectively. Plus, there are plenty of free tool options to get you started.
Personalization
Use AI insights to personalize the user experience on your website. Tailoring content and recommendations to individual user preferences can greatly enhance customer interest, engagement and satisfaction, making visitors more likely to return.
Predictive Analytics
Implement predictive analytics to forecast user behaviour and refine your content strategy. By anticipating what your customers will want or need, you can stay ahead of trends and keep your content relevant and compelling.
By leveraging AI and machine learning, small businesses can optimize their digital marketing efforts, create more targeted and engaging content that ranks in searches, allowing businesses to maintain a competitive edge. This strategic use of technology ensures that your business keeps up with the latest trends while effectively meeting your customers where they are searching.
How to Use Google Trends Data to Improve Your Small Business Search Ranking
For a successful SEO strategy, it’s not enough to pick and choose a few of these trends. They all have to be part of your larger strategy. The trends have to be weaved together to optimize your SEO efforts for the best results.
While foundational SEO practices are the key to getting your business found on Google, consistently ranking high means you have to weave the trends we mention above into a holistic SEO strategy.
Staying updated with Google’s algorithm changes and continuously refining your approach based on performance data is one of the best ways to stay on top. Use Google Trends to compare the popularity of different keywords over time, helping you refine your keyword strategy and focus on terms that sustain interest.
Adopting a comprehensive and adaptive SEO strategy, enriched with insights from Google trends data, enables your small business to stay competitive and responsive to changing market dynamics. By leveraging this powerful tool, you can improve your search rankings, attract more visitors, and drive sustained growth.
Partnering with Harvard Excelerate
Navigating the complexities of SEO trends can be daunting, which is why partnering with an expert team like Harvard Excelerate is invaluable.
Our SEO professionals identify and implement the latest trends to go beyond the Google Trends homepage and help your business achieve and maintain top search rankings. We specialize in crafting tailored SEO strategies that align with Google’s evolving algorithms, new search trends, and your business’s specific needs.
Benefits of Harvard Excelerate’s SEO Expertise for Small Businesses:
Dominate "Near Me" Searches
Our local SEO mastery ensures that your business is the top choice when nearby customers search for services, driving high-intent traffic right to your doorstep.
Elevate Your Voice Search Presence
We tailor your content for the growing number of voice search users, making sure your business is easily found through voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa.
Perfect Your Mobile Experience
With a focus on responsive design, we make your website shine on all devices, enhancing user experience and boosting your rankings in Google’s mobile-first index.
Supercharge Your Technical SEO
We handle the technical nitty-gritty—site speed, security, and structured data—so your site performs flawlessly and ranks higher in search results.
Establish Your Authority with Google E-A-T
We craft high-quality content and secure reputable backlinks to position your business as an expert, authoritative, and trustworthy source, enhancing both your rankings and credibility.
Harness the Power of AI and Machine Learning
Our advanced AI tools and predictive analytics refine your SEO strategy, ensuring your content stays ahead of trends and meets user needs perfectly.
By leveraging these six key trends in Google Search and partnering with Harvard Excelerate, your small businesses can significantly improve its search rankings. We help you stay informed, stay adaptable, and watch your business thrive.
Let Harvard Excelerate help your business climb to #1 on Google and stay there. Click here to get our expert SEO services working for you.
