New SEO trends reshape the industry every year. Not only should practitioners know about these updates, but also their clients. Brands and businesses, especially those don’t use SEO yet, need to be informed about these trends to see how it can help them gain new audiences and markets. Brands and businesses who already have an SEO strategy in place can talk to their SEO agency about the prevailing trends below.
Here are some of the most notable SEO trends for 2019 that everyone has to take note of, whether they’re an SEO specialist or business.
SEO Trends for this 2019
Brand mentions
Search engines, particularly Google, track brand mentions outside your official website and social media pages. That’s how they determine how much of you are an authority in an industry. These mentions come in the form of offsite backlinks. Mentions in backlinks such as blogs, vlogs, and just anywhere on social media will help your page rank.
Mobile-first indexing
Mentions are not enough. You may be popular, but your website may not be that user-friendly to convert audiences to new customers. If this is the case, then you need to fix your website asap. That’s because Google has slowly been rolling out mobile-first indexing for several years now. Mobile-first index refers to the process of prioritizing websites with mobile versions on search engine rankings. Simply put, websites that have layouts and functionality that are friendly to mobile phone users will appear first on Google’s search results page. Because of this, businesses and brands need to work on their websites to increase their chances to rank online.
Page speeds
Part of a website’s functionality is loading time speed. The loading time speed of a website’s desktop and mobile version also helps it rank higher.
Heightened Security
As of July 2018, Google has ruled all websites with “HTTP” at the beginning of its address as not secure, and those with “HTTPS” as secure. This is part of the European Union’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2019. Because of this rule, search engines generally favor websites that offer data security.
Native search engines
Findings show that users go straight to online marketplaces such as Amazon to look for what they need. This goes to show that native search engines are set to gain more power in the coming years. Because of that kind of user behavior, merchant members of online marketplaces should seek SEO services in Singapore to help them optimize their page. The same rings true for YouTube. Most viewers go straight to the website in order to look for videos they want to watch. Newbie vloggers and brands with YouTube channels should consider hiring a Singapore SEO company if they want to rank.
Voice-powered searches
According to E-Marketer, 35% of millennials use voice assistants for searches. OC&C Strategic Consultants is expecting the number of smart speaker users to jump to 55% in 2022 from 16% in 2017. Brands and businesses need to optimize their pages to recognize keywords from voice searches and respond to them.