Search Marketing Trends for 2019

Google updates its algorithm 500 to 600 times a year.

While most of these changes are minor, from time to time, Google will roll out a major algorithmic update that significantly affects search results and optimisation.

SEO is constantly changing, and as marketers, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest updates to Google’s algorithm. Not to mention wider search trends on other platforms and devices.  However, those that can stay on top of the changes and prepare ahead are the ones that will be successful in their SEO strategy in the months and years to come.

From focus on user intent to technical SEO, search habits and content, there are a number of strategies for digital marketers to consider going forward.  The following SEO strategies and tactics will help you dominate in the SERPs in the next 12 months, and stay one step ahead of your competitors, if not Google itself.

Pro Tip: With Google’s algorithms constantly changing, stay up to date and ahead of the game with the ultimate Google algorithm updates guide.

Understand User Intent

Knowing your audience and what they are most likely to respond to will be key to an effective SEO campaign. That means going beyond standard keywords to consider the user’s expectation and intent behind the search query. This is known as semantic search, which has already caused significant fluctuation in rankings over the past year.

Going forward, top-performing sites will stop matching their content to keyword phrases and instead make sure that their content effectively and comprehensively answers the questions your audience asks via search. Put simply, the best way to optimise your website for new search trends is to ensure it enhances your audience’s journey.  It should focus on the different stages that prospects are at in the buying funnel and how to move them through to sale.

Consider other Search Habits

Google currently has 74% of the search market, so many SEO strategies naturally focus on optimising for Google. However, the foundation of SEO is to appear when and where people are searching and as technology is advancing so are consumer search habits. Your potential customers may be searching for you within apps, podcasts or videos, so it’s important to ensure your business ranks where they are looking. Another major consideration is the growing use of voice search, which is predicted to make up 50% of all searches by 2020. As brands are becoming multi-channel, your SEO strategy also has to be efficient, engaging and optimised across devices and platforms.

Focus on Content

Google’s 2018 algorithm updates revealed that the search engine is placing even more focus on content going forward.  Sites that will continue to succeed will have both depth and coverage in their content.  Content should be used to answer a question, get a lead, make a sale, provide social proof or build a community.  It should not be written with the sole purpose of churning out updates to help with your SEO.  Research your audience and create something for them, rather than for a Search Engine and you are more likely to succeed with your content.

Invest in Technical SEO

As websites get more complex, investing in technical SEO is becoming more and more important.  Site speed has long been a factor in search engine rankings, and search engines will continue to reward sites that are simpler and faster.  JavaScript will also be a major consideration going forward, as more websites are heavily JavaScript driven. This means it’s becoming important for digital marketers to have some JavaScript knowledge and understand how the major search engines work with JavaScript driven websites.  Progressive Web Apps are another consideration for SEO strategists going forward.

Concentrate on On-page Optimisation

On-page optimisation has grown in recent years and will continue to be important in 2019. Why? Because it gets results. It’s important to remember that on-page SEO isn’t something that should be done once and forgotten about. Web pages should be continually optimised and tested to ensure they are performing to the best of their ability.  Some of the following elements can be optimised to improve your on-site performance:

• Ensure your content answers the most common user questions
• If you have an internal site search function, make sure it provides relevant answers to user queries
• Take steps to shorten the conversion process on your website
• Customer support should be available to respond to questions related to the business.  If you don’t have the capacity to do this manually it can be done through a chatbot

If you’re ready for your business to grow digitally, contact the team at Digital Squad, your SEO company Wellington. We understand this may not come naturally to most and you may need help with expert copywriting. We can customise a plan for your campaign to create regular articles and contents distributed on high-quality PR sites. We are a b2b marketing agency with expertise in SEO services, Facebook marketing Auckland, LinkedIn marketing, AdWords management agency Auckland and more. Contact us to find out more. Coffee is on us.