Link to main Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Web page
Lilach Bullock, Contributor to the Forbes Magazine Small Business Blog, wrote a very interesting post earlier this year about what she sees as the biggest SEO trends affecting search in 2019.
I’m not going to quote her post verbatim here (you can read her entire article yourself via the link at the bottom of this post). What I am going to do is hit the highlights in that article and add a bit of my own insight on each.
Voice Search
The key points: “By 2020, the experts believe that 50% of all searches will be voice searches and Google prefers short answers to voice search queries: the typical result is about 29 words on average.”
Tip: If you haven’t done so already, download the Google app to your smartphone, then click on the little microphone next to the search box and say your most important keyword phrase.
If you don’t see your Web site page on the first page of Google search results, scroll to the bottom of the search page, review the search phrases Google thinks are most related to your initial search phrase and think about adding some/all of those additional keywords to your Web page.
Mobile-first Indexing Is Here To Stay
The key point: Your Web site MUST be responsive AND fast!
Responsive (“mobile-friendly”) design: Test your Web site’s responsiveness using the Google Mobile-Friendly Test – here’s a link:
Fast: Type your home page URL into this Google test site and see how fast Google thinks your Web site is:
Make Your Site Fast on all Devices
Tip: To make your site faster immediately, use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Cloudflare
Blockchain Technology Impact on SEO and SEM
The key point: Blockchains are coming to search engine advertising and all search engine advertisers better stay informed about how search engines like Google are implementing them.
How will this help/affect the average small Web site owner? If you do any search engine advertising, it’s going to help you by cutting down the number of non-human entities (i.e. bots) clicking on your ad and costing you money.
Tip: Create a Google Alert that listens for any chatter about the use of blockchains by Google. Make whatever changes Google advises their advertisers to make to their sites in order to optimize the use of blockchains on their sites.
Amazon Search Optimization
The key point: Research firm Kenshoo found that 72% of shoppers in the US and Europe now use Amazon to find products. They also found that 56% of consumers actually search on Amazon first before they go looking at other sites plus they find everything they need that they would otherwise need Google for: product reviews, similar product suggestions, and all kinds of other products that you might be interested in.
“In other words, they really don’t need another search engine to find what they need or want to buy, as well as do some proper research before making a purchasing decision.”
James Thomson, a partner at BuyBox Experts, stated: “Because more than half of all U.S. online consumers start their search on Amazon.com, every brand must have a branding and content strategy on the Amazon channel in order to have any consideration with the largest audience of online shoppers.”
The BuyBox takeaway: “You know more about your branding than anyone else, so make sure you have consistent, accurate branding across as many online and offline channels. Don’t let random resellers control your branding.”
=====================
Read the entire Forbes article here: