Search engine optimization (SEO) has become one of the greatest and most used online marketing tactics since it was invented. It has been used so much that Google, the most used search engine in the world has created stricter standards for its websites to get to the top of the keyword search. So if you want your website to be among the top Google searches in 2019, you will have to adapt and thrive in this ever-changing environment! What does Google care the most about, they care about user experience, a website that gives the users the most utility and enjoyment is going to be at the top of the list no doubt. All SEO aims to give the most informative and helpful answer to the question asked/searched, all the tactics used by SEO are aimed at reaching that goal.
The 2019 SEO Trends
You have two choices, you can either try to be best aligned with over 200 criteria that Google has for ranking websites which will take you a bunch of time, energy and resources and even then you will be competing with a big number of websites trying to do the same, or you could just try to be the most helpful website honestly with a few technical tweaks to help you along. Just like Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon said the goal of any successful business is to satisfy the customer to the fullest extent possible. Here are some of the most important measurements Google uses to determine the helpfulness of your website:
1. The bounce rate. This happens when someone enters your website and clicks your article and reads it for a couple of seconds and then switches to another and then another etc. Google sees this as a negative since if someone was truly being helped with the answer they needed they would stay long enough to get that answer. So make concise, quality content that addresses the issue on point.
2. The pogo stick. This is when after a search someone clicks on your website and then quickly exits back to another website that covers the same topic. This is an indication to Google that your website does not give the required answer to the user.
3. Reputation. Reputation in this sense has two meanings, one is your personal reputation as a quality writer on a website, human quality checkers are used to determining that you are competent to cover a certain topic, for example, if you have a website about architecture it would be ideal that you are an architect by profession or at least that someone on the websites team is. Two, your external reputation measured by how much other websites link your website as a quality and reliable source of helpful information.
4. Social media presence. It is not a critical factor by if you have a large social media following Google is going to notice and they will automatically presume that you are a legitimate source and put your website up on the search scale. That should be more than enough for you to survive and thrive in the SEO game in 2019. Just remember that your goal is not to meet technical criteria, your goal is to make to most helpful websites with the technical criteria in mind. A happy new year and good luck on the internet market in 2019!
Summary
As we all know the SEO is something that can only improve your article traffic and if done in the right way you will profit a lot out of it. Whether you are doing it or you hire an agency to do it – it is something worth investing time and money in!
