SEO changes are coming one after another – like waves. And in 2019, there are two choices to pick: sink or swim.
Maybe a dramatic introduction. But the truth is that it’s getting more and more difficult to stay on top of the shifting tides of SEO. Google’s updates its algorithm regularly and doesn’t share the changes – and if websites are to stay visible and maintain its rank, we’ve got to be ready to move with the current.
With that in mind, here are some of the biggest considered SEO trends of 2019 – and some tips about how to use them to the best advantage.
Voice Search
Starting with a bigger trend that many small and medium-sized companies are still ignoring. Voice search isn’t going anywhere – and in fact, it’s going to become increasingly important in 2019.
Why is this? The answer is simple! Most people are using voice search in some way. Whether starting a mobile search by saying “OK Google” or calling on Alexa, Cortana, or Siri to help find what is needed, you’re using voice search. And, estimates are that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by next year.
That means your customers are too. One of the best ways to capitalize on this trend is to optimize your site with voice search in mind, meaning incorporating common questions into content – because customers are asking questions and your website should answer them.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google’s mobile-first indexing is still relatively new, but only a fool would believe that it won’t increase in importance in 2019. Right now, about 60% of all searches are mobile – and that number’s only going to go up
What is the best way to take advantage of this trend? First, make sure the current site is mobile responsive. At this point, there’s no excuse for it not to be. The next thing is to think about how the site’s design will impact mobile users. The Ideal design is something clean and that’s easy to use. Good visual components of clean and ease are single column next, right-sized buttons, and other mobile features like direct dialing.
It also is beneficial to think about accepting mobile payments in a store, if you have one. The idea is to make it easy for mobile customers to patronize your business.
Structured Data
SEO is in an interesting place right now. We’re still heavily mobile-dependent, but the increase in voice searches and use of artificial intelligence means that we all need to be thinking about how our websites can be easy to access as AI increases in importance.
One way to do that is to use Schema and other structures to organize data. Things like information architecture, tags, metadata, and structured mark-up can all help ensure that a site is easy to crawl and index.
Some of this can sound very technical, but an experienced SEO can help to navigate the tech requirements while still providing a site that’s user-friendly, readable, and engaging.
Brand as a Ranking Signal
SEO is no longer just about what’s on your website. It’s also about how people are talking about you on social media sites and other places online – and those brand mentions are now having a big impact on how Google perceives your company.
If tracking social mentions is something that currently is utilized, now is the time to start doing it. Following other brands on social media will reveal that some of them are responding when people mention them – and they’re making a big impact doing it. Even a word of encouragement or a quick joke can make a huge difference in how people think of someone.
Focus on Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness
The big trio of online impact is E-A-T – Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Technically, E-A-T isn’t part of Google’s algorithm, but it is a guideline for Google’s algorithm raters, in which puts
What can be done to offer E-A-T to a site’s visitors is provide content that’s:
- Meaningful
- Useful
- Relevant
- Authoritative
- Deep
Content to the extent such as 5,000-word blog posts is unnecessary. However, it is very helpful to cover the topics that are in an area of expertise in depth. If a topic is too big or complex for a single blog post, do a series of posts (or a series of videos) to cover it.
E-A-T can be demonstrated by creating a system of internal links to help visitors to your site navigate the information that’s available and easily find content that’s related to what they’re viewing.
Site Speed
Speed is another commonly covered topic – the repetition of the topic of speed however is in order to highlight how important it is and to ensure it is not overlooking something that can have a huge impact on SEO.
There’s no such thing as a website that loads too quickly. All web users are impatient and mobile users are more impatient than most. Very few are going to wait longer than five or six seconds for a site to load. Anything that might be slowing a site down needs to go. That means:
- Auto play audio and video
- Flash
- Outdated plug-ins
Google’s PageSpeed Insights is also important to use to check a site’s loading speed. Then, do whatever is needed to update it and speed it up, so that users don’t need to think about the time it takes the site to load – because they’ll already be looking at awesome content.
Riding the Waves and Staying on Top.
What’s going to keep things riding high in 2019 is knowing which waves matter in the world of SEO. The six things identified here are the ones that are going to make the biggest impact this year – and that means they’re the things that will help you rise above the competition and make 2019 your best year ever.