SEO Trends in 2019
Search engine optimization (SEO) has come a long way since the days of stuffing whatever keyword you wanted to rank for in your code with the meta keywords tag. Back in the early days, whether your content matched those keywords or not was irrelevant – you could rank with ease. Over the years, we’ve seen Google (and other search engines) get way smarter about providing a quality search experience for their users – and that means serving quality content from quality sources. But, just because you think SEO can’t possibly change anymore because they’re nailing all the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EAT) factors, there’s more to get ready.
Based on the current landscape, here are three significant themes we can expect to see become trends in SEO for 2019.
Voice Search Is Becoming More Important
Voice search has been on the radar for some time now. As it has grown in popularity, it’s become an essential part of any SEO strategy. This year, we expect it to keep growing even faster than it has up to this point since, by 2020, 50% of all searches are supposed to be voice searches. We’ll be hearing, “OK Google” around us all the time.
The number of people using voice assistants like Google Home, Apple HomePod, and Amazon Echo, is proliferating. 35.6 million Americans use a voice-activated device at least once a month, and one in six Americans owns a smart speaker.
The increase in voice search is one of the most significant changes we’ve seen in search engines and SEO so far in the history of the industry. It’s something entirely new and different than what we’ve dealt with in the past and requires a different optimization strategy.
The way you’d search for something on Google’s website isn’t likely the same way you’d ask about it. The questions people ask are going to be different, so it creates a need to adjust your content if you want it to appear in the search results for the voice queries. Google prefers short answers to voice queries, with the typical result coming in an average of 29 words. There appears to be a strong connection between voice search optimization and featured snippets – or position zero.
Blockchain Technology
When you think of the blockchain, chances are you’re thinking about cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. It’s an integral part of cryptocurrency but has potential to go far beyond that. Why? Because the blockchain is trying to create both a secure and trustworthy record of transactions. The technology can be used to secure the transactions happening anywhere online, including the connections between website owners and advertisers. Google, in this regard, is the middleman, helping the advertisers and website owners build trust to keep transactions running smoothly.
As it could affect Google’s ad revenue, we expect it to impact SEO in general. Other big companies such as Microsoft are already working together with blockchain-based identity systems like ConsenSys and Blockstack Labs to improve services and apps, so we expect to see more of that in the future as well.
Founder of Pragmatic, David Lockie says, “Using an embedded schema markup, websites could record the identities of their visitors, or log the number of token rewards that a blog post has secured. It could even calculate which visitors have contributed value to certain posts and the actions they took. All of this would input into ranking factors and make the web a more robust and productive social graph, almost infinite in its scope.”
Amazon SEO Will Continue to Rise
Though you can’t search Amazon for how to content, it’s still a major competitor for Google because of how many products you can find there. Many SEO experts believe we’ll see considerable growth in Amazon SEO over the next year.
Why?
Nearly ¾ of shoppers use Amazon to find products, in a study across shoppers in the US, UK, Germany, and France. That study also showed 56% of consumers search on Amazon before they even search other sites, including Google. They use it to do more they find everything shoppers need that they would otherwise use Google for, including similar product suggestions, other products they may be interested in, and reviews. They don’t need another search engine to help them find what they want or need to buy or to do some research before making a buying decision.
That’s a huge threat to Google and their ad revenue. If fewer people are out there using Google to find product information, that could have a significant impact on their advertising and revenue.
When it comes to buying things, people prefer Amazon to Google because it’s more convenient, the prices, and ease of shopping, according to BigCommerce’s most recent Global Omni-Channel Consumer Shopping Research Report.
There are constant changes in the digital space, and it’s no different for the SEO world. Though it’s a little scary, it’s an exciting time because even though we’re not clear on what the future brings, both emerging and older technology affects SEO. If we don’t see it happening already, it’s likely to start soon.