2019 is upon us, and as digital marketers, we know it will bring changes. Even though things move fast in our world, we stay up-to-date so that we can carry our clients into the new year anticipating these changes. Like most digital content writers, I rely on Yoast to help with organic SEO writing. I also look to them for industry news and recently joined their seminar on organic SEO in 2019. Here’s what we can expect in the new year.
2019 SEO Trends
Yoast confirmed what we hear about more and more. Google algorithms are getting smarter and understanding page content better. Domain authority scoring has seen a major update. This means rather than going after a keyword, optimizing the page with the keyword, and hoping users land on that page with a search query, the search engine will want to see that the keyword relates to the rest of the content on the site when they start their crawl. In 2019, it will be more critical than ever for content to be stellar with page organization that’s related to the entire structure of a website.
Google will look for sites with accurate and trusted structured data, to give users rich results (previously known as rich snippets) or the information in a knowledge graph. Structured data will be a way to organize content to categorize a website, which will be imperative with the rise of voice search, another trend we’ll see in 2019. With voice search, using AI home assistants, we already see answer boxes as results to queries. This is another way Google will use to interpret user intent and to answer a question without even going to a site. Now, you can book a flight, buy something, or read a map as soon as you enter your search query.
A few other trends that will become more important than ever include website speed and mobile presence. Websites need to be fast, technically flawless, and well structured if they want to perform. In 2019, the average site load time will be four seconds, and there are several ways to do this, including using well-built accelerated mobile pages or AMP. Mobile search will become the default, even if the brand has significant desktop traffic. And mobile search is different than desktop. Brands in 2019 must make sure their mobile presence is strong.
2019 SEO Solutions
So, how do brands have their information or product served in a rich result or knowledge graph? First, they need to ensure their structured data is set up so it can be correctly categorized. Furthermore, a website’s pages should all be optimized. A brand should look at every page as a landing page, since the user can get to different parts of the site through different ways whether it is through an ad, SEO, or through an app like Amazon or Pinterest. Second, brands should revisit their keyword strategy to include longer-tail search terms. This will lower the competition to make smaller brands visible for unique search queries, and if everything else is optimized on the site, Google can serve the information in a rich result or knowledge graph.
There also might be changes in what your audience is actually searching for. That might mean updating blog and site content for search terms. Plus, optimizing will technically be easier because synonyms will become more important; Google will know some search terms belong with others. Finally, a brand must ensure they have a clear, easy-to-use website. Strong brands will have great (and visible) reviews, a clear way to purchase and pricing structure, if they’re e-commerce, and holistic SEO on their websites.
Savy | Organic SEO in 2019
At Savy, we stay ahead of trends. As a team, we make sure the sites of the brands we manage are technically clean, fast, and correctly optimized for SEO. Websites in the future will need to be modified to stay relevant. That’s where brands need a digital agency to help stay ahead. Does your website need an update? Is your new brand starting from the ground up? Reach out to see where Savy can help. We can’t think of 2019 as the future anymore; it’s here.