With small businesses devoting an average of $75,000 a year on digital marketing, the marketing world is becoming less tangible and more expensive. If you don’t know what kind of ROI you’re getting, you might not know if SEO is worth the investment.
Thankfully the hottest SEO trends 2019 cost you little to nothing for implementation.
Search engines rank websites by more than just keywords like they did 10 or 15 years ago. Search engines send web crawlers out to index every site on the internet to rank them for site speed, mobile optimization, the number of reputable backlinks and much more.
If you pay attention to which SEO trends are most important, you can end up in those coveted first few spots in search results.
If you’re looking to improve your marketing strategy without tearing through your budget, follow these 10 SEO trends 2019.
1. Voice Search
With the massive popularity of Apple’s Siri, Google Home, and Amazon’s Alexa interface, 20% of all mobile searches are now voice searches. Paying attention to how people phrase questions when they ask these interfaces a question will optimize your keywords and SEO phrasing.
As SEO trends 2019 are destined to follow the direction of where users are, you have to optimize for voice searches. Voice search queries are typically longer than your average search keywords. Add phrases on your site and in your posts that ask and answer questions in a direct way.
The voice search is only going to grow with Amazon’s smart devices booming and more IoT devices becoming integrated into home life. Soon enough, most appliances will be able to have a voice search and activation component.
If they’re networked, they’ll be able to send and receive data and could even serve potential customers your products and services.
Pro-Tip: Add FAQ sections throughout your site and to blog posts. Use these sections to answer commonly asked questions.
2. Back To Blogging
Blogging never really went away, but it seemed like it was relegated to another part of the internet for a few years. As the internet has developed, it’s clear that two of the most important features of the web is to search for products and to answer questions. If you can serve your potential customers and clients by giving them important information, you can use your blog to become a trusted resource and build your reputation.
One of the biggest emerging SEO trends is building a brand reputation. The best way to do that is to have your clients and potential clients tuned into what your products and services offer.
If you work in the legal field, you can offer advice that helps clients make decisions and leads them to your doorstep. If you’re in the culinary industry, you can offer some recipes that can be made using your products.
Through these elements, you build a rapport with your audience and gain their trust. Once they realize what a good resource you are for information, they’ll repost and share your blog posts. Once people start seeing your name everywhere, you’ll begin to build a reputation for your brand and you’ll be one of the big players in your industry in no time.
3. Video Will Rule
In the next few years, video traffic is set to comprise over 80% of all traffic on the internet. If you’re creating new content, it’s got to include video. Video gets more views for longer periods of time than images or even images with text.
Go one step further and add subtitles to your videos. Keep them under a minute and you’ll get a lot of views on social media.
The bonus of your subtitles is that they’re also searchable by search engines. Use your keywords plenty of times in your scripts and you’ll find that your videos show up as often as your other pages. Search engines will give you that extra bump because they know that users love video content.
No matter what you’re doing, make sure you’ve got a video camera running.
4. Go Mobile
Mobile internet browsing has firmly surpassed desktop usage. That means more of your potential clients and customers will be on mobile devices when they find you for the first time or look up something they need. Your site needs to be mobile optimized.
The bonus of having a mobile optimized site is that your content will load faster, your menus will be simpler, and your images will be optimized. That increased speed will be an extra bonus in your search engine ranking.
SEO trends show that search engines love to give their users a fast loading website.
If you’re going through a redesign or building a new site, make sure your development team is focusing on a mobile-first strategy. Mobile to desktop translation is easy. It’s much more difficult to go in the other direction.
5. Local SEO Will Build Your Base
Search engines love to give their users localized content. Using cookies, GPS data, and account information, they are able to give users content that seems most relevant to them.
When you search “pizza” in a search engine, you now get the closest pizza places to where you’re searching from. That’s because data has shown that users want to find local businesses more often than, say, the dictionary definition of pizza.
Use local terms like landmarks, neighborhoods, and your city name as often as is organically possible in your content. This will let search engines know what area you’re working from and where users can find you. They will connect you with local users and give your site top priority.
Using SEO trends like this one, you’ll also reassure users that they’re connecting with a business that they might be familiar with. They might not know the exact name of your office or your shop, but if they get it close enough and have the GPS data to back it up, they’ll be shopping with you.
6. Claim Your Business Listings
One of the most important SEO trends comes down to the necessity of being in business listings. In the absence of white or yellow pages, current businesses must be listed on Google My Business, Yelp, Angie’s List and whatever is relevant to their industry.
Make sure that you’ve claimed all of the listings across major directories. Given 84% of people trust reviews as much as their own friends, your reputation online matters.
There could be false information about your location, your hours, or your products listed in reviews. That’s because if false information gets into one major directory, other directories will pay to import all that data into their own.
Until someone with the authority to speak for the company can dispute that information, it stands as gospel.
Make sure your customers see the best version of your business. Claim listings, upload photos, and get your best clients to post reviews about your business. Good reviews might not bring in business, but they can buffer against negative ones.
Negative reviews are memorable and can keep clients and customers away if they’re still trying to decide whether or not they want to work with you.
7. Use More VR and AR
The popularity of Pokemon Go in recent years was unparalleled and a complete game changer for the world of mobile devices. Instead of relying on virtual reality or a completely digital interface, Pokemon Go’s augmented reality gave advertisers new ideas for SEO trends.
As the advertising space expands and more users and companies will be taking advantage of AR, there are new opportunities for promoting business. You can use hyperlocal tagging, offer localized promotions, and integrate into app space.
The details of how this will go down are still to be determined. Stay tuned to this trend as once advertisers figure out how to make a profit, other companies will start fighting for space.
8. Guest Post As Often As Possible
If you’re running a successful blog, see if you can write for another major player in your industry. Having your name attached to a well-known brand or having a well-known blogger writing for your site can multiply your audience and your impact.
You can increase your brand reputation, another major SEO factor, while also reaching a new audience through your guest or host.
Connect with other people in your industry whose products and services complement your own. Ask to write for them and if they’d like to write for you. If you’ve built up a strong enough reputation, it should be an easy sell.
Most people love the opportunity to talk about themselves or what they have to offer.
SEO Trends 2019 Change Daily
While these SEO trends are optimized for the current state of search engines, they may not be optimized for those to come. Algorithms and strategies change by the day.
Watch what your competitors are doing and pay attention to the world of SEO and you should be able to stay ahead of the curve.