SEO rules change, seemingly, day to day. So what will a business need for SEO success in 2020, at least as it stands today?

Reliable content should be the first and foremost priority for any business owner when considering their website. And with the new(ish) Google rules, this goes far beyond just making sure your website copy is factually correct. These factors should also play a role:

• Content sources.
  When you’re linking to other content on the web within your content, you need to make sure it’s a credible source. Otherwise, their low rank could pull your site down with them. There are a variety of tools available to help you with this, if you’re not trusting your SEO to a professional.
• Author expertise.
  Google explicitly says in their Quality Rater Guidelines that they want to feature content written by experts in their field, and they may be using an updated form of Google Authorship to determine who wrote the content as well as their level of expertise in the subject matter. This boils down to three choices for business owners. (1) Write the content themselves and include their credentials with the copy. (2) Hire an expert in the field to write the copy. Or (3) hire a ghostwriter to write the copy, but have it attributed to someone with the proper expertise. (And yes, the Quality Rater Guidelines go on to say that they expect information about the author to be on the site.)
• Backlinks/getting cited by others.
  When you’re an expert in your field, you don’t have to proclaim it; others will do that for you. Getting cited in others’ content will be one of the most important pieces of SEO in 2020. This includes not only backlinks to your content, but also mere mentions in others’ website content.

As always, there are a million other factors that can and will determine SEO success. This is merely what many in the field are deeming the #1 consideration this year. If you’re ready to take your organic ranking to the next level, give us a shout and let our SEO team get to work for you!