SEO in 2019: where to start for your website?

Ranking a website isn’t an easy feat and businesses need to invest plenty of time and effort into understanding the process. As the technological climate changes rapidly, it’s difficult to stay on top of all of the emerging content marketing trends.

Knowing everything about SEO, or search engine optimization, is impossible at the get-go. However, if you spend some time understanding where to start with SEO for your website, we’re sure you’ll be able to rank higher, increase your visibility and help your business to grow.

SEO in 2019: where to start for your website?

1- Focusing on accessibility

For your website to rank high in search engines, your content strategy will need to start with accessibility. What does this mean exactly? Well, things should be structured in a way so that Google can easily parse through and understand the information. This isn’t just about written content but includes videos, images and all embedded external links.

The text itself should be readable so that it’s able to be slotted into the web index. This is the most crucial step to your SEO ranking. Without accessible content, the next steps we’re going to mention won’t make a difference.

2- Keywords: how to use them in 2019

If you’ve done any preliminary research on the subject of SEO, then you’ll know the role of keywords has drastically changed over the past few years.  Before, content marketers would load their copy with keywords, but this strategy no longer works.

Keywords are still a fundamental part of the SEO process, but now its very important that they are rooted in context. When people use search engines, they are generally looking for an answer to a specific question or problem. Therefore, your content, and in turn your business, should be looking to provide the answers or solutions.

Since your content should look for a way to help people solve a problem, you’ll need to focus on one primary keyword and a just few selected secondary ones to support it. Again, it’s crucial for you to focus your keywords with an intent. The more direct your content's intention, the easier it will be for search engines, and in turn, visitors, to find your website.

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3- The rise of voice search

“Ok Google” can now be heard in households far and wide. The rise of digital assistants like Siri and Alexa forces you to reconsider your SEO strategy. This growing market changes the way that search engines perform their quests, and thus, you’ll need to start creating content to comply with the trend.

As we move into 2019, voice search continues to grow with an estimated 1 in 5 people using a digital assistant to cruise the web. The rise of voice search means that you’ll need to focus on employing natural energy and micro-targeting.

Micro-targeting consists of using long-tailed keywords and looking for similarities between common expressions. Then, look for places on your site where these phrases can be added or expanded on. Finally, update parts of your site to be less keyword-specific and more keyword-group focused. Does that make sense?

Focusing on more overarching concepts can often help voice searches to find your content. As voice search continues to grow, especially as it becomes integrated into smart homes, you should write your content in relevant and useful ways that can be applied to the everyday lives of your clients and customers.

4- Link building strategies

Link building has been popular for a few years, and the popularity of this marketing strategy only continues to grow. If you don’t already have one in place, you’ll need to create a strategy to build quality links. It’s important to note that the links you choose should add value to your site and work towards increasing your domain authority, rather than just being present for the sake of link-building. 

Instead of looking for backlinks from popular sites, look for those that are most relevant to your niche or industry.

Another way to help brand development is through relationship building with experts and influencers in your field. Creating relationships is excellent for brand development as well as harnessing long-term benefits for your business. Guest blogging should be considered as another link building strategy.

Although Google has suggested that they will be cracking down on guest posts to weed out spam or bad links, you should focus your attention to forming long lasting relationships with businesses rather than simply looking for a single link that will offer instant results.

5- Craft a positive user experience

Above all, the user experience should always be at the forefront of your content marketing strategy. An excellent user experience will increase the chances of visitors sticking around on the pages of your website, as well as engaging with and sharing your content. This will allow search engines to know just how useful your pages are to users, and thus, will improve your SEO.

In order to improve user experience, make sure your site is running at a good speed, and look for ways that navigation and readability can be improved. Take a look at our article regarding ways to analyze search intent to create better content. Lastly, be certain that your website is mobile-friendly. The use of mobile phones is widely popular, and a growing necessity is in place for content that works across multiple devices.