How to Focus on SEO In 2019

2018 has been a year of chance for search engines and, thus, SEO. Google has now a pretty different approach on how it ranks sites. For instance, Google started using AI for ranking sites. About 30% of all search queries are now handled by AI. Moreover, the presence of many links on a page doesn’t guarantee higher rank for the page anymore.

Having that said, it would be worth mentioning the factors which you may need to keep an eye on in 2019.

Get familiar with structured data

You may not like the idea of creating structured data due to the complications seemingly involved in it but it is actually quite easy to work with. You will just have to look at a good cope of it and understand the logic behind it. To make it work in your scenario, all you have to do is to copy, paste and start working with the structured data.

You may also like to go through a step-by-step guide to learn about how structured data is created, tested and finalized.

Avoiding mistakes related to structured data

The biggest intimidation about working with the structured data is that this process doesn’t tolerate any kind of mistake, or the code will simply not run. But then, narrowing down on the types of mistakes may make the things easier for you. There are 5 types of mistakes that one can make while dealing with the structured data.

• The use of inappropriate structured data
• Mismatch between structured data and on-page content.
• Violation of specific Google’s guidelines.
• Violation of general Google’s guidelines.
• Taking shortcuts

Consider podcast for marketing

An increasingly popular way to consume content is the podcast. Having that said, you will need to look if your potential customers are listening to specific podcasts that are related to your niche. If you have found such customers, if would be easier for you to reach those customers because they already seem interested in what you offer.

Now, it is up to you to develop a strategy of marketing. You can sponsor certain podcasts, or you can simply invest in creating the type of content those listeners may find their interest in.

Focused content

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes that you can make in 2019 is creating unfocused content. Having that said, you have to make sure that you are working on the creation of focused content. Here is a simple concept that you may like to learn:

“Web pages rank because websites link to those pages. Websites link to those pages because those pages solved a problem, because it scratches an itch. Nobody ever linked to a web page because of its keyword relevance.”

Stay up-to-date

While this is not a specific ‘tip’ to mention, it is surely one of the suggestions that every sincere professional is going to give you. There is only one thing consistent in SEO, i.e. the change. First, you have to make sure that you have set strong base for your SEO and then you should be ready adopt any change in the industry to keep up with the requirements.

How to Build Effective Local Engagement In 2018

Local SEO has not been much of a topic for discussion in the past. Anyone with a few tricks would be able to get reasonable amount of traffic to the websites. However, this is not the case anymore. The reason it had been easier to win local SEO in the past was lower competition due to which there had not been many ranking signals. Now, there are ranking signals which are defined by Google’s algorithms. Thus, one needs to work pretty hard to get a good rank in SERPs.

One of the big challenges in the local search is spam. However, Google is taking some effective steps to counter spam. But, there are different dimensions from where the spam can come in. Hence, Google takes steps to counter anything new in the spam world.

In the current scenario, Google knows much about people and their preferences. And it has led Google to suggest people the right information about anything they look for in their locality. So, it has become challenging task for marketers to target local audience in effective ways.

Having that said, there are a few things that you need to take into the account when it comes to marketing your business in the local area.

Tips for effective engagement

Everyone in the local search industry gets a lesson about building citations as the first thing. So, let’s shift our focus towards something which can help you build better engagement. A few tips are as under.

1. Your first point of concern should be the knowledge panel you have. It means that you should make sure that the knowledge you have is accurate.
2. Pay attention to the timeline of Google My Business. Google has introduced special Q&A section in Google My Business. It is unfortunate that owners of pages do not pay attention to the questions people post in those pages. The reason is that the owners do not get notified. So you can keep an eye on your Google My business timeline to know about the issues people have with your business.
3. As a part of your marketing strategy, you would always want your emails to return you the positive response from your subscribers. For this purpose, make sure that your newsletters are attractive.
4. Although social signals are not considered by search engines, these the very signals you may need to give your business major boost in the market.
5. Encourage people to provide you with the reviews about your business. Reviews and feedback can help you know about the status of your business.
6. Many people do not like to talk to a business over phone. Therefore, you need to provide people with an option to text you their queries.