How to Adapt & Thrive After These 5 New Ranking Factors Take Effect in 2019

With 2019 right around the corner, right about now is the perfect time to get ahead of your competition by preparing for the new ranking factors most experts agree will have a significant impact on the world of SEO next year.

With the major search engines getting smarter and smarter—Google leading the charge, as always—business owners wishing to capitalize on a strong search ranking will need to brush up on new technologies and requirements (or work with people passionate about SEO).

Don’t worry too much though, because even though we do expect to see some interesting changes in the coming year, it isn’t a cut-and-dry case of “out with the old, in with the new.” Tried and true SEO practices will still very much be necessary, such as great content, quality backlinks, onpage optimization, and so on.

Having said that, let’s dig right in:

#1 – Voice Search is Getting Louder

Within the inner circles of SEO specialists, voice search is all the buzz. With rapidly increasing consumer adoption of digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana, experts are keeping a keen eye out for how this will affect the SEM and SEO marketplaces.

Most notably is the significant change in common user search queries. When a search is vocalized, it tends to be much different than how a consumer would type it out. Simple searches like “Pancakes Denver” often become much more complex, like “What’s the best pancake house in Cherry Creek?”

#2 – Mobile Friendly? More Like Mobile First

You’ve heard it ad nauseam by now—your website needs to be mobile friendly. However, this is quickly becoming outdated advice. In 2019, it should sound more like, “your website needs to put mobile first.”

In 2015, for the first time ever, mobile searches outnumbered searches from desktop computers. This trend has continued and certainly won’t slow down anytime next year. In fact, without mobile optimization (that’s optimization, not just friendliness), businesses can expect to lose out on up to 70% of web traffic they would have otherwise enjoyed.

#3 – Local Search Gets Even More Specific

Both voice search and mobile optimization tie in to local search, which is becoming more and more specific to a consumer’s precise location. It’s highly likely that so-called hyperlocal search results are being conducted on mobile phones through a digital assistant.

When users search for locations “near me,” having an optimized Google My Business page and rankings for local search terms can give brick ‘n mortar businesses more visibility.

#4 – Search Query Context & Artificial Intelligence

The major search engines, once again Google in particular with their RankBrain AI, will increasingly implement artificial intelligence to serve more personalized search results to users. Ranking for single keywords are expected to become less relevant for SEO in favor of the context of the search.

Search engine query context can mean many things, such as the location of the user, how relevant the search results will be to the user’s past searches, and how long that user is likely to stay on the ranking websites.

#5 – Social Media Optimization is Becoming Even More Important

In this case, optimization doesn’t just refer to well produced content; it refers to relevant content. With Facebook’s recent efforts to favor higher quality content from entities with proven trust and user engagement, garnering those behaviors has become more important than ever.

In a nutshell, this means that high quality, truthful, and relevant content that engages social media users will be more important than ever in 2019.

We Believe New Trends Represent New Opportunities

New trends in SEO, SEM, or social media shouldn’t be thought of as a headache or yet another technology-related hurdle to overcome. Instead, see them as fantastic opportunities to better reach your target audience, beat your competition, and strengthen your brand.

If you’re ready to take advantage of all the great things 2019 and beyond has in store for the growth potential of your online presence, contact the digital marketing trend experts at SocialSEO today.