There never is a better time than the present to get prepared for the future. The biggest year yet for SEO may very well turn out to be 2019.
Between virtual reality and augmented reality, or block chain and artificial intelligence, we may find huge changes in how we, as searching sentient beings, conduct our business.
The following are three predictions of things to come this year from three of the industry’s superstars.
Table of Contents
AI Will Change How We Conduct Our Keyword Research
According to Jana Garanko, who is head of SEMrush’s PR, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be changing how we conduct our keyword research, and the rankings will highly rely on private demographic data much more than they do already.
She thinks that AI will becoming ubiquitous within the business world, and so SEO specialists will need to find a way to obtain first-hand the knowledge on machine learning and automation.
Garanko thinks that bigger numbers of individuals will be sticking with voice search, and so SEO specialists will have to also adjust to the new searching method – since voice requests are not the same as regular queries, so it is likely that the keyword research will be changing.
However, with virtual technologies, Garanko thinks that the process towards it integrating into SEO might take some time. Although virtual reality technologies are starting to bring sci-fi movies into real life, it is doubtful that Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will have a big impact anytime soon on SEO. However, it is a matter of years, and within 5 to 10 years this type of SEO will be more commonplace.
Amazon Search and Voice Search Will Impede the Impressions on Your Site
Kent Lewis, President, and Founder of Anvil, a Portland-based performance company, predicts that both Amazon search and voice search will be trends in 2019. He predicts that 2019’s biggest SEO trend will be Amazon search. Around 56% of consumers start searches on Amazon for products (not Google), as reported by a Kenshoo study. It is a big shift that is being seen and Amazon search should not be neglected, since Amazon could turn into the new Google.
He also thinks that voice search is going to be an important trend in how consumers search for services and products in 2019, but does concede that there will be challenges associated with the shift.
Whenever consumers search vocally, especially for local services – brand design in Hampshire, for example, the queries are very different from the ones that are written out. The most noticeable thing is that numerous long-tail keyword queries are produced by voice searches. Optimising these terms will be a challenge. Should we create a hub page? Alternatively, create new pages that address every single long-tail variation?
VR ad AR Will Have Sections of Their Own in Organic Search
Yogesh Jain, who is the founder of Concept Allies, a digital marketing agency based in India, says that VR and AR will dramatically influence the organic search Google algorithms.
Both augmented reality and virtual reality are promising technologies when it comes to search engine marketing (organic and paid). The way that we search in 2019 might not completely change, but the new technologies definitely will be changing how we build links, generate leads via content marketing, and engage users.
He also thinks that content strategies will be making major attempts to incorporate using video into their strategies, and that will be influenced as well by the use of VR and AR.
Strategies
Content strategies will be making great efforts to get video incorporated into their plans. With VR and AR in the picture now, they will definitely be figuring out ways to leverage them. VR and aR content may also be replacing the role that infographics play in SEO.
Search Engine Favourites
Google also favours mobile-friendly websites already. Since VR and AR are becoming more mainstream, Google might tweak their algorithms in order to favour websites with increased mobile engagement or perhaps come up with anew section of the search engine that focuses just on VR/Ar – just like what is available for images already.
