Small businesses now face more challenges than ever. In many cases, they not only compete with similar businesses in their locality, but often also with international brands on a global scale.
The advances made in remote and cloud technology have made it possible to have a small business without borders. And prioritizing SEO can help them compete online and stand out against the competition.
If you are a small business, you can’t afford to ignore SEO to compete in the modern market. The business world has evolved exponentially over the past decade and will continue to change in the years to come. By prioritizing SEO now, you set yourself up for success in the future.
Here are the SEO trends for 2019 that can help bolster your small business success.
Voice optimization
One of the most significant changes in how people conduct Google searches now is the paradigm shift toward voice search. What many small businesses fail to realize is that voice search has a drastic impact on SEO. Even if two consumers are searching for the same thing, one using voice search will typically use drastically different phrasing than those typing.
For example, those who type a phrase into the Google search bar are conditioned not to bother using a full sentence. Those who use voice search often phrase the search as a question or long-tail keyword. As such, a typed search might look like “best restaurant Istanbul” whereas a voice search could be “what’s the best restaurant in Istanbul.” While this difference seems trivial, it has a significant impact on the results chosen by the Googlebot.
When crafting content, small businesses should plan SEO around both typed and voice search. It’s estimated that 50% of all queries will be voice search by 2020, due to the increasing popularity of smart technology and home assistants.
Focus on local SEO
Operating on a global scale doesn’t befit all small businesses. As such, it’s essential to take another look at local SEO. In doing so, you ensure those searches for “best x near me” show your business in the results. This approach also helps Google differentiate your business in Cairo, Egypt, from one in Cairo, Illinois, in the US.
The first step for taking charge of your local SEO is to claim your business listings and update your Google My Business (GMB) account. Managing your GMB account allows you to enter your physical location, hours of operation, contact information, etc. Essentially, everything your prospects need to make the transition to paying customer smoother.
Adding a location page to your website, ensuring consistency across your social media pages, and cross-promoting with other local businesses helps improve local SEO. You should also ask satisfied customers to post a review on Google to boost your rankings.
Consider tech-related SEO upgrades
The purpose of SEO is to enhance your user experience. The better the Googlebot determines your customer experience prioritization, the higher your rankings will be.
The technological side of your website plays a crucial role in how crawlers perceive your site. In 2019, more businesses are revisiting the back end of their website and making upgrades to improve performance.
Some considerations for tech-related SEO include site speed and loading time. The finer details, like image optimization, hosting quality, and the utilization of Javascript impact tech-related SEO. Consider hiring a developer to take a look at these details to streamline your site.
Quality trumps keywords
While having the right combination of keywords still plays a role in SEO, Google is looking beyond keywords and evaluating the quality of your content. This shift is a result of years of “keyword littering” in which business would use low-quality content with a high concentration of keywords to boost their rankings.
Focus on delivering content that people will want to read and link back to. Become an expert in your industry and speak with a voice of authority, answering commonly asked questions related to your business. While the length and word combinations still matter, focusing on delivering content, your audience will actually read is more important.