Below are the Top 10 SEO trends to get ready for in 2019 to ensure your website is ranking high and getting found by your target audiences. If it's all a bit overwhelming - that's ok. Just reach out here and we'll be happy to help!
More often than not, people turn to Google first when looking for products or services. Pretty much everyone is connected 24/7 to the Internet and as mobile usage continues to soar so do local searches.
Local SEO is an essential piece of the SEO puzzle. It helps you promote your business to a specific, relevant audience—the very people who are most likely to turn into actual customers. According to Joanna Kramer. Community Writer for Wix, follow these easy steps and you’ll be well on your way to showing up in local search results and seeing see your traffic—both online and in-person—increase.
1. Mobile Optimized Sites (Mobile First Index) - loading time is key:
TO DO:
EASY DATA ENTRY - forms - minimize the required entry fields; opinions- provide a choice of icons or emojis they can click instead of asking them to type it.
SEARCH BAR for quick actions and results
READABILITY - size/style of fonts and color contrast and ample spacing
Fantastic IMAGES that are OPTMIZED for mobile screen sizes can boost the design and user experience significantly
Include a MOBILE ACTION BAR
2. FEATURED SNIPPETS LOOK - Google uses them to answer a user’s question in the fastest way possible, sidestepping the need for a searcher to click on an additional link to get their desired information. The goal, then, is showing Google that your page is a perfect match for that coveted spot.
TO DO:
Adjust keywords to reflect how someone would speak a question/search vs write it
Find the exact question words that might introduce a search. For this, you can use a tool like Answer the Public.
Use long tail keywords (highly descriptive search phrases of at least three words)
Spin these long tail keywords into questions people would ask dear friends Alexa, Siri, et al.
Formulate page written content to fit - 40-60 word description of answer
Make each item on the list an H2 or H3 subheader.
Example: Iif ‘How do I make pesto sauce?’ is the question you want to compete for, make the answer clear in that stage of the recipe by creating an H2 heading that reads: ‘How to Make Pesto Sauce in 5 Minutes.’ Then follow it with clearly outlined numbered steps below.
3. VIDEO CAROUSELS - visual material already known to be more engaging than written content
TO DO:
Define good keywords
Formulating keywords into likely questions a curious mind might pose to Google’s search box
Structure your video’s title and description to reflect what you’ve found out.
Hint: ‘How To’ videos have had a lot of success making it on these carousels
A team or company presentation video - Also known as the “About us video” or the “Company culture video,” it portrays your loved ones (yes, your team!) in a vivid and engaging way.
A product demonstration video - In essence, it’s a tutorial about your product. The video should explain what it is and what it’s worth, if you’re aiming for new clients. You can also target experimented users, and tell them about a new or specific function. In both cases, showing how efficient, clever and easy-to-use your product can only improve your conversion rates. Actually, visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product online after watching a video. But that’s not the only advantage. A product video is far less tedious to read (and to write) than a long text on the “what,” the “why” and the “how” of your offer.
Facebook Live. You can go for a tour of your offices, a question/answer session, sneak peeks of your next product or even an unlikely ice-melting session
VLOG- Just like a regular blog article, you’ll want to prove your knowledge in your field, analyze the trends of your market and give valuable tips to your community – while promoting your offer along the way. The amazing thing with blog videos is that you don’t have to follow a specific format. Most of the time, “vloggers” (or video bloggers) film themselves in a closed room, using their phone or computer’s camera. If you have the skills and resources, you can also do some editing and add animations, texts, music and more. But remember: the most important thing here is what you have to say, not how you present it. Need some inspiration? Look how millennials (and proud Wix users) Brit & Bren spread their tips with beautifully crafted vlogs. As for the length, the same principle applies: flexibility. A blog video shouldn’t be less than 2 minutes; if it’s above 10 minutes, you can plan for even your hardcore fans to get bored.
4. BACKLINKING (BRAND REPUTATION) - when external sites link to yours, which is like Google speak for ‘voting’ for your site. The more link votes you get, the more legit your web presence seems
TO DO:
Maintain active Social Media presenece - Engage with clients who ask questions on your social channels, and show the world not only that you exist, but that you’re actively involved in your field.
Post in facebook forums / Discussion boards
Reach out to social media influencers who you think would rep your brand well
Use hashtags:
Content: #Affordablewebdesign, #smallbusinessmarketing #SEO, , #Photography or #SMB.
Trending: #holidayfun, #funny
Brand-Specific: #Creativeresourcegroup #wixwebsites
5. QUALITY CONTENT - In order to be ranking high, it’s not just about quantity anymore. Quality is the new buzzword in the content game. E-A-T STANDARDS
EXPERITSE
AUTHORITATIVENESS
TRUSTWORTHINESS
TO DO:
Offering web visitors fascinating blog posts, thorough knowledge bases, and engaging video materials
Offer links to other pages on your websites
6. WEBSITE SECURITY - Chrome users - message or a lock icon will pop up in the left hand corner of the URL bar? And, super alarmingly, sometimes this corner starts frantically waving a red flag. “Not Secure.
These messages are a result of a July 2018 Google security update, whose implementation means non-HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) sites now load with that warning, plus are seen less favorably in Google’s ranking preferences.
HTTP: sites are vulnerable to attacks and breaches and can create a poor user experience on your page, thereby raising the bounce rates
TO DO:
HTTPS ((Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) - enable HTTPS on your website
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) - aims to protect the fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data of European Union (EU) citizens.
you must let your site visitors know how you collect, store, and use their data, in a clear and transparent way. In addition, you must comply with your site visitors' requests to receive a copy of their data that is processed on your site.
Create a PRIVACY POLICY
Use Wix tools to access and delete your site visitors' data
In accordance with the GDPR, site visitors have the right to access their data or "be forgotten" (to be permanently deleted from your databases). Wix has developed the two main tools to assist you in becoming GDPR compliant:
Right to access
Right to be forgotten
7. RANKBRAIN - AI (artificial intelligence) technology that Google deploys to process and organize its multitudes of search results. The system isn’t new. Launched in 2015, it’s been around for a while. But the factors it’s understood to prioritize are dwell time and CTRs (click-through-rates)
TO DO:
Write a superb title tag and description that makes Google’s heart sing
Make sure the right keywords are there to get it found, and then that your phrasing is enticing enough to get searchers excited about selecting your page
Use Google Analytics to track your numbers, and measure the impact design tweaks you make might on the average user’s browsing time.
8. LSI KEYWORDS (Latent Semantic Indexing) - contextually-related words. Together with your main keywords, they form nice little word families that give Google important context for assessing and organizing your page within its SERPs.
TO DO:
Take your target keywords and do a simple Google search.
Scan the page for any words that appear bolded in the listings or in the suggested queries under the ‘Related Searches’ box at the bottom of the page. This is Google serving you up a generous helping of LSIs.
Use a free tool like LSIGraph to round out your list of context ‘cousins.’
Add LSI's to:
SEO title
SEO Description
heading tags
URL
In content
Remember, these don’t fully replace your main keywords. Rather, they give you alternate ways to phrase your material, giving your page a more natural feel and helping Google understand what you’re all about so they can recommend you to the most suitable searchers.
9. OPTIMIZE FOR VOICE SEARCH
TO DO:
Organize content in ways that prove to search engines that your business is the one with the answers. One good SEO practice for voice searches is slipping those probable questions into the H1, H2 or H3 headers on a FAQ page, or forming blog post titles around them.
10. AMAZON / YOUBTUBE SEARCH
TO DO - AMAZON:
A Kenshoo survey of consumers showed that 56% usually head straight to Amazon before looking elsewhere
eCommerce owners everywhere to take note of. Having a presence on Amazon is a must for making sure your beautiful wares are found.
TO DO - YOUTUBE - by 2021, online video is expected to account for 80% of all online traffic. You will definitely want to get your brand in on that predicted audience growth.
Writing out a question that is likely to get searched as an FAQ page or blog post header can be a great trigger for Google to produce your content as a result.
Answering one of those FAQ questions on your page with a video offering a tutorial for a common question your customers have regarding your product? Or swapping out that numbered list of how to make pesto sauce with a video showing you performing all of the steps. Or both?! Whatever you would have previously written as the header text simply becomes the title of your new video, all set to be uploaded to your business YouTube channel.
NO WORRIES! If any (or all) of this is overwhelming - we're here to help.
Just let us know what you need! Or please check out our What to Look for When Hiring a Web Designer article for great questions to consider before you take the plunge!