5 SEO Trends That Will Dominate in 2019

Curious to know which trends will matter most in 2019?

It’s safe to say that Google supports the best websites. The playing field is level, which means that your small business can compete with the big guys. An optimized website, a solid content marketing strategy and an active social media presence will help you reach your goals. It’s also important to stay on top of the latest SEO trends so that you can predict how they will influence your campaigns.
Let’s explore five SEO trends that are expected to have a big impact over the next year. 2019 – here we come!
1. Page Speed
Page speed affects everything, from bounce rates to user satisfaction. Google’s top priority is delivering the best user experience, and a large part of this experience comes down to speed.
Desktop loading time has been a ranking factor for some time. In July, mobile page speed became a ranking factor as well. To ensure that your page meets Google’s expectations, you’ll need to know what metrics matter
Both desktop and mobile sites are ranked according to optimization and speed. Your speed score is generated from the Chrome User Experience report, which looks at how your site loads for each visitor. You can optimize your site by addressing the issues that prevent your pages from loading quickly.
The best ways to optimize your site, as recommended by Google, are:

• Avoid landing page redirects
• Improve server response times
• Utilize browser caching
• Optimize CSS delivery
• Enable compression
• Minify resources
• Prioritize visible content
• Remove render-blocking JavaScrip

2. Mobile-first Indexing
Google now uses the mobile version of your page for indexing and ranking. The desktop version of your site still has an index, but once your site has migrated, Google will use your mobile version.
With this in mind, having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever. Here are the best things you can do to get your site mobile ready.

• Make your website responsive
• Don’t use Flash
• Use autocorrect on your forms
• Make buttons large enough
• Use large font sizes
• Compress images and CSS

3. Voice Search
Voice search is not a passing fad. With the rise of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, people can ask almost any question and receive a response. To optimize your site for voice search, you’ll need to create content that has natural, conversational sentences. Nothing fancy here – simply consider how your audience might ask a question and the ways you can respond.
Long tail keywords are also important for voice search because they help you rank for certain searches. Believe it or not, people tend to use long tail keywords when speaking into a voice assistant. On average, long tail keywords are around three to five words.
Another strategy that can boost your visibility for voice search is using “near me.” If you perform a lot of searches with “near me” (i.e., “best pizza places near me”), then you’re part of a growing movement. Because our internet devices already know where we are, we don’t have to include our location when using voice search. Keep “near me” searches in mind, especially if you have a local business.
4. Amazon Search
Amazon is not a universal search engine, but more and more people are heading straight here to do their shopping. According to one study, 56% of shoppers visit Amazon first when they have a product in mind. 51% will check with Amazon after they’ve found a product, whether it’s to read the reviews or compare prices
Knowing how powerful Amazon’s role is in the online shopping experience, it’s worth considering the platform for your own ecommerce business. To get started selling on Amazon, here are a few tips:

• Decide what you want to sell. More than 20 product categories are available
• Choose a selling plan from Amazon. Amazon offers two plans. One plan lets you sell an unlimited number of products for $39.99 a month. The other plan has no membership fees but charges $0.99 for each item sold.
• Register and start selling. Create an account on Seller Central and start selling your products.

For more detailed instructions on how to get set up on Amazon, visit services.amazon.com.
5. Artificial Intelligence
AI may sound like something for the future, but it’s here and being utilized by brands big and small. It makes our lives easier by automating processes, personalizing the user experience and reducing human error.
There are a number of ways that brands are using AI. Let’s look at a few examples.

• Digital advertising. AI can be used to create ads that are engaged, influential and segmented to the right audiences.
• Customer service. AI makes interactions more personalized, leading to increased customer satisfaction. Even when you can’t be there, things like chat bots and personal shop assistants can be.
• SEO. Voice search relies on artificial intelligence. Question words like “what” and “where” trigger voice queries. To optimize your content, you’ll need to use natural language.
• Social media. The biggest social platforms rely on AI to monitor trends and social patterns, categorize posts/tweets and improve news feeds. No wonder why your social media experience continues to grow more personalized!
• Web design. AI is even found in web design and development. It’s used to build websites, improve UX, personalize content and more

Even though we don’t know what the future holds, we do know that Google continues to prioritize the best websites based on speed, performance and credibility. Which trends do you think will be most important for your business in 2019?
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