The Top 8 SEO Trends for 2019 that will Help You Rank Higher

For all practical purposes, SEO is more of a science. It is an incredibly complex and layered topic that’s constantly evolving.

The SEO best practices for 2019 have come in a new form. Google is absolutely crazy about bringing you the best results for your searches in its search results.

It makes total sense to revisit the SEO best practices and emerging trends for 2019. After all, who doesn’t want the coveted position on the first page of Google SERPS?

But, getting a prominent spot in its search results will be more difficult than ever. It all boils down to being seen by the right audience.

So, let's gear ourselves up for SEO best practices for 2019, shall we?

8 Essential SEO Trends for 2019

1)Mobile - First Indexing

This was a new rollout by Google in 2018. It sounds like a technical jargon but its meaning is pretty straightforward.

It means that if you have a desktop and a mobile version of your website, then Google uses the mobile version for indexing and ranking. The process of migrating sites to mobile-first index is already happening.

You cannot neglect the mobile version by any means. Check your mobile version loading speed because it’s an important factor in how they calculate the ranking. Have a responsive design and optimise it for mobile. The mobile user experience has to be impeccable.

2) Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are the new format in which Google displays search results. They occupy the top position above the first page organic listings for a lot of keywords.

This desirable snippet spot is ‘position 0.’ It’s a coveted place because it occupies the position where the first organic result used to appear.

So how do you increase your chances of occupying this position? If your website is already in the top results in SERPS, then its chance of being listed as a featured snippet increases. To be shown as a featured snippet, your SEO has to be right.

Google gives a lot of importance to search intent and what people are searching online. Include more information of what people will be searching. Pinpoint that knowledge and try to include answers to commonly asked questions for your seed keyword. Structure your content accordingly.

3) RankBrain

A major SEO trend for 2019 will be RankBrain. It is the part of Google’s search algorithm that uses machine learning to understand the user intent better and gives him the exact information that he is searching.

This is machine learning and it gets better with usage. RankBrain sees such parameters as high-click through rate and low bounce rate of a website to understand it’s usefulness for the search query.

Your website’s CTR is very important in deciding whether your content is relevant for the user’s search query.

To be in the good books of RankBrain algorithm, you should optimise your meta titles and meta descriptions of each page. Write a superb title tag.

4) Voice Search

Voice search becomes a priority in 2019.

It is said that by 2020, half of all online traffic will come from spoken queries. As more and more people become comfortable searching through voice, you cannot afford to neglect voice search from your SEO arsenal.

Studies have found that local searches are the maximum for voice search. This means that local businesses have to take more effort in revamping their SEO keywords.

Mobile searches too have been found to use voice searches. Make sure you are mobile-friendly and have a responsive, fast loading mobile version of the website.

Long-tail keywords are also on the increase as users get more and more specific with their queries. They also spin these long-tail searches into questions when doing voice searches via Siri, Alexa etc.

A website, Answer The Public helps you identify a list of probable questions that they may be asking. Form blog posts on them or place them in H1 H2 H3 headers. Use FAQ pages to your advantage. Include all those commonly asked long-tail keywords as questions.

5) User Intent Optimisation

Whenever you type a search term, Google’s endeavour is to throw up the most relevant search result, based upon the user intent. How does it come to know that a particular content is about a topic?

That’s where LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords come into the picture. These are long-form keywords related to the seed keyword. They help Google identify the context of your search term and throw the most relevant results. You need to identify LSI and sprinkle them your text.

6) Video Content

It’s all about visuals in 2019. According to online marketing expert Marcus Sheridan, 80% of what we consume online will be video content, by 2019.

Video content increases engagement, time on site and Google rankings. Another study in video usage said that by 2020, videos will become relevant for around 75% of the internet population.

7) Amazon Searches

There is a search world beyond Google. That’s the mighty Amazon.

Amazon itself is becoming a massive search engine for ecommerce products. It is a search engine for searches within itself. Having a presence on this platform is especially important for ecommerce players.

A Kenshoo survey found out that a whopping 56% of consumers head straight to Amazon if they want to shop for something.

8)Website Security

Google is giving prominence to user security.

You may have noticed that when you visit some websites, there is a lock symbol displayed in the left-hand corner of the address bar. Some sites read, ‘not secure’ to scare you more.

In compliance with Google security update policy of July 2018, all websites that are non-HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) compliant will be displayed with this warning sign. Google also gives lower ranking points to non-https compliant sites.

This is also in line with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) policy of May 2018 that lays importance to data privacy.

So, make your site HTTPS compliant to reduce bounce rate and gain some points for higher ranking.

Final Thoughts

Make your site more useful and start focusing on these SEO practices from today.

Many SEO practices of 2018 will continue well into 2019 but if you incorporate these additions, it will make all the difference. Work with Google algorithms and you will be rewarded with higher rankings, lots of free traffic and long-term sustainability in the ever-changing SEO domain.

Crush your SEO for 2019. Make sure your business gets found by the world.