Today, it has been a growing trend that the digital marketers will have to stay alert as the vagaries of Google’s Algorithm impacts the ranking in the organic search result. Hence, the SEOs are trying to adapt the changes. Last year we saw some earth-shattering changes including the rise of SERP features, structured data, voice search and more. As the spectrum of digital marketing is ever-evolving, it would be interesting to witness the surprises that are coming ahead. Here are some of the changes to you can expect in 2019.
A row on the mobile-first index: Back in March 2018, Google came up with some new protocols to improvise the ranking of the websites. “Mobile-first index”, isn’t it? The meaning being, if you have both the mobile and desktop version of your website, the Google’s Bots will crawl on to the mobile versions and with that, the ranking of your website will be determined in the search results. That does not mean, the desktop version has been neglected to some extent. Both versions will be considered but the optimized mobile website will have a higher ranking in SERPs. And later that year, another surprising element added to such segment as well, the loading speed of the mobile speeds. Now, the loading speed of the mobile websites is also the vital factor for the site ranking. As we have already seen changes, we can expect some more this year, since mobile indexing is becoming the topmost priority for site rankings.
Better Branding ensues Better Ranking: The recent advancements depict, Google uses online brand mentions in the search algorithm. With the further explanation, it gets the better picture of the authority in its concerned niche category. And secondly, through its context and advertisements, trust, reputation, Google gets the clear picture of your brand. Hence, with the authentication of your brand’s relevance, everything contributes to meeting the criteria that determine the ranking your website in the search results.
A new trend of quality content: It is ubiquitous to find websites cluttered with content that are not relevant to the website or search results. Back in the days, people are putting stuffing contents in huge quantity by compromising the quality of it and expect that the Google Bots will discover and index the pages. However, this trend seems to be on the verge of disappearance as the recent Google Algorithm updates ensure this. It’s not the quantity anymore, rather quality what matters. In order to rank high in the organic searches, the website content will have to meet the authoritativeness and trustworthiness standards of Google.
Include LSI Keywords in the Content: Imagine you are having a conversation with your friend regarding a football game you saw last night. And it would be awkward to say football match every time you refer to that game. Here, a soccer game, the respective teams and anything that relates to that football match would do. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is the same thing. While putting content on the website, you could choose the same option. Instead of including the same keywords, the similar form of words will make your site’s content qualified, which would negate the possibility of keyword stuffing.
Ramp up your Website security: Remember a pop-up in the right corner of Google Chrome, a lock icon and red flag saying, “Not Secure”? That is the warning sign of security issues due to the opening of Non-HTTPS (Hyper-Text-Transfer-Protocol) websites. Isn’t it like Google trying to guard us against unwanted troubles like malware and stuff? Https websites are quite vulnerable to being accessed and exploited by other users having malicious intent. So, this is a good sign that Google is taking such steps to protect its users from malware attacks. Moreover, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into effect in May 2018 put a demarcation line by restricting search engine companies use the personal information of the users they hold. While prioritizing the user experience, the unpredictable nature of Google will always bring out the changes that benefit its audience.
