Search engine optimization is arguably the best approach of drawing organic traffic to your website. Considering the many competitors out there and new ones cropping up every so often, businesses need to harness the power of SEO to raise visibility and subsequently attract buying customers.
Google and the search engine industry have shared secrets about the most paramount SEO tactics that will work for your business in the coming year.
1] Voice Search
Searching using voice will be the most significant trend influencing the SEO industry in 2019 and after that. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is churning out new technologies to help us run our homes – for instance, Alexa – and help us perform tasks on mobile devices – such as Siri.
With this burgeoning adoption rate, more consumers are projected to use voice commands in the following year. Voice search is different from typing in a few key phrases as people tend to use longer questions and lean toward conversational queries.
Businesses must train themselves to think like consumers as this bolsters their chances of answering their questions better.
2] Switch From m-dot Domain
Mobile content has gathered steam over the years such that mobile devices are becoming the primary screen for marketers. In response, businesses are now running websites that can be accessed on desktops and mobile devices like Smartphones.
To this end, Google launched a mobile-first index in 2016 that gives priority to mobile content over non-mobile content. Instead of running a separate mobile site, the search engine behemoth is advising businesses to switch to a responsive design that can facilitate mobile devices and desktops.
3] Consistent Content
It is imperative that your mobile and desktop sites have similar material so customers can get informed accordingly irrespective of the platform they choose. Hiding some content on mobile gadgets is detrimental as these users may not have time to compare with the desktop site.
What’s more, not finding what customers want leaves an awful impression of your business even when in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Habitually posting relevant content is also essential and could earn you regular clicks and visitations from prospective customers. If you wish to delve into this matter further, read more here and apply a few tricks.
4] Google Is King
There are several popular search engines like Baidu, Yandex, and Bing. However, none of them come close to Google which boasts of an impressive market share with mobile searches (92.59%) and desktop searches (72.78%), as per SEO Tribunal.
Businesses must bear this fact in mind and ensure that their content is optimized correctly for Google entry searches as the bulk of prospective customers use this engine.
5] E-commerce Traffic
Electronic commerce has been around for decades in western nations and the rest of the world – including the Global South – is catching up pretty fast.
The McKinsey Global Institute projects that e-commerce in Africa’s big economies like South Africa and Nigeria will amount to $75 billion by 2050.
These emerging markets have huge market potential for companies with an international footprint. SEO Tribunal derives that 39% of global e-commerce traffic is generated from search (35% organic traffic and 4% paid) which means companies must pay attention to keywords and key phrases.
6] Keywords And Keyphrases
As mentioned, organic traffic reaps more benefits than paid traffic, and so companies must invest in creating content that resonates with consumers. This means thinking about the audience when putting together blog posts, newsletters, and even social media blurbs to announce upcoming sales.
Be careful about inserting keywords merely to impress search engines as Google and other platforms are sophisticated enough to detect such methods. Focus on creating high-quality content that is relevant to other factors considered such as new product launches, and such.
7] Organic v. Paid Ads
93% of online experiences typically start from the search engine. People are always looking for something like researching for a college term paper, doing online shopping, reading the latest news, or whatever they please.
70 – 80% of search engine users pay attention to organic results rather than paid ads that often pop up as banners.
While paid ads on the internet may not be as prohibitively expensive like those on TV and mainstream media, you could channel these resources elsewhere. Focus on organic content that consistently ranks high on the Google index to better your chances of drawing traffic.
8] Stay Abreast With Changes
Technology and associated elements are susceptible to numerous changes that often lead consumers and businesses reeling. You must maintain a pulse on the SEO industry so you can learn the latest trends that are driving traffic to websites.
There are also a plethora of changes in algorithms that occur periodically, and you must track these too. Remember, your competitors are probably adept at doing this so a misstep on your end could cost you business.
9] Optimize User Experience
User experience is becoming increasingly important to consumers and websites that don’t deliver on this aspect are shunned.
Imagine a prospective customer finding their way to your website only to experience difficulty locating your products, or they cannot access the site on a tablet. User experience must go hand-in-hand with great content to ensure SEO success, and without these two elements, visitors coming to your site will be disappointed.
10] Page Load Speed
No amount of SEO optimization or interesting content will save you from slow loading speeds. Visitors to your website need to view your page without any delays, or they will get distracted and move elsewhere. Utilize site-wide techniques like browser caching and optimizing images to increase loading speeds.
It is also worth to check your website hosting provider performance, some are better than other and if speed is important to you, as it should be, then you should consider switching your providers if needed.
Conclusion
In sum, SEO continues to be a central feature for e-commerce and companies must keep abreast with all the requirements and changes in this industry.
Lagging on SEO waters down your other efforts as customers may never know you exist and therefore cannot buy your products. Excelling at SEO sets you apart from industry brethren and improves your bottom line.
