This document summarizes the biggest SEO changes in 2020, including Google launching over 4,000 search improvements and new features. Major changes discussed include featured snippet deduplication, core web vitals, and the December 2020 and May 2020 core updates. The Covid-19 pandemic also significantly shifted SEO as ecommerce grew dramatically. Looking ahead, opportunities for 2021 include a continued focus on user experience, site speed, and core web vitals.

1. Navneet Kaushal
CEO
PageTraffic
How to
Dominate

2. Biggest
SEO Changes
in 2020

3. Google Updates
Google launched over 4,000
search improvements and new
features throughout 2020

4. 2020 Major SEO Changes
Featured Snippet Deduping Core Web Vitals
Dec 2020 Core Update
May 2020 Core Update
Covid-19 SEO Shift

5. Deduplication of Featured Snippets URL
Google announced on January 22nd that it will be cutting the
duplication of featured snippet URLs on the search engine
results pages (SERPs). Featured snippets used to display
as position zero in a box at the top of the SERPs, but that URL
could be displayed further along the page too. You
essentially ranked twice! With this new update, featured
snippets are now no longer position zero because that result
is not duplicated, it will just be position 1.
Removing the duplicate URLs from the SERPs with featured snippets
is called deduplication.

6. Before this change, this is what the SERPs looked like:

7. Whereas now, the featured snippet will take position 1:

9. Depending on your marketing goals, remaining as a featured snippet might be
optimal for your website and users. But if you’re goal is to get people to click on
your website, they may not want to do that after receiving the correct amount of
info from the FS. Google’s NoSnippet tag allows you to prevent your page from
ranking in the FS box, but you then run the risk of not ranking high in the SERPs if
you were previously in position zero.
Your GSC performance reports will not be affected, because the FS box was
already counted in the reports.

12. What can you do?
1. Edit and Refresh Old Content on Your Website –
Demonstrate Real-Life Expertise Services and skills – from
digital
2. Remove Low Count Thin Content Pages
3. No-Follow Links – Clarifying the Intent
4. Backlinks from High Referring Domains
5. Health (Medical) and Finance Websites Need to Improve
on E-A-T Aspect
6. Focus on Your Website’s Speed
7. Make Your Site More Accessible
8. Watch the Competition

15. How Covid-19 shifted seo?

18. Ecommerce has grown dramatically

26. • The December core update hit every site differently.
• Some sites which had lost traffic in the May core update
gained in this update, and some sites which had already
recovered from the May core update lost traffic again.
Impact

27. • User experience is one of the key factors that Google considers for
ranking.
• User experience is a combination of website design, layout, ad load,
how easily users can navigate the site, and more.
• For example, Answers.com is one of the winners of this update and
an effortless design with very few ad loads.
User experience is now more important

28. What matters now?
1. Relevancy Always Matters
2. Thin Content is No More
3. Expertise Article is Winning than An Authority Site
4. Search Intent is Most Important and Comes First
5. No-Follow Links are Useful Enough
6. A Site with a Good Number of Referring Domains Gained
7. Site Speed is a Ranking Signal
8. Watch the Competition

29. SEO Things that won’t change in 2021

37. Other Soft Rankings Factors Includes
• Brand Authority
• Speed = User Experience

41. Opportunities for 2021

63. ● https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-the-web
● https://web.dev/chrome-ux-report-data-studio-dashboard/
● How you stack up against competitors:
○ https://vitals-leaderboard.pazguille.me/
○ https://pagespeed.compare/
● https://builtvisible.com/googles-page-experience-update-
andcore-
web-vitals-everything-you-need-to-know/
● https://www.searchenginejournal.com/improve-core-
webvitals-
scores-page-experience-signals/386542/
● https://web.dev/optimize-lcp/
● https://web.dev/optimize-fid/
● https://web.dev/optimize-cls/
Data &
Resources

64. Website: https://www.pagetraffic.com
Email: navneet@pagetraffic.com
Twitter: @navneetkaushal
Blog: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pagetraffic.in
Q&A/ THANK YOU!
Get in touch if you need some help!