As 2018 starts to come to an end, we can reflect on what has happened and the changes in the world of SEO throughout the year. However, now is a time to prepare!
You need to make sure that you’re ready to take 2019 by force. 2018 SEO methods won’t help you now as we move into the unexplored abyss that is New Year’s Google Algo updates.
What will be changing?
It can’t be said for certain what SEO changes Google will present us with, in 2019, but we can have a guess as to what Google will want to promote more of next year.
Recently there has been a big push for Page Speed to be as optimal as possible. Google seems to want to give User Experience as much priority as possible. Search Engine Land recently released an article talking about what will be big factors in 2019; Page Speed, Mobile-first indexing, Amazon Search, GDPR & Brand recognition.
We are going to be discussing these factors, and how we think these SEO changes could affect your rankings and your overall SEO campaign in 2019.
Page Speed
Page speed has been on Google’s radar for some time now but it’s suggested that in 2019 it will have an even bigger impact on search rankings. If you’ve already optimised your website speed then hopefully you won’t be affected but if not keep reading.
Optimal Page speed is around 2-3 seconds on any given page, any longer than that are you could find that your bounce rate increases because user don’t like having to wait and will make the decision to find the information/product elsewhere.
Mobile first indexing
Mobile-First Indexing is basically when Google crawls the mobile version of your website before it looks at the desktop version. This will help Google determine whether or not to give you a quick ranking boost.
If your website is responsive to mobile and table then you shouldn’t have any issues but if not then you could see some drops in rankings as SEO changes in 2019.
Amazon Search
Voiced search will continue to play a big part in SEO through 2019. As Smart speakers like Amazons Alexa and Google’s Home Hub become even more popular more people will be using them to search.
Amazon search is when people go to the Amazon website and search for products. The Amazon Alexa, being the most common of the smart speakers, will use Amazon search to find products before using Google. This means you will need to appear for on amazon search as well as Google so that your products are recommended first of all.
You can learn more about this from our other article about how voice search will change SEO, read here.
Brand Recognition
Recent data indicates that Google is going to be focusing on building a branded search. Using your brand and your brand name as a guide to help rank your website amongst the rest of the competition.
Google will use a number of factors to establish if your brand is getting recognised or not, Social mentions, website mentions, search terms and advertising will all play a part in helping Google see that your brand is one to be promoted to users.
Conclusion
These SEO changes are going to be mixing up the way that you run your campaigns. There likely isn’t too much of a difference to what you’re already doing, but make sure that you are sure to introduce these new factors or you might see some drops in positions and traffic.
If you’re not too sure what SEO is, you can learn more about it here with some of our other articles explaining a little more about it, or if you know about SEO but don’t have the time to implement it, get in touch, and we’ll see how we can help you!
