Changes are always happening in the SEO world. Search engines tirelessly tweak their algorithms to ensure that they deliver the best results to their users’ queries. This is why it is imperative that you stay abreast with the latest SEO trends if you want your website to continue dominating SERPs. Your site needs to keep up with these changes or it becomes irrelevant.

So, what are the important SEO trends in 2019? What strategies and techniques do you need to incorporate in your action plan to ensure that your website continues to be profitable?

User Intent

Optimising for user intent is, perhaps, the most important SEO trend of 2019. In fact, the prediction is that websites that have seamlessly integrated intent optimisation into their overall SEO strategy are going to dominate SERPs soon.

Suffice it to say, it is no longer about having web pages peppered with popular keywords. The battle is now about having web pages that have accurate and useful content. It is not enough that the page matches the keyword query; its content should provide a comprehensive answer to searcher’s questions. This is the key to ranking high in SERPs and finding searchers who could be converted into customers.

In order to do this, you need to know your audience. No matter how well written your content is, it is not going to increase your profit if it is targeting the wrong people. More importantly, you need to understand your audience. When they type a certain keyword, what do they expect to find? What will convince them to stay on your website and eventually purchase your product or service?

Basically, this 2019, when you do your keyword research and build your content, it is essential that you keep your audience in mind. Think like them! Also, don’t just stop at providing answers to their initial query. Make sure that you have responses to any follow-up questions they may have.

Page Speed

A site’s loading speed has always been important for search engine companies, especially Google. It is so important that in 2010 Google made it a ranking factor for desktop searches. In July last year, the search engine giant showed us once again how much it valued fast loading sites when it launched Speed Update – page speed as ranking factor for mobile search results.

What’s with the obsession about page speed? Well, all these changes are meant to improve user experience. This is highly important since more and more people are using mobile devices when making queries.

When Speed Update was released, Google made it clear that only a small percentage of queries will be affected. To be more specific, only sites that provide the slowest UX experience are going to get penalised.

Furthermore, the renowned tech company reiterated that relevant and compelling content trumps page speed. So, even if a mobile site takes too long to load, if it has great content, then it may still rank high. True enough, several reports supported this claim. Optimised sites that were tagged as slow still ranked well on SERPs.

Yet, despite these findings, you cannot sit and do nothing about your mobile site’s page speed. You’d never know when Google would be releasing more speed metrics. In addition, users do not appreciate slow websites. So, unless you want to lose potential customers, make sure your pages satisfy the recommended page load speed.

Mobile-First Indexing

In 2017, Google started its mobile-first indexing project. Last year, it was fully rolled out – the migration of sites to mobile-first index began. It is expected that the effect of this change will start to be seen this year. So, if your site isn’t responsive or does not have a mobile-friendly version, you need to act quickly!

Some contend that, since mobile-first does not mean mobile-only, there is no need to have a responsive website. Do not fall for this argument! You risk losing a lot of traffic and money when you do not have a mobile-friendly design. Last year, over 52% of traffic came from mobile devices.

Remember, even if the desktop version of your content ranks well on SERPs, if the searcher is using his/her phone, he/she might not view it. This is because most desktop versions of content do not load properly or quickly on mobile devices. Hence, you need a responsive design or your website’s traffic is going to plummet and consequently, your revenues!

Need help incorporating these 2019 SEO trends into your online marketing strategy? Our SEO specialists can provide the support you need to keep your websites on top of SERPs this year! Call us today at 019609023.

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