Search Engine Optimisation in 2019

Like most things, SEO has moved on. This article highlights some of the key strategies and tactics that will help you dominate the page rankings and earn more revenue in 2019.

Understand Your Target Audience

Does your audience prefer text? Images? Video? Audio. Depending on the market sector you operate in, your potential clients will have different preferences. Even if your website is perfectly written and optimised, if it’s done for the wrong audience, it won’t grow the business.

Go Beyond Google Search

A decade ago we had a selection of search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN. Nowadays it’s mainly all Google. However you need to think beyond the basic Google search. More and more people are using voice search to find what they are looking for.

-By 2020 50% of all searches will be by voice search.

-two in five say that voice activated devices are essential to their lives.

-19% of people use Siri at least once per day.

-The age split using voice search on a daily basis is: 55% teens, 44% adults.

Your SEO needs to reflect this.

Here’s the Answer, What’s the Question!

There are 3.5 billion searches worldwide daily. 8% of Google searches are questions and this is increasing. Your content should answer these questions, leading the potential client to the stage of the customer journey. There are tools out there that will tell you the sorts of questions regularly asked about your market sector.

Long Tail Keywords

As people search, they refine by adding more keywords. This is nothing new but is just as important as competition becomes fiercer and fiercer. Longer keyword phrases have less competition with a higher conversion rate. So instead of “t-shirts” or “blue t-shirts”, with the answers given in the search results, people are being more specific by adding specific words like “mens medium Hollister t-shirts”.

Feature Snippets or Answer Boxes

Frequently when you search for something on Google you will see feature boxes on the results which can show images, videos ratings and more. Of course the more informative and appealing the result, the more likely are people to click on it. This can be achieved by “Schema Markup” which produces rich snippets of information seen on Google. To achieve this you need to contact your web developer or WordPress has plugins if you feel confident enough.

According to SearchMetrics, web pages with Schema Markup rank almost four places higher compared to web pages without Schema Markup.

Create Exceptional Content

Content is King! That’s a mantra we covered in one of our articles 10 years ago! It’s still as relevant today. Websites that provide exceptional depth in quality content coverage, literally soar in rankings. Sites that are weaker in their content will suffer in comparison. How do you achieve this with the human visitor? Four words: Entertain – Inspire – Teach – Convince.

Blogs are of course a great way of adding content to your website. As far as Google is concerned, you need to ensure your articles provide: Relevance – Insightfulness – Newsworthiness – Clarity – Professionalism. It used to be that 500-750 word articles were sufficient for a blog. Nowadays around 2,000 word articles are the optimum.

On-page optimisation is still important in 2019. Links to external sites are still important, but the biggest advance for most companies is ongoing on-page optimisation. On-page SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it tactic. Or, as I stated in that article of 10 years ago, “It’s a journey, not an event”!

WSI is a digital marketing agency based in Eastbourne, generating business for clients for over 14 years.