Does the SEO bug bite you? Search engine optimization is such a dynamic industry as changes take place on a regular basis in this industry and professionals need to optimize their strategies regularly to keep pace with the changes being brought about by Google. If you take a look at the financial statements of Google, you’ll find that they continue to spend billions of dollars on research to make the search results more user-friendly and more useful. If you are an SEO professional, here is what you need to keep your eye on for 2019.

SEO Trends for 2019

Google has already announced mobile first indexing which merely means that the mobile version is the first version. If you already haven’t paid attention to the mobile version of your website, do it right now otherwise you’re going to get left behind. The best way to make sure that your site is properly optimized for mobile users is to crawl it with the help of a mobile bot. There are several such software solutions available online that allow you to search for any issues.

There has been a lot of speculation that mentions of a brand are also taken into account by Google for rankings. Even though Google has made no such statement, some of the anecdotal evidence based on the research done by several professionals in the industry suggests that brand mentions are indeed a ranking factor. Therefore, you should also focus on getting as much brand mentions on a variety of platforms as possible to increase your rankings.

Google has always maintained that it intends to become an answer engine instead of remaining a search engine and inclusion of brand mentions in the algorithm is a step towards that. Google has also been trying to weave its algorithms away from its heavy dependence on links from other domains, and brand mentions can help them achieve that. So, try to focus on getting brand mentions and do not rely only on links from other strong domains.

Content has always been one of the most important factors though some spammers have been able to manipulate this factor by using various tactics. Thankfully, Google has invested a lot of money in making sure that poorly written content no longer ranks high on the search engine result pages. This trend is likely to become stronger. Therefore, the best way for you to get high rankings in 2019 and beyond that is to focus on the quality of your content. The length of the content also matters. So, try to write articles that include a lot of useful information for the end user.

The share of voice search has been rising consistently. Even though it has not overtaken the traditional method of searching but it will reach there, and you should be prepared once this finally happens. So, start preparing your website for voice search and get a leg up on your competition.

Overall, search engine optimization is likely to be as lively and as full of surprises in 2019 as it has been for the past several years. So, be prepared for some new surprises and keep your focus on the end user as is the best way to optimize your website.