SEO 2019 – Are You Up to Speed?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a continual merry-go-round of website owners second-guessing what search engines are really looking for when it comes to indexing and ranking a website and individual pages. SEO rarely stands still and just when you have got to grips with ‘best practice SEO’, it changes to something else. Do you have SEO 2019 sussed?

It’s not just about Google

For a long time – and arguably, it still is – Google was THE search engine that everyone tried to satisfy with SEO. Although Google has long kept its algorithms secret, the online world and masters attempted to second guess and translate every nugget that came out of Google HQ.

Whilst it is the biggest search engine, it isn’t the only one. Maybe 2019 will become the year that SEO’s focus shifted just a little from Google and onto others…?

Are you truly understanding your audience (and what they need and want)?

You know your audience (you think), you produce content that they want (you think) … you get hits and traffic to your website and so you assume this is proof that you are doing the right thing.

In many ways, you probably are but the way that your customers want to access information is changing. And of course, the devices we are using to access the web is changing too. Having content that is voice search ready is one thing to consider in 2019 for SEO purposes, as well as considering whether video should support some of your written content.

Creating EXCEPTIONAL content

Content is still king and there are a lot of words generated and published every day across website and blogs. Content for 2019 SEO purposes remains a priority but what does this mean?

It means exceptional content to which other websites want to link – backlinks. If your SEO strategy for 2019 is not pushing your content as worthy for others to reference with a link, the chances of Google finding it are slim.

E.A.T.

In the short term, E.A.T. is the direction Google, and other search engines such as Bing, are travelling in.

An acronym for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness, this SEO activity is about establishing yourself, and your team, as the go-to people for information that is stacked with value and credibility. In practice, it means looking at content contribution, who is looking to you for information and how to share the latest innovations and so on.

Technical SEO

As well as content and pushing your website into the online world, there is also technical SEO to consider. Increasingly, we are seeing hints that Google is paying close attention to page speed. What this means is, if your website is slow to load, it is clearly not optimised or responsive web design for the impatient user who gives a website three seconds or less to load in front of their eyes.

The team at Jollie Design can test website and loading speeds as part of a technical SEO audit. Send us an email and we’ll take a look!

Content should answer questions

Not all SEO tips are ‘new’ in the sense that this has been around for some time now but is hotly tipped to be a top SEO tactic for 2019. Linked with voice search too, producing content on webpages that clearly answers the questions you know customers want answering is a key SEO 2019 tactic. Are you using it?