With a new year comes a fresh opportunity to take your website to the next level. There’s no doubt that WordPress is a leader in the industry, but what does it take to get your website seen?
To excel in the online space, it’s vital that your website is constantly updated with the latest software and trends. With newer technologies constantly being introduced, user demand shifts to reflect these changes and for a successful webpage, keeping up with these is essential. In this article, we will cover the 3 WordPress trends that website owners need to watch out for in 2020.
Latest WordPress Trends
1. AI
Those who are familiar with the digital space may not be surprised to see AI on our top 3 WordPress trends for 2020. AI, or artificial intelligence, has been a trending feature for years now and is only increasing in popularity. These days, it isn’t just an interest point for websites but a key component of a digital strategy.
Artificial intelligence takes one form in chatbots. You will have come across this on many websites when a chat box pops up to ask if you need any online assistance. Chatbots provide automated responses to answer simple online queries and give your website or business the chance to be always on. Any query too complex and they will let your customer know when you will be back in office to tend to it personally. Simply install a chatbot plugin onto your WordPress site to get started.
Every website needs help with SEO, and new AI plugins such as WordLift can assist in improving your content’s SEO and enhance your posts. Images can also be optimized for you with the use of the Automatic Alternative Text plugin that will add the alt text to your images for you. By using these features, search engines will find it easier to index your content and improve the accessibility of your page.
2. Voice Search
Another key trend for 2020 is voice search. An example of this is when you ask your home AI device, such as Alexa, a question, and then receive an appropriate response. There’s been a high increase in the number of people using voice search in the past few years, which is making it a vital component to a successful website.
So, how does voice search work? Instead of typing out a phrase, search engines can complete the command by dialogue. For this to work, your site and its content have to have the right systems in place to help search engines understand the data. When done correctly, this can improve your Google ranking significantly. Voice search is a top-ranking feature for Google and if you’re looking to win with your SEO strategy, you have to look at integrating it into your WordPress site.
Thankfully, getting your site ready for voice search is fairly easy. Having a quick-loading theme and using featured snippets is a great start. However, if you really want to dedicate your site to voice search and enjoy getting more traffic as a result, using the right plugin is advised. Voice Search is one of the widely used plugins and can easily be integrated into your site.
3. Website Page Builders
Ease of use is a trend that will never go away. As technology becomes more complex, end-usability should be simplified. For this reason, using a website page builder is one of the biggest trends to watch in 2020. This design trend is a simple yet effective way to keep your content looking fresh and attractive without the hassle of coding.
With the success of WordPress’s Gutenberg, users are increasingly turning to drag-and-drop page builders for editing. The block system helps all kinds of web users regardless of their experience, build their pages with a few clicks.
Drag-and-drop page builders are definitely on the rise since the introduction of Gutenberg. However, there are still other names such as Elementor, WPBakery, and Beaver Builder being spoken. Although these offer impressive functions, Gutenberg is now WordPress’s editor of choice, being built in for versions 5.0 and later. It’s also free and very easy to customize! Page builders such as WPBakery can be expensive to purchase and trickier to navigate, therefore limiting your abilities to achieve the required design.
Final Thoughts
WordPress is the world’s most trusted content management system known for its impressive capabilities, design functions, and active community. As a result, WordPress users can rest assured that their website will always be kept up to date and be able to adopt the latest technology trends to stay in line with the evolving market. This results in higher engagement rates, better search engine rankings, and even an increase in the generation of qualified sales leads.