Biz Tips: Major SEO Trends to Watch Out in 2019
GROWTH:
Major SEO Trends to Watch Out in 2019
As we begin a new year, it is now time for the marketers to look back into the world of search in 2018 to see what strategies have worked and what needs improvement. Google changes every year and so does the SEO trends & techniques. Marketers and webmasters are constantly finding opportunities to outgrow the competition and grow their businesses.
2018 has seen some major changes in the search world and it has been exciting for most of the SEOers. The year started with an announcement of the ‘speed update’ which was quietly released in the month of June. In addition to the updates in the speed algorithm, Google also introduced Medic update for ‘YMYL’ sites. Along with the changes in the algorithms, Google also made changes within Search Console & Google My Business pages.
Based on the above changes, let’s look at some SEO strategies & techniques that will work in 2019 to dominate the SERP features.
- Optimize for Google’s Mobile First Index
- Voice is the new Search
- Optimize not just for SERP
Let’s take a deeper look at each of the trends and what the industry experts have to say about it.
1. Optimize for Google’s Mobile First Index
Towards the end of 2018 most webmasters started getting the alarming message ‘Mobile-first indexing enabled’, which means Google will crawl and index the mobile version of the site to rank your pages when a search is performed on mobile devices.
New to mobile first indexing? Here is what you need to know about Mobile First vs Mobile Responsive
How to optimize for Mobile First Index
High-Quality Content
Google announced the mobile first indexing and most webmasters were notified by messages in 2018. Since then, marketers are migrating their desktop version of the website to an optimized mobile version. When building the mobile version of the site, most marketers tend to shorten the content. But the fact is, mobile users need high-quality content as desktop users. Do not miss on the visual content like images, videos, and infographics. These elements should be accessible on mobile devices at the same time they should also be crawlable & indexable for search engine crawlers.
Usage of hidden or tabbed content is still uncertain as one of the studies mentioned that content hidden behind tabs & accordion remains devalued in the mobile-first index!
What do experts have to say
SEJ compiled the expert opinions on Mobile First Indexing, in which Adam Reimer, CEO Adam Reimer Marketing mentions ‘Although accordions may be on in some instances, this is going to force site owners into actually answering questions and providing solid text instead of branded fluff. The sites that do this should benefit, especially with answer boxes.’
Google Search Console Verification
If you have a separate mobile version for your website, make sure to add the property in Google Search Console and verify the property. This will help to get the live issues related to crawling & indexing the mobile site.
Setup Structured Data
Structured data or schema markup contributed to the SERP features in the last year. From recipes, reviews, jobs, site links to name a few, 2019 primarily seems to dominate more of these rich & useful snippets in order to add more to the search engine users. We will discuss the structured snippet in detail, further below.
What do experts have to say
Bill Hartzer, a local SEO expert “For the past several years I’ve always included geo coordinates whenever possible in schema markup. Most SEOs who do local SEO see this as standard data to include
Whereas Alexis Sanders “For B2B companies, I’d recommend prioritizing contact, product and organization information. Here are some support
2. Voice is the new Search
Why do marketers stress on Voice Search to be the next big thing in 2019?
Voice search is growing insanely. When looking at the facts for 2018, as mentioned by Brian in his SEO study on Voice search, 20% of all the searches are voice search. Most SEOs are now focused optimizing for voice search results. In addition to the voice search enabled devices, services like Siri, Ok Google & Echo, we see a rise in the number of voice command apps.
Every product based website can have a voice search which makes it easier for users to find a product on a command. The best example is the voice search of Pricekart.com. This price comparison website has integrated voice search making it lot accessible for the users to compare the prices.