The art of SEO is like martial arts but with Google and Bing’s algorithms as your opponents. Editor’s note: The following is from a guest author and does not represent the views of Tech Help Canada.
SEO ranking factors are quite dynamic and have adjusted much over the years. The SEO landscape has also changed with the advent of mobile-centric web search, machine learning algorithms, and other artificial intelligence technology. So SEO techniques that may have worked a decade or five years ago, or even last year, may not cut it today.
In 2019, the new methods that will help companies stand amidst the throat cut competition have already come up.
We pulled together some tips, tactics, and advice from experts to ensure you use the best SEO strategy for 2019.
Some are more or less similar to those seen in 2018, except for a few changes and tweaks.
Here are some great SEO techniques you can follow to build big traffic, and get past your competitors much faster.
1. Shift From Google to Other Popular Search Engines
While Google is the most popular search engine, there are other significant places people turn to like Amazon and YouTube.
What this means for you in 2019 is that you won’t rely solely on Google (and its ranking algorithms), but you’ll have other platforms high on your list of targets for more visibility of your brand, products, and content.
2. Regular Content Marketing Audits
Overhaul and update your posts to create authoritative, comprehensive, and evergreen content.
Find posts that are almost ranking high on your site and rewrite/update them.
Go through Google Analytics (or your tracking software) and use advanced filters to show phrases where your average rank is higher than 10. Such articles may need an overhaul.
You can add statistics, details, examples, images, and quotes from contributors, and more to make the piece better.
3. Tap The Potential of Video And Optimize for SEO
Video is increasingly becoming more prevalent. For example, nearly half of all internet users in 2018 watched at least one hour of online video each week.
Search engines consider the length of time users stick around plus the content quality as factors for ranking.
In this way, you can improve both metrics, in addition to improving the SEO on your videos.
The latter can be archieved by using descriptive and clear titles, optimizing the audio and video quality, ensuring you address the user’s pain points, queries, and choose the right video hosting platform.
4. Optimize Content For RankBrain
RankBrain is an algorithm introduced in 2015 by Google that is able to self-learn. It is involved in answering unexpected search queries, constituting 15 percent of search results.
The RankBrain AI has undergone several developments over time and Google is becoming more efficient at answering more complex questions.
Through the machine learning system, Google can more effectively decide how a page ranks in search results. Your keyword is broken down into word vectors so that more relevant results are fetched.
It is unique in that it focuses not just on your current query, but subsequent ones based on your first search.
Optimize your content for RankBrain to improve search rankings by focusing on satisfying user intent and using medium-tail keywords for better click-throughs.
RankBrain AI tracks user interaction on the search results, and then ranks web pages based on that data.
5. Prepare And Optimize Your Site For Voice Search
Voice search technology is gaining more hype, what with Amazon Echo, Apple’s Siri, and even Google’s Assistant, to name but a few.
In fact, ComScore’s predictions estimate that by 2020, over 50 percent of searches will be voice-based.
Unlike typical SEO strategies, voice search optimization involves focusing on more ‘natural’ phrasing. Let’s take a simple keyword like this, ‘best android smartphone 2019’, as an example.
That becomes something like, “what are the best android smartphones to buy in 2019?”, when voice search is used. This phrase is both more natural, and noticeably longer, so you’ll need to optimize for long-tail keywords as well.
Ultimately, your goal is to use keywords that are likely to be searched for, so you don’t have to jam cumbersome phrases in your content.
Use geo-targeted keywords to optimize for local searches since most voice searches are local. This is especially so for local businesses or those whose target audiences that are in a specific geographic area.
Aim to also rank for questions and answers because more than half of voice search users frame in these ways for basic online searches. Create high quality, voice-search optimized FAQs to increase your ranking chances.
6. Learn About Blockchain And It’s Potential Effects On SEO
Blockchain is a list of records that are preserved as-is and highly resistant to unauthorized modifications.
The exact effects of this technology on SEO are not precisely known yet. But the fact that using blockchain can change relationships between business owners, publishers and advertisers, means it’s worth learning more about.
Blockchain is secure and flexible for all parties so there’s a large chance that more people and companies will use it as it reduces click fraud.
This spells doom for bot visitors and enhances data verification.
7. Mobile Optimization And Indexing
More people are using their smartphones to surf the web because they’re small, portable, and accessible.
Google has already begun using a mobile-first approach to index web pages. That means it’s checking mobile content versions first before ranking a particular page on the SERPs.
SEO Techniques: Final Thoughts
In 2019, only those with the right SEO techniques will achieve more traffic and improved search rankings. Not all the strategies listed here may be easily implemented, but they’ll definitely affect your rankings.
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