Looking Ahead at the Best SEO Techniques for 2019

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever-changing field, and if you want to reap the massive benefits that come from free search engine traffic then you had better be looking ahead. The techniques that worked 3 years ago don’t work well now, while techniques from 5 or 10 years ago will get you banned today. In fact, despite not having any massive update last year, major changes still took place in the Google algorithm.

 

#1: Improve Your Schema
Many webmasters were surprised in 2018 in the months of February through May as their rankings inexplicably seemed to crater. Yet when checking out the stats in Google Search Console, there was no sign of a problem and no manual actions taken against the site. Many sites have struggled to bounce back, and many believe this is a multi-year process to recover from a technical SEO slap.

However, many webmasters figured out that Google started caring about schema, and often times sites that saw major drops had schema issues from old themes that had certain schema attached to the dates. If the site owner used the old SEO technique of not having dates on blog posts, an error occurred and Google dropped them in the rankings. Changing it to bring the date back was enough.

Schema isn’t going away, no matter how baffling it seems to so many tech-savvy individuals. Use the tools in Google console to make sure your schema is right and to take advantage of rich text setups where appropriate.

 

#2: Rise of “Super Content”
Google has always said that “Content is king,” but the truth is it took well over a decade to get to the point where they could back this up. Multiple SEO studies have showed that the longer the content, the more likely it is to rank in the top 10 and that there is a clear correlation between very large informative posts and the average ranking on page one especially in tough niches like Excel.

The content must meet several different factors, though. It must be original. The language used not only needs to be native speaker quality but also flow. The better the overall quality and readability the better. Great pictures, good formatting, and a lot of high quality original information from an expert perspective.

In addition these articles must be interesting, attention-grabbing, and if you include original research, case studies (where appropriate), and pictographs or infographs that can be shared and linked back to, all the better! What used to be considered “Linkbait” quality articles, the heavy-duty good blogging that would attract links from quality itself, is becoming the new base standard for SEO in 2019 and beyond.

Google has given massive SEO bonuses to sites that truly excel at consistently providing this type of content – don’t get left behind!

 

#3: Truly Optimize Your Photos
There are multiple ways to optimize a photograph, and it is amazing how often a webmaster only does one or two of these things. Photos are considered a major part of blogs, and it’s well known that photos optimized for size help your site load faster, which is a major part of SEO, and Google relies on alt tags to figure out what is in a photograph and include that information in their search results.

However there are other things to consider, too. The clarity and focus of the pictures matter. So does the title tag you want to affix to the photo. On top of that is a major potential boost to optimization that surprisingly few people take advantage of. The file name is often a series of letters, dashes, and numbers. Instead of having something like “screenshot14-13-7-2018.jpg” why not make it “keyword description.jpg” instead? While few studies have been done on how this affects things, early signs are very promising.

In summary, you need to check your photos for:
– Size (for loading speed)
– Quality & clarity of picture
– Photo file name
– Photo title tag
– Photo alt tag

#4: Building Your Brand Via Traffic Sources
Several SEO experts have shown that getting more traffic, especially from other sources, does get rewarded with an additional rankings boost. If you’ve been focusing solely on SEO, it’s time to look at expanding the brand via other sources like social media sites, Quora, YouTube, and others.

The reason is still up for debate, but many suggest this is due to traffic from other sources being a strong indicator of value and maybe even an indicator of authority. Whatever the reason, this has been shown to be a fairly noticeable boost. In other words, it’s not one of those little things that might provide a hint of traffic, but it’s an important new factor to keep in mind.

 

#5: Focus on Nice Influencers
Finally, if you want your SEO to thrive in 2019 look for niche influencers. Too many people think about podcasts and Instagram influencers purely in a paid marketing sort of way but when done right you can get some serious SEO juice. Most podcasts have websites as well, and will post a link to any site that a guest is promoting. Get on several podcasts in your niche or in related niches and that can lead to many legitimate backlinks, which are still very important.

In addition to this, fans who liked what you brought to the interview might mention you on their social media or their websites, resulting in possibly more interviews, more backlinks, and more of the same. As long as you bring a lot of quality, you are likely to get more positive benefits from these actions. The same works with influencers on other social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. The key is delivering quality and this will lead to more and more opportunities.

Expand your brand and your SEO efforts will prosper!

 

Related Information:

2019 Search Engine Optimization Techniques
How to Use Press Releases For SEO
7 SEO Basics Everyone Should Know
How SEO Can Help Your E-commerce Site
9 Search Engine Optimization Techniques That Really work
Digital Marketing & SEO (What’s the difference?)
SEO Vs Print Advertising
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