Every year, SEO or Search Engine Optimization trend change, where it may at times be difficult to keep up with, as its sole purpose is to rank relevant pages to answer the users search intent. Here are 5 important SEO trends of 2019 that you need to know about.

Page Speed

In July 2018, Google started rolling out the “Speed Update”. This update would only impact a small percentage of queries and only impact web pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users”. Google also went on saying the update will reduce the rankings of very slow mobile pages in the search results.

This year, page speed is a crucial point for Google to rank your website. If your page speed is slow, the chances of Google ranking your site for search queries will be very low. Even if your page does rank, a user would leave the page if the site took long to load.

Google PageSpeed is a tool where you can test your page speed. The scores are in the range of 0–100 where a score 85 or above means that your page speed is fast. The ideal page speed should be 3 seconds. Longer than this and 50% of users have already left the page.

Mobile Site

In March 2018, Google started rolling out the “Mobile-first Indexing”. Mobile devices now account for nearly 60% of all traffic and that number is only going to grow. Having a mobile-friendly website is a critical part of your online presence, this has become mandatory by Google to rank your site in the search results. Building better mobile websites and creating better user experiences for visitors using mobile devices is imperative. In mobile-first indexing, Google indexes your mobile site first.

Google Mobile-Friendly is a tool where you can test if your page is mobile friendly. The test results include a screenshot of how the page looks to Google on a mobile device, as well as a list of any mobile usability problems that it finds. If you do not have a mobile site, Google will index the desktop version as well, but it will affect your rankings because you haven’t optimized for a mobile version. A user would leave your page and prefer to visit a page that fits in the screen of their phone.

Structured Data

Structured data has been around for years. Structured data is the foundation for machines that helps Google understand your content better. It is an important signal if you want your site to be visible within search features. It was limited, up to a few years ago, but now you can find it for just about anything, including recipes, products, local businesses, hotels, and restaurants.

Don’t ignore structured data. The value of structured data is not only to get rich results from Google, but it’s also a quality of traffic measure, where it can improve organic traffic or generate conversions. Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to help develop, test, and modify your structured markup.

E-A-T

In August 2018, Google confirmed the release of a broad core algorithm update. Overall this meant that better content resulted in higher rankings. E-A-T, or “expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness” is a term taken from Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines. Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are used by humans to assign quality scores to search results for specified queries. E-A-T is applied specifically to YMYL (Your Money or Your Life – Types of pages [that] could potentially impact the future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety of users) websites, that is, to sites that offer medical or financial advice.

In short, E-A-T is another step by Google toward providing searchers with the most relevant and trustworthy results. While your site may not be medical or financial related, it does not mean that you should not worry about it. Boosting your E-A-T score will, in general, improve your chances of ranking well in the search results. Create a detailed “about” page that shows who is responsible for the information on your website. Provide an excellent customer experience and respond to negative reviews online. Be open and honest about your processes and provide expert advice to your clients whenever you get the chance.

Voice search

In June 2011, Google announced it would start to roll out voice search. Since 2015 we have been hearing this is the year of Voice. While we do know it’s coming, it certainly picked up some steam in 2018. Voice search has lately started to become the trend for every app and site. Voice search is important as we can start to see a shift from specific results to answers.

With voice search devices like Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant gaining popularity, it can be predicted that this technology will have much greater prospects soon. Before optimizing your content to cater to voice search queries, make sure that your website is compatible for mobile. Aim for implementing structured data, which can help your pages appear in featured snippets and, consequently, in voice search results. Optimize local search results by making sure you’ve added all the necessary information, such as brand name, address, opening hours, etc.

Conclusion

We have seen many changes happening in the digital world right now, including the world of search engine optimization. It might not be clear what the future will bring exactly, but with these tips, you can ensure your website provides quality content and adheres to Google’s requirements to remain relevant, answering users search queries.

Need help with how these trends can affect your website? Find out how our SEO Services can help your website to drive traffic to your small business.