Do you remember when sprinkling a few keywords on your page was like hitting the SEO jackpot in search results?
The world of SEO in 2024 is the opposite of easy.
But for those of us who love solving SEO puzzles, this is an exciting time with new challenges and huge opportunities.
This year is all about digging deep into the technical aspects of SEO, mastering AI tools for content, and finding ways to manage rising costs without breaking the bank.
To get a bird's-eye view of what to expect in 2024, let's take a look at five key insights for your SEO business in 2024.
1. SEO keeps getting bigger and harder
Those of us who have been involved in SEO since the 90's remember a simpler time of ranking web pages.
SEO becomes more complex and harder to win every year.
Look at all the changes that happened to SEO in 2023 alone. Chief among them is Google's search generation experience, which has the potential to bring SEO back into the spotlight.
Additionally, as Google improves its technology, its ranking algorithms continue to evolve each year to find the most relevant web pages.
Bottom line: There are no “easy buttons” for SEO. We can expect them to put a little more effort into competing in 2024 than they did last year.
2. Technical SEO becomes more important
In a competitive search environment, every little thing counts. The more you improve your website for your users, the more competitive you will be.
Without technical SEO, it is impossible to create an optimal user experience.
Therefore, success relies more on technical SEO.
If you're still relying only on surface-level on-page SEO tactics (keywords, meta information, etc.) and ignoring the technical backend of your site, you don't have much of a chance.
And even if you're doing a moderate amount of technical SEO, the skill level required to win at technical SEO is increasing.
Take, for example, Google's “Page Experience” initiative and all the details that go along with it.
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3. AI will change your content strategy
AI tools are changing the future of content creation, but it remains to be seen how they will change the future of SEO.
We are in a large-scale experimentation mode with AI content creation tools.
After months of observing how AI content can help (or hinder) your business, one thing is clear: If you do it right, you can create high-quality content and increase your profits. about it. If you do it wrong, you'll end up sending out a lot of spam.
Google says using incorrect AI content violates its spam policies.
“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for many years: Using automation, including AI, to generate content whose primary purpose is to manipulate search result rankings is considered spam. This violates policy.”
However, if the AI content is user-centered, it's perfectly fine to use AI tools to aid content creation efforts.
“That said, it is important to recognize that not all use of automation, including AI generation, is spam. Automation is used to generate useful content such as sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts. It has been used for many years. AI has the ability to power new levels of expression and creativity, and serves as an important tool to help people create great content for the web.”
So how do you strike the right balance when using AI-generated content?
Right now, the right AI tools and expert content analysis and editing are the gold standard.
For more information, see AI Content Creation: A Beginner's Guide.
4. Prices are rising
It's no secret that the cost of everything is rising.
According to Kiplinger, in 2024 most companies will face increased business costs, including interest rates, inflation, energy costs, transportation, insurance, travel, construction costs, and technology.
For some, the cost of attracting and retaining the best digital marketing talent will also be an issue.
Kiplinger predicts that some industries may see limited pay raises next year, with some industries seeing smaller increases of up to 4.2% for employees.
You can calculate how much it costs to retain an experienced search marketer by looking at this Search Engine Land search industry salary study.
If you want to retain people with 10+ years of experience (in my agency's case, this is the minimum experience allowed for customer-facing staff), you need to offer a competitive salary and benefits package.
Business costs also affect many service-based SEO companies, so the cost of hiring an SEO company can go up.
5. It’s important to hire talented people
Many companies are struggling with SEO due to rising costs. Fortunately, major companies can invest in the best SEO services.
Deloitte's CMO study predicts that businesses (many in the $26 million to $2.5 billion annual range) will increase their digital marketing spend by about 9% in 2024.
Unfortunately for smaller players, the question will be do you want to go cheap or do you want something decent?
And as we all know, cheap SEO is a near-death experience.
But that doesn't mean this little guy doesn't have a chance. Larger companies may have more resources, but they are less agile.
And even with all the resources these big companies have, they may not be implementing the best (or lesser-known) SEO strategies.
Regardless of the size of your company, it's important to hire the best SEO help, whether it's an in-house or external SEO company.
Companies that prioritize SEO because they know its value can get creative by repurposing budgets (such as advertising budgets) as needed to retain the best and most skilled SEO talent .
Find out more: What percentage of your budget should you spend on SEO?
Keyword for 2024: Adaptability
As we head into 2024, we're relying on the same SEO philosophy we've had for years: adaptability. SEO requires flexibility to generate small profits.
By focusing on innovative strategies and technical website analysis, and creatively setting your budget to hire the best SEO talent to guide your business through 2024, you can weather any storms that come your way this year. You can arrange your business to do so.
Cheers to success in 2024.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
