What Can We Expect From SEO in 2019?

We can safely say that in 2018 we saw many Google Algorithm tweaks, leading to search results being more volatile than we have seen before. Every month the SEO forums and blogs lit up like a firework with people discussing ranking fluctuations and traffic drops and increases.

Over the year we learnt a few SEO trends to adopt moving into 2019. Some are the same trends we have seen for years, whilst some SEO trends look at new angles to add to your SEO strategy.

We will look at the main 4 areas where you should be investing your time for 2019.

Technical SEO

A word that is becoming more common is Technical SEO, and as websites constantly become more complex with how they are built, what they can achieve and how a user can interact and engage, it means more effort and time needs to be spent on the technical aspects of SEO.

Site Speed is a big focal point, and Google are recognising this. If your site is slow to load then it’s not a great user experience, and therefore you can’t expect Google to reward you with good placements in the SERPS.

The go to tool to check your site speed is the PageSpeed Insights tool hosted by Google. This will not only show you the score your site is handed with, but it will show you how you can improve your site load time.

Other technical SEO pointers to pay close attention to are: Apply SSL, reduce 404’s, eliminate duplicate content, optimise for mobile-first indexing, look at featured snippets.

Create Great Content

This is an oldie, but it still serves a very important purpose. Content must answer a query, it must get users to the page, but it must also engage the user and get them to perform a desired action on the site.

With great content you will often find that other important SEO elements follow naturally, such as earned links to the page, an increase in expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT). You cannot underestimate the importance of content marketing.

Essentially, don’t post just for the sake of posting, your content needs to be good enough to make an impact. Even if that means you invest your time into one post each month that is properly researched and constructed. This one post will pay off and check all the other associated boxes.

Media Types

Put simply, are you audience likely to be more responsive to video, audio, images or text?

Users are simply looking to find an answer to something, and with busy lifestyles they want to find that answer in the most effective and simplest way. Whether that is to cook a certain recipe, or listen to an interview.

Voice Search

Still in its infancy in the great scheme of things, its worth keeping a close eye on voice search, as the technology behind it improves and becomes more accessible. With this, voice search will become more mainstream.