There are continue changes being made to SEO algorithms and best practices. This means those tactics that got you to the top last year probably are ineffective now. They may even trigger penalties that set you way back in the SERPs. This is why you should pickup a few items regarding what to expect from the search engines in 2019.
SEO and Marketing Funnels
People are searching differently today than they did in the past. Of course, what they’re searching for is also changing. Most of these searches (about 60%) are done on mobile devices which is why Google now uses a mobile first index recognizing that every customer’s buying journey is different and involves different types of searches at different times.
The same thing has also happened to the marketing funnel. Since Google dominates the search engine market with about 3.5 billion searches per day, you’ll want to make sure that you’re listed high in their SERPs. By looking like an expert here more people will want to buy your product or service.
Website Speed
When you go to pickup a few items, make sure you definitely pick up speed since it’s a factor when it comes to how your website ranks in Google’s SERPs. If you can shave even a fraction of a second off this (e.g. compress images, use a content delivery network, a.k.a. CDN), you’ll improve your users’ experience and Google will appreciate your website even more, rewarding you with a higher ranking.
EAT
Although Google is quite sophisticated, it still needs human help, which is why Google has a team of human helpers who manually assess results and pages to improve algorithms. One thing that’s stressed to these reviewers is EAT – expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. This is used for ranking a page’s quality. Using EAT, Google deems a high-quality page to be one that’s appropriate for the query, has contact information, and has a good reputation.
Voice Search
How people conduct searches is changing because mobile devices are so popular today. These searches continue growing in number today, which is why you should optimize for them – something that requires a different approach than traditional SEO because different language is used. It’s also important to remember that when desktop searches are conducted people are willing to read long articles while mobile users need fast answers. This is because people who conduct mobile searches are typically looking for:
- Information about businesses (e.g. address, hours of operation)
- Directions
- Information about traffic and/or weather
- Questions that have a straightforward answer
What you must remember when optimizing for these types of voice searches is that Google gives preference to high-quality content that’s well-structured and also meets all of the person’s needs. While these are important to remember when you’re developing a voice search SEO strategy, you must also:
- Focus on general topic areas, not specific keywords
- Concentrate on getting your website listed in the featured snippets
- Watch for how new home devices (e.g.. Google Assistant, Alexa) will continually change these things
SERPs
One of the biggest trends you’ll see in 2019 is on-SERP SEO. Here, instead of optimizing content for the best ranking in SERPs you’ll optimize it so you’ll get listed in the search engine’s featured snippets. You may not even receive any click throughs to your website at all. This change sounds counter-intuitive but it’s happening because people who conduct searches today are impatient because they’re on the move and don’t want to click through to a website. They want the information on Google itself, which is why we’ll probably see Google experiment with other features this year (e.g. “people also ask,” the “knowledge graph”). Many people believe this is why we’re also seeing mobile zero-click searches increase by as much as 11.5% over the past two years.
Conclusion
These are just some of the things we’ll see change this year. Google is obviously the driving force behind most of these things. Hopefully you’ve been able to pickup a few items about what you should do with your SEO in 2019. If all this seems like too much for you to handle though, make sure you hire a company like I SEO U to help you with everything.