The Biggest SEO Trends of 2019
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The Biggest SEO Trends of 2019

2019 has been a crucial year for SEO due to numerous reasons.

With AI, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality driving the digital marketing landscape, it’s time we take charge before things get a bit overwhelming. As SEO professionals, we need to dominate the SERPs, generate more revenue and stay ahead of the curve.

Here are the top 10 SEO trends to watch out in 2019:

Understand User Intent and Audience

What does your targeted audience like? Texts, images or videos?

Answering this is all the more important this year, according to the experts. You need to understand what your audience is expecting from you and deliver them the solution in the easiest way possible.

Look Beyond Google Search Engine

 In 2019, we expect a steady rise of Amazon and Apple search engines. No more would it be enough to optimize Google; you have to take into account other search engines as well. You need to look beyond the websites, optimize for devices and drive engagement to your products, said Cindy Krum, CEO of MobileMoxie.

Use Structured Data As Much As Possible

Use Structured Data As Much As Possible

As AI is becoming the power tool for Google, the use of structured data is rapidly increasing simultaneously. JP Sherman, enterprise search expert at Red Hat shared that you should start comprehending structured data, active and passive search behaviors, and understanding how they adhere to behaviors that depict intent. Establishing contextual relationships between behaviors and topics is the key.

Content Is Still King

2018’s Google algorithm updates revealed that the search engine giant is acutely focusing on churning out high-quality content and rewarding sites that guarantee best in-depth content experiences. Last year, websites that offered incredible depth in quality content soared in page rankings while those that were weaker in content depth suffered.

E-A-T

Establish and enhance your expertise, authority and trustworthiness – collectively known as EAT- according to Google’s search quality rating guidelines.

“Although the E-A-T guidelines are written for Google’s algorithm raters, rather than Google’s algorithm itself, it helps us to understand where Google is heading in the short term,” said Dixon Jones, founder of DHJ Ventures. “I think this will help SEOs start to understand that ‘quality’ comes with context. You cannot rank so easily writing authoritative content unless you are already an authority on a given subject.”

Technical SEO

Day by day, websites are becoming more complex. Investment in technical SEO is now an absolute necessity. Corporate houses, who want to reap maximum benefit has to consider the glorious aspects of technical SEO. Speed, JavaScript and Progressive Web Apps are few technical areas in focus.

Focus on On-page Optimization

On-page SEO tactics continue fetching desirable results. Companies, big and small, are still witnessing incredible results from on-page optimization. It is great for driving traffic and increasing your online search presence.

2019: Year for Voice Search

2019: Year for Voice Search

Voice optimization is the strategy of the year. Last year, we saw the advent of voice search and how it gained immense attention. It is expected to become more popular and important in 2019. Michael Bonfils, MD of SEM International added that voice search is deemed to be a game-changer for multilingual and MNC websites shortly.

Impact of Machine Learning is Likely to Double

Machine learning is being adopted to curate unique content for SEO. AI coupled with data analysis and reporting is now the new imperative to decode failures and successes. Expect layout changes and a swooshing drive to address intents instead of questions.

Optimize for Feature Snippets and Google SERP Features

“Answer boxes, recipes, the knowledge graph, carousels, and who-knows-what-else will take an even bigger bite out of organic traffic,” pointed out Ian Lurie, CEO and founder of Portent. “That makes SEO even more important because exposure is as much about visibility in the SERPs as it is about clicks.”

As end notes, we’ve just scratched the surface till now. For more interesting updates on SEO trends and insights, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

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In the Battle of Keywords, Short Tail or Long Tail?
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In the Battle of Keywords, Short Tail or Long Tail?

Keywords are the building blocks of Search Engine Optimization. The success and the failure of an SEO strategy are single-handedly decided by them.

Broadly speaking, keywords are of two types: Short tail and Long tail keywords. Now, let’s have a quick glimpse of what they are.

Short Tail Keywords

These are the smallest combination of words which might not make complete sense but apparently, makes some sense when typed on the internet. Most of the times short tail keywords are of 3 words or less.

They are not very specific but target a wide audience. For instance: “best smartphones”, “Vatican tour online”, “Chinese food delivery”, “temples” and so on. These keywords are basically the head terms out of the nascent idea, which first strikes our mind.

Vatican tours online

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords can be defined as the mature version of the short-tail keywords. They are usually more than 3 words and make sense. Furthermore, they have specifications included which are tweaked according to the wants of the users. 

They are very specific and do not target a wide audience but the right audience. For example, “best psychedelic rock songs by Pink Floyd”, “TMT steel bars production in India”, “guitar tapping lesson by Guthrie Govan”, “credit risk modelling certification” and the likes.

credit risk modelling certification

Which one to go for? A Comparative Analysis

Speculations are always high when it comes to short-tail and long-tail keywords, with each having their own share of advantages and disadvantages. So, let’s dig deep into them:

Volume of Traffic

If you want to increase the volume of the searches, tirelessly, then you should desert your long-tail keywords and instead go for their shorter versions. So, opt for the short tail keywords and rank them first to get your website running with a good amount of organic traffic.

Thus, the short-tail keywords win it comfortably when it comes to Traffic Volume.

Competition

You would have to involve a large team or else you would need a while to rank your short tail keywords for sure. This is because the competition for the short tail keywords is extremely high.

This is quite obvious because the search volume for these keywords generally remains pretty high in contradiction to the long-tail keywords, which are easier to rank, with less competition and a low search volume.

Long-tail keywords score big in terms of Competition.

Focus

When it comes to short-tail keywords, as they are less specific, you would see irrelevant results popping up annoying you all the time. But, as far as the long-tail keywords are concerned, they are very much specific and adequately filtered to provide you with the results you want.

Thus, the long-tail keywords steal it from the short-tail keywords when Focus is concerned.

Cost-Effectiveness

Cost-effectiveness would depend completely on how experienced and efficient a person or his team is, in SEO. However, talking about the general expense, the short-tail keywords have a hell lot of money involved to get them going. Google AdWords would manage to squeeze a pretty large sum if you opt for the short-tail keywords. This is because of the higher volume of searches that they fetch. On the contrary, expenses are pretty less if you are looking for the long-tail keywords.

Therefore, if you have a limited budget, it is always recommended to get past the little amount of competition and rank your website on the long-tail keywords.

Conversions

If you look at the conversion rates, it is definitely high if you have the right traffic on your website. This is only possible with the long-tail keywords, which are pinpointed. The short tail keywords, on the other hand, will encourage huge traffic with a wee bit of conversions.

We hope this post has been helpful to you. In conclusion, you should be aware of everything and confident in your SEO strategies to rank your website. It doesn’t matter whether you use short tail or long-tail keywords and/or variations of them, but the keywords you choose and the niche of your website are paramount in importance. So, be focused and determined in the long run to succeed!

If you are interested in informative blogs similar to this, keep checking our website. You can also follow Sprout Road on Facebook and Instagram to get all the latest updates!


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