It will not be wrong to say that SEO is an ever-evolving process. The old tricks don’t work anymore. New tricks come every day. Google still hides more than it reveals. And the optimizers and website owners try to play fetch in the dark. Those who get the bite move on, and the others keep on lingering.
Certainly, SEO is not rocket science. But it’s no child play either. You will need to have access to a variety of tools, dedication, time, patience, and most importantly, up-to-date knowledge of the industry to be at the top of the pages. You will have to follow the trends and keep your ball moving.
As 2018 is coming to its end, old SEO tricks will continue to evolve. The thing 2018 has taught us about SEO is that you can never be sure what Lord Google plans to bring. So here are important SEO trends to look forward to in 2019-
Mobile It Is
We saw it coming, and it is not official. Your website will be screwed if you start ignoring mobile-friendly parameters. On 26 March 2018, Google announced the mobile-first index update, giving preference to the mobile-friendly sites. This decision was taken after a lot of research, and it was always evident.
After all, mobiles are the first devices people jump on to look for any info. It makes perfect sense, and website owners should jump to the mobile bandwagon as soon as possible. If you were using responsive design elements in your projects, it should have no impact on your rankings.
Bring the Engagement
This element was always there in the SEO world. You have heard the line – “content is king” almost a million times now, but it is a fact. You cannot ignore high-quality content if you want to rank well. But now, it is just more than quality content. It is time for engaging content. Content that keeps the readers or viewers stick to your website for hours.
Gaining positive results in metrics like click-through rate, time spent, bounce rates, sharing, etc., will be essential that will allow you to get good rankings. It doesn’t matter if a Harvard Professor or Einstein writes your content; if no one is reading it, sharing it, and engaging with it, then it is of no use.
AI Will Flex Its Muscles
AI used to be a buzzword that was used to sell dubious products to customers but not anymore. It is here to stay. It is starting to show its power in many current applications, and yes, it includes SEO. The AI platforms used by search engines will be capable of selecting the right search results. It will use prediction techniques and provides related and contextual results based on the user info.
This means dynamic factors will come into play, and the choice of search results to show will be made in real-time.
Voice Search Means Natural Language
Apart from AI, major changes in SEO will be affected by the voice searches. Many voice assistants are already in the markets, which helps get the user’s results in a moturalnaturally national screens. The main point that an SEO company and individual should learn is that you will have to be as natural as possible with your content.
You may have noticed the rich snippet cards used by voice assistants to read from. This means that natural-sounding, long-tail keywords should be your focus. And the content that you actually include in your website should aim to aid the reader in some way or another.