SEO Trends & Best Practices in 2019

Part of maintaining SEO really comes with staying slightly ahead of the curve. Whether you stay tuned-in to what’s trending across social media platforms or are constantly on the look-out for another Google update, looking to the future is always a safe disposition.

There’s a bit of overlap when it comes to trends and best practices, as trends are often set by numerous people applying techniques that will stop their pages from slipping in search engine rankings. ‘Best practice’ often refers to avoiding punitive algorithms that spot dodgy link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. techniques, and so on.

In order to come out first in the SERPs and ensure that your revenue keeps flowing in, there are some best practices and SEO trends that are worth paying attention to first.

Embrace mobile-first indexing

Last year, Google rolled out mobile-first indexingGoogle's Mobile-First Indexing is a change to the search engine's indexing system, where sites are ranked higher in search results if they're easier to navigate on mobile devices.. With desktop computers hitherto being the most-used way of displaying online content, it brought its ranking system sharply into the 21st century. They will continue to use their main index for search results as they do not have a mobile-first specific one. However, there are differences that warrant making any website page mobile-friendly:

We are notifying sites that are migrating to mobile-first indexing via Search Console. Site owners will see significantly increased crawl rateGoogle crawl rate is the number of pages a web crawler has crawled or the number of URLs that have been indexed for a site. from the Smartphone GooglebotGooglebot is a web crawler. It follows links and indexes pages for search engines to make it easier for users to find what they're looking for.. Additionally, Google will show the mobile version of pages in Search results and Google cached pages.”

Top Tips: Test your websites mobile speed with this great tool: testmysite.withgoogle.com

Use local links

As a result in the shift towards using search engines on smartphones, local linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. are bound to start sifting to the top. Google will always be able to find local businesses in your area, and so referencing them is a wise step to take.

Local SEOLocal SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank on the 1st page of Google for a search term and geographic location that is relevant to your business. is a result of the ‘local 3 pack.’ The top three local business options are Google’s method of providing the most accurate results of what you are searching for that also happens to be nearby. What’s more, according to searchenginewatch.com – 61% of consumers trusted and believe they get more relevant results from local search results. 

Registering yourself on Google My Business and ensuring that your location is accurate are just some of the ways to determine how far up the search results your business will rank.

Keep the quality high

In August 2018, Google announced a core algorithmic update that took an entire week to put it into action; and it focused mainly on quality. It particularly affected sites that had a low  E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) scoring.

If you’re going to try and push the ranking of your site up this year, using techniques such as link building, then Google might also be checking that your site isn’t blowing internet hot air.

What kind of content is your audience looking for?

If your blog is targeted at the over 50s who are into crosswords, then it might be safe to assume that you’ll be relatively secure without the use of whirling graphics and videos. However, your content needs to appeal to the demographic that you have in mind.

Doing a bit of market research and discovering who your key audience is could determine what your website looks like. It’s no use spending a lot of time curating the perfect keywords if your audience will leave after 3 minutes.

Nowadays younger generations are more interested in video and shorter content, whereas the older generations may prefer to read longer content such as how-to guides. The best way to give your customers what they want is to ask them directly.

Think outside of Google

Content can mean anything from a podcast to a picture blog to an app. If your customers are likely to be using any of the above, then you need to rank highly outside of just search engine results. If your company has a podcast, for instance, then doing some research into how a podcast gets to the top of its search results is mandatory. If one of your products is an app, then it needs to be optimised for all devices too. Having an app that works beautifully for Android but terribly for iPhones excludes a whole sector of the market.

Long tail keyword searches

Searching for ‘pine second-hand bookshelf’ as opposed to ‘bookshelf’ is a smarter way to search and a smarter way to link your keywords. It also mimics how people type. If someone has something very specific in mind, then they won’t use generic one-word terms.

People will continue to use long tail keywords to ensure they find what they’ve been hunting for. By honing in on the exact items that people are searching for, your business is also far more likely to be accessing a lucrative sales market.

Using a digital marketing agency, just like Click Intelligence, that tackles the most searched-for keywords could be half the battle. We know that we live in a mobile age and that SEO is bound to follow suit. If keeping on top of the trends seems like an insurmountable task, it’s always wise to ask for some professional advice and help. Contact us for more information.