At Aqueous Digital, search never sleeps, and neither does Google. Google is consistently reviewing its methods of ranking and how users employ SEO techniques. The result is to provide the best user experience by ensuring the correct information is displayed when searches are made.
2018 saw multiple algorithm changes that impacted SEO such as:
Brackets Core Update: Focused heavily on content quality.
Mobile First Index: Suggested Google is migrating sites gradually to mobile first indexing.
Mobile Speed Update: Mobile speed became a ranking factor for mobile results.
Chrome Security Warnings: Chrome marks all non-HTTPS sites as not secure.
Medic update: Saw an impact on the ranking factors of health websites in particular.
These 5 updates from Google were very influential to ranking factors and SERPs in 2018 and therefore we are anticipating the next major changes for SEO in 2019.
Here’s our top 5 SEO changes we anticipate to see in 2019.
- Optimising content for voice search will become necessary as its popularity grows.
- User experience will become a stronger ranking factor.
- With mobile first indexing and mobile speed considered an important ranking factor for Google in 2018, we expect to see mobile optimisation as a priority for all websites in 2019.
- Featured snippets will become more significant for answering search queries, therefore it may be much more difficult to compete in the rankings.
- Search intent could impact the SERP’s ranking meaning keywords are not enough to be shown in search and helpful information in content will be much more impactful.
These are only our predictions for 2019, but of course there are many other changes to SEO we could expect to see – or be surprised by in 2019!
