Five SEO trends to watch in 2019 and Yoast launches recalibration project

November is here. We have passed the spooky time and headed towards the end of the year. It’s time to think about next year.

Most likely, we should have been thinking about that last month. But, life happens, you know.

One of the things I find interesting is changes to SEO in 2019. Predicting trends is always an exercise is an educated guess based on directions.

So, what can we find regarding trends in 2019 with SEO? I’m going to discuss the trends shortly, but first I am going to talk about other search engine optimization news.

Yoast’s recalibration

The Yoast plugin has been the most popular SEO plugin for several years now. Of course, there are competitors, but most in WordPress at least keep up with what is going on with the company founded by Joost de Valk in 2010.

The company is a leader in WordPress with regards to search engine optimization.

Recently, the company embarked on a journey to recalibrate the SEO analysis portion of its plugin. The change was much needed as the checklist was a tad dated with all of the changes made recently.

Yoast researcher in residence Marieke van de Rakt explains,

The recalibration project was aimed at analyzing and evaluating all of the checks in our SEO analysis. These checks give real-time feedback about the SEO improvements you should make to your text. We used our experience as SEOs to come up with these checks. Every now and then, we would evaluate and tweak the checks. However, we never did a thorough analysis of the SEO literature to see whether or not these SEO checks actually made sense.

She explains that the recalibration was done in three stages. The team describes the process in a 15 minutes video which you can see here. So now, Yoast has made an effort to update the checklist to account for so many changes in the past eight years. Kudos to Yoast.

We have exciting news about the #YoastSEO plugin! Over the past year, a team of SEO-experts, linguists, and developers has evaluated the checks in our SEO analysis. Find out more about this recalibration project and help us finalize the improvements!https://t.co/BRQSW5gUR4

— Yoast (@yoast) November 7, 2018

Is it time to change your keyword research strategy?

In case you haven’t noticed, the way people search is changing. A lot. Have you heard of voice search? People no longer search for one word. It will only change more as we see more use for virtual reality and other technologies (see later)

As is the case, it might be time to rethink keyword research strategy. That’s what iMPACT did.

She notes that Hubspot removed its keyword tool and it caused confusion and frustration. Stacy Willis sheds light,

While it was a small example, the removal of the tool from HubSpot was just one of many indications that the tides were changing.

The Google Gods had clearly shifted the way they were working and past strategies for organic SEO efforts around keyword targeting were bearing less and less fruit. It was time for a change.

And thus, the new era of keyword strategies were ushered in, with keyword clusters being the wave of the future.

And so we go on with another change.

iMPACT uses the cluster strategy with one of its clients and noticed a 61% increase in page views in one quarter. Willis breaks down this strategy in the article.

What are the 2019 SEO trends?

It can be hard to predict what will happen in the next 12 months, but I decided to look into a crystal ball so that I can tell you what to expect.

Well, actually, I looked at three articles talking about the future of SEO. Hopefully, that will give you something to think about.

The common threads in all three articles include voice search, Artificial Intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, Amazon, and Blockchain.

Let’s break them down.

Brian Dean’s massive article on SEO for 2019 includes a chapter about voice search. He touts it as the next big thing and offers these statistics,

• 41% of adults perform at least one voice search every day (source)
• Voice searches performed in Google are up 35x since 2008 (source)
• 20% of all searches on mobile are voice searches (source)

I use voice search often on my phone. Do you? Voice search is here to stay and will continue to be important.

Kent Lewis of Portland-based Anvil says,

The second biggest SEO trend in 2019 will be voice search. The way in which consumers search with be noticeably changed by digital assistants.

What is his first biggest SEO trend in 2019? Amazon Search is the biggest trend,

My prediction is that the biggest SEO trend in 2019 will be Amazon search. 56% of consumers begin searches around products on Amazon (not Google), According to a Kenshoo study. This is a huge shift that we’re seeing and Amazon search cannot be neglected. Amazon really could be the new Google.

Something to think about.

Augmented and virtual reality is fascinating to me. Although I can’t quite see how it will play a part, Yogesh Jain of Concept Allies says,

Both virtual reality and augmented reality are promising technologies for search engine marketing (both paid and organic). By 2019, the way we search might not change completely, but these new technologies will definitely change the way we build links, engage users, and generate leads through content marketing.

The use of blockchain is a bit of a mystery for me, but artificial intelligence is something easier to see.

Ultimately, AI will help with SEO by helping with insights, automation, and personalization according to an article by Jim Yu at Search Engine Land. Over time, I’m sure we will see more ways that artificial intelligence can help us with our use of search engine optimization.

Wrapping it up

When it comes to SEO, it seems as if the industry moves at the speed of light. The change is enough to keep various digital marketers leave the tactic behind. Nevertheless, it is important to keep up with various trends and the direction of the industry so that we can best help our clients.

What trends do you anticipate for SEO in 2019?