2019 is gearing up to be a groundbreaking year for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With more content, marketers, and digital marketing gurus in the industry than ever before, your 2019 SEO strategies can’t just be good. In order to avoid being lost in an already content-saturated market, they need to be great. As big technical companies like Facebook and Google get bigger, continually investing their sizeable budgets and teams into the development of new algorithms, it’s imperative that our professional SEO services change with the times, both to stay relevant and to keep capturing the support of your consumer base.
Your 2019 SEO strategy could make or break the success of your business, and we’re here to tip the scales towards “make.” Read on to see our best practices and SEO predictions moving into 2019.
Keep Up the Emphasis on Voice Search Optimization
If 2018 had a theme phrase, we think “voice search” would have – at minimum – made the honorable mentions list. At Snap, we’ll remember 2018 as the year voice search drastically shifted SEO standards and expectations. As mobile search continues to rise in popularity, bringing voice search with it, it’s crucial that you make the feature work to your advantage by learning to optimize your questions instead of plugging in flat buzzwords.
When someone uses voice search on a mobile device, most searches are asked in the form of questions. For example, rather than voice querying, “food nearby,” most users will ask Google or Siri, “Where is the closest McDonald’s?” Because of this form, it’s valuable to structure your content and media so that it answers questions your potential customers might ask, rather than tracking with keywords that need to be perfectly linked to produce the right result.
Double Back to Your User Friendliness
Although the recent developments of automation and digitalization have changed business and ecommerce for the better, a recent study shows that the biggest hindrance to search and web conversion rates moving into 2019 is a lack of website user-friendliness and overall poor customer service. Amidst all the pressures to make your business digitally streamlined and perfectly attuned to the ideal, digital consumer, don’t forget that there are real people behind the screens and mobile devices, people who want what you’re offering.
Step out of your company’s bubble by welcoming honest feedback on your business: have your content, web design, and marketing materials examined by an outside party. As digital marketers, we can become blinded to the weak spots in our own campaigns. By getting a second opinion and allowing someone else to propose improvements to our work, we can be confident that our services and web design are well-designed and easy to navigate.
E-A-T Better
Just last week, Search Engine Journal published their SEO predictions for 2019. We think their best point comes with customers in mind. They predict that the drive to improve expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – known as E-A-T in Google’s search quality rating guidelines – will be a huge trend to watch in 2019. The E-A-T guidelines are specifically tailored for Google’s algorithm raters (not the actual algorithm), and are meant to help users to understand the short-term Google mindset when it comes to 2019 SEO.
Here are a few ways you can build your business’ E-A-T qualities:
- Work with experts to co-author or “fact-check” some of of your more high-level pieces – this will speak to the expertise and authority behind the content you produce.
- Be transparent with your customers. If you make a mistake or credit a source incorrectly, own up to it. The more open you are with your customers, the more likely they are to trust what you say and the work you produce.
- It can be a challenge to communicate high-level material at an easy-to-skim level, but odds are you can benefit from simplifying your blog posts. Although research shows there is no “perfect length” for content, try to keep your content easy to digest. This way, readers trying to learn challenging concepts will be grateful your posts are easy to understand, and readers who already comprehend the complexity of the content will be impressed at your ability to simplify it.
Start Planning Now
With the New Year mere weeks away, it’s time to start finalizing your 2019 SEO strategy. We hope these tips will be a helpful checklist as you examine the strengths and potential weaknesses of your plan. Still unsure about some aspects of your SEO strategy? The SEO and digital marketing experts at Snap would love to act as your expert set of eyes as we work together to ensure that your 2019 SEO game plan sets you up for optimum success.