Search Engine Optimization is a necessary component in every Digital Marketing Strategy. Brands want to do a lot more when it comes to online advertising. They have realized that most of their audience and potential customers are present online and if they are to be tapped, consideration should be given to them too. Marketing in Digital space gives you much more than you expect. You get to know customer’s behavior, interest, and purchasing patterns. After comprehending all of this, you can create a successful marketing strategy. For doing this only, brands have a website and their primary job is to bring the audience to their website. This is where Search Engine Optimization fits right in.
Search Engine Optimization became popular more than two decades ago, a bit later than the world wide web came into being. But ever since, it has become a vital strategy in every campaign. The competition is higher and the search engines are loaded with different answers for one query. Higher the rank of the website in the search engine better will be the chance of opening that link. This does not happen naturally. You have to take certain steps in ranking higher on the pages and Search Engine Optimization helps you in doing that. Every year or so, there are some trends which take SEO to the next level and these trends keep on changing. Some of the trends that may be crucial in 2019 are explained below –
- Answer dominated search engine
People come to the search engines to find answers. They have questions that need to be answered and the best source is the Internet. “People Also Ask” become trended last year because of that. Suggestions of the related topics were given to see what people may be interested in and help them in the query. This year, Search Engine Optimization is going to be benefited by answering questions in as many devices as possible with accuracy. Targeting featured snippets with to the point information is going to be rewarded with high the ranking. Feed people with relevant information to bring them back and establish the brand.
- Voice search is on the rise
Don’t confuse voice search with a fad. It is not just a spark that is going to fade out soon. It is here to stay. Voice search has gained mileage because everyone is doing it. Search engines have also started to welcome voice search. Users are given all the options of doing voice search. According to Google CEO, Mr. Sundar Pichai, one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches. This will give you a rough idea of the importance of Voice Search. Optimization for the featured snippets is a good idea. Don’t take voice search for granted if you want Search Engine Optimization to become successful.
- Mobile first indexing
Desktops and laptops are passé, as far as Digital Marketing is concerned. It is the era of mobiles. Be it youngsters or older generation, you will see everyone with a mobile in their hands now. If you want your Search Engine Optimization strategy to be successful, then focus should on mobiles. Mobile-first indexing is the answer to this. Google has started to consider the website of your mobile device as the beginning point of the indexing. This is how rankings are determined. A lack of mobile-friendly experience can easily be seen on the rankings of the site.
- SERP taking over organic search
Which brand doesn’t love organic search? Everyone wants to have an organic audience in their user base. This is why some business owners have become irritated as Google is aggressively taking over some verticals that have in-SERP features. It was being done previously too but the impact on businesses is visible now only. Google has started to understand what people search for and want to give precise information only. None of this is going to stop. On the other hand, Google is only going to push this further. Sooner you understand this better will be your Search Engine Optimization.
- Video is the future star
Okay then. This point has to be certified as a universal truth now. Video has been wholly accepted by the online community as the most convenient medium to receive and post information across different channels. Different forms of videos such as Featured Videos, Video Carousels, and Suggested Clips are some examples that are famous in the category of Video. Allocate your resources in optimizing your video to be ranked and indexed on the search engine pages. Choosing the right video hosting platform, inserting a video transcript, engaging thumbnail image, embedding the video etc. are some of the tips.
- Marketing local business
Google asks a lot of questions regarding your business to help customers. Questions such as – What are the timings of this place? Is it disable friendly? Is there a lift service? etc. These sort of questions are put up by Google to help users get more information about the Local Businesses. This is only going to escalate in the future. It is doing its best to acquire accurate information about the local businesses so that it can provide correct information to the users.
- Monetize your website
Search Engine Optimization can be ably used to monetize your website. There are different ways of doing that. Have Adsense for your website. It is a whole process that starts generating strong content and then ranking higher on the search engines with SEO. This will lead to an increase in traffic. Good traffic to the website will give you an opportunity to place ads on the website and earn money. For e-commerce websites, selling the products will generate revenue.
- Target topics, not queries
2019 will be the year when you will notice the decline of search queries. Instead, people will focus more on the topics around the particular query. See it for yourself. Search anything on Google and instead of what you have typed, suggestions will be given around a particular topic. Search Engine Optimization will focus on clustering their search queries into topics to measure visibility.