If you’re developing a website or promoting your business on the internet, it’s important to keep up with the rapidly-shifting changes in online marketing. Here are some important trends for 2018 and 2019 that you should be aware of.
- Voice search
Conversational assistant apps such as Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri and Cortana are becoming more ubiquitous. Experts predict that by 2020, half of all online searches will be conducted by voice queries. The growing dominance of voice search means that internet marketers need to understand the semantics of spoken queries and incorporate it into a long-tail keyword strategy.
Since these voice-oriented apps respond by reading featured snippets, this also means that snippets are going to be more important in 2019 for SEO. Furthermore, by winning the featured snippet in search results, your company achieves the coveted “position zero” that is on top of all the other results, which makes featured snippets even more important for 2019 and beyond.
- Mobile
As the proliferation of smartphones and tablets has risen sharply, it has transformed the search engines look and function. Website content and design have to be tailored for smaller screens, and it’s becoming even more important for your site to show up on the top of search engine result pages (SERPs). Also, Google has begun providing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) on the search results, which means developers need to focus on optimizing for mobile page display.
- Amazon search engine
Google and Bing are not the only big players anymore. There is a growing trend of users who default to the Amazon search for any product-related queries, as this is a very convenient way to peruse which options, brands and pricing are available for a desired product. Any internet marketer or business that is offering products needs to take this into consideration.
- Blockchain
Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin. However, it is much more than a digital payment platform. It represents a radical shift toward decentralization of the internet. It also provides greater transparency that replicates data in a public ledger on millions of computers throughout the world.
Blockchain is a self-managed, peer-to-peer data platform technology. As this becomes more mainstream, it means that the power is beginning to shift away from governments, giant corporations and banks and going more into the hands of the user. As people become more aware of blockchain technology, the demand will grow. Consumers will begin to expect that websites will implement blockchain protocols for increased security, transparency, faster transactions and many other benefits.
- Video content
SEO professionals have known for years that imagery and video are beneficial to a website because it increases user engagement and reduces bounce rate. A number of statistics show the benefits of video for conversion rates, sharing on social media and enhanced consumer confidence. This trend is expected to keep growing because of the increasing popularity of live streaming podcasts, increased profits for businesses that utilize video and the video recording capabilities of smartphones.
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