SEO Predictions for 2019 and Beyond
It’s easy to despair at the ever changing nature of the SEO landscape – just as you’ve found firm footing, the ground starts to move beneath you.
Dismiss that attitude by getting a head start on the future. Reading through 2019 SEO predictions gives you the opportunity to get the lay of the land in advance of the coming year. When changes come, you’ll be ready for them, and that early lead and insider knowledge could be the edge you need to jump ahead of competitors.
With that in mind, here are a few considered SEO prophecies for the coming year and beyond.
The Rise of Voice Optimisation
We’re hearing that 50% of searches will be voice searches by 2020. Whether via smart speaker or smartphone, more and more people will be using voice commands rather than keyboard taps and mouse clicks to bring up what they need, and that’s going to have a huge effect on SEO and eCommerce.
In some ways, we’ve been preparing for voice optimisation for years – every post on blog writing coaches you towards conversational language.
During 2019, it’s going to pay to focus more on concise answers and straightforward page structure.
The Switch from Keywords to Clusters
Keywords aren’t the gold standard of SEO they used to be, and that trend is set to continue.
Algorithms are growing more sophisticated by the day when it comes to synonyms and topics, so the future should be focused around themes and keyword clusters rather than single posts.
Let’s take a hypothetical chiropractor’s site; having a single top-ranked post on running injuries might have cut the mustard before, but they’ll now need multiple pieces of content surrounding the same area.
It’s critical to ensure that your SEO content is optimised for clustering rather than just keywords.
The Need for (More) Speed
That speed is important is no ground-shaking prediction, but Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool has been through changes that make speed just that bit more influential.
Speed is now measured through different parameters, so it’s time to optimise your site if that’s a task you haven’t tackled in some time.
You’ll find plenty of plugins to do the job for you – try Autoptimize or W3 Total Cache.
The Ascendancy of Mobile
Actually, mobile has been ascending for some time, but we just saw mobile page speed become a Google ranking factor.
Look for mobile-first indexing during the coming year to stay ahead – mobile should now be considered the primary version of your website, or at least on equal footing with the desktop version. Your site should already be mobile responsive.
Now is the time to concentrate on load times and the mobile experience. If a graphic or form works better on desktop than it does on mobile, you need to change that.
Mobile load speeds and indexing is now a major factor for SERP performance.
Expect User Experience to Increase in Importance
Google has been prioritising personalised search results for quite some time. Even if 2019 isn’t the year their plans reach full fruition, now is certainly the time to jump onboard when it comes to user experience.
To keep ranking high, you’ll need to keep people engaged and keep them coming back. For you, that means looking at everything from navigation to page load speeds to ensure people are having the best experience they can when they reach your site.
Feedback is key, so don’t be afraid to reach out to your audience but make the most of powerful user experience (UX) software like ClickTale, HotJar or SmartLook.
The (Slight) Fall of Google
Talking about ‘the fall of Google’ has such a Chicken Little-ish slant to it that few take the idea seriously. While ‘fall’ might be a reach, we could well see rival digital superpowers claiming more attention.
Amazon searches should grow more influential as more businesses join their marketplace, and rival search engines may come to the fore when voice commands become the norm.
The lesson here isn’t to give up on Google, but 2018 may be (the start of) its final years as the be-all-end-all.
Opace & SEO
For more information, our SEO basics guide is a great place to start. Or, to find out more about how Opace can help you get ahead with your SEO strategy for 2019, contact us on 0121 222 5757 or use the contact form to let us know more about what you want from the year ahead for your business.
Image Credits: PxHere, Pixabay and Pixabay
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