As digital marketers, we come across loads of conspiracy theories around SEO. Search Engine Marketing faces a lot of flack year after year and experts in the field regularly debunk these claims. This year has taken a rather different turn. The digital marketing experts have been having their own doubts on SEO. Is SEO really dying?
What does this mean and is SEO dead in 2019? We have listed down a couple of points that might explain their apprehensions.
1. Mobile Organic Search is getting hit harder compared to desktop.
By now we know that SEO has been a mobile-first approach for some time and mobile accounts for the maximum zero-click and paid searches. Recently search traffic opportunity has declined rather sharply.
Zero-click or no-click searches are when users get all the information they need right at the first search. Recent stats show that these clicks on mobile have increased to 11% compared to 2.5℅ on desktop. This has got the users worried about losing out on a big chunk of their mobile audience.
2. Google Maps takes away major website traffic.
Local businesses, especially restaurants, small local stores and cafes want people to land on their website for all the information. Today, all this information is available to them just by a single search on Google, leading them to Google Maps. This has a great impact on business websites as less audience reach them, affecting organic traffic.
3. Organic Click-Through-Rate is at its lowest.
With Google updating each SERP result, local websites CTRs take a dip. Previously, users had to click a few links to get the right information but now Google displays the result right at the top!
This not only affects a broad search but also applies to specific searches based on long-tail keywords. The search engine giant will neatly pack these results into snippets and present the required information to the dot.
Snippets and answer boxes are great but it doesn’t help when it comes to increasing website traffic.
4. Voice search is disrupting SEO.
Voice search has been gaining popularity over a year now. It is one of the best and biggest digital marketing trends of 2019. Voice search sees a lot of no-click searches. This has got content creators and digital marketers confused if voice search really helps increase brand awareness and website traffic or will it be of absolutely no value for ranking.
Do all these factors indicate that SEO is dead in 2019?
The answer to this question is a big no. We all know that the world of digital marketing is constantly evolving and so is SEO. Surely there are a lot of changes happening with respect to Search Engine Optimization but it adapts to the minute changes too.
It is important that marketers pay close attention to all the new trends surrounding Google algorithms and other digital marketing news to keep their SEO strategy updated and aligned with their goals.
Here are a few ways in which you can keep your brand alive.
1. Focus on CTR% rather than volume.
With the new updates on SERPs, high volume keywords need not be looked at with high precision. They don’t always guarantee high search traffic anymore. Instead, analyse keyword volume for better results. This makes sure there is a high click-through-rate for increased website traffic. Many tools are available to analyse CTR.
2. Design content around long-tail keywords to increase specific searches.
Long-tail keywords have never been more important. Create in-depth content based on these keywords. The bigger the keyword %, the higher the chance of your website getting ranked. The main idea is to provide the audience with the exact information they’re looking for to land on your website.
Does SEO work for small businesses? SEO thrives on good and comprehensive content and one way of increasing traffic organically is to make your content as powerful as possible.
3. Start using YouTube SEO.
With Google’s CTR dipping, we now have to shift focus on YouTube, the second biggest search engine. It can greatly help reach users as it is still a rather new platform and also help brands rank better on Google.
Google sees a lot of competition for a particular keyword and can be challenging for a brand to rank. An easy trick to bypass this is to start using YouTube SEO. There are many benefits of SEO. Optimise your videos as Google tends to pull videos from YouTube for a particular search. This is a great way to increase your business’ brand awareness and a must-follow strategy.
4. Get ready for voice search.
Though new, voice search is the next big thing in digital marketing and can’t be ignored. Optimising websites for voice queries can be a great start to getting noticed. Digital marketing is all about continuous optimization.
5. Do not ignore meta title and meta descriptions.
Meta title and Meta descriptions have always been important for SEO and it stands true to this day. Your organic traffic depends on them as it pushes a user to click on the link. With these not right, your traffic is not likely to improve.
6. Design content based on SERP features.
SERP features are great as it is the first thing a user sees when he or she looks for a query. Tailoring the information precisely can make them click on it. Do not give out all the information at once but also keep them excited and in anticipation to know more. When used right, this can be the most powerful tool to increase website traffic organically.
Do make sure you implement these strategies in your SEO & content strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
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