What to choose for an intensive course?
If you run an online store, you have to be roughly timely about the leading trends in positioning for the e-commerce sector. Voice search, UX, links from thematic sites and secure data transfer. Meet SEO industry trends for 2019.
Recently, in the American Forbes, a short but cautious entry about the anticipated SEO trends for E-commerce for the upcoming year 2019 has been published. The author of the entry is a Canadian, Kenny Tripura, co-founder and managing director of the Edkent Media Agency. Tripura argues that operating strategies for the e-commerce industry should be based on four main pillars. It’s: voice search, links obtained from content marketing activities, implementation of user experience on the website and increasing the security of data transmission.
These predictions coincide in the majority with what we have recently written about on our blog. We trusted the continuation of trends related to user experience or content marketing. We also wrote about the need to improve the SEO transition to a secure SSL certificate. In today’s post I want to familiarize you with the most important thesis that a Canadian businessman puts forward.
1. Voice search in the online store
According to Tripura, vocal sleep (r) of search engine evolution is a big mistake. Voice search, currently not very popular, is to become a gold coin. The pioneers will benefit most from it, as they are not afraid to adjust their store operations accordingly. It is therefore worth allowing customers to search for products through a properly optimized database of questions. Users who pronounce phrases aloud use the form of full questions rather than clusters of keywords. Unlike text search. For example, when looking for a black winter jacket in Washington’s stores, most users will say: “Where can I find a winter black jacket in Washington?”. According to this assumption, it is worth adjusting the content in the store to the possible pronouns asking: “whether”, “where”, “how”, “what”, “when” etc.
Another issue is featured snippets on Google, which is ours: “recommended fragments with the answer” (or something like that). These are the results displayed above the organic and paid results, containing the highest-rated question from Google. This item is sometimes called the ZERO position on Google and, of course, it is the object of desire for everyone. According to Mr. Tripura, matching snippets to voice search will bring us closer to achieving this royal position. These are keywords, URL, title and H1 header. Why? Because during voice search, we formulate questions like in the normal use of language, not in the form of impersonal clusters of keywords. Tripura refers here to Google research, according to which approximately 70% of voice queries are formulated in natural language.
2. Acquiring links from content marketing activities
For e-commerce platform and online store owners the only reliable indicator of success are conversions and this is obvious. After all, it is a living cash that flows into the company’s account and decides about its profits. High positions are obviously desirable, but only as a means to the goal (through increased traffic on the page). According to Tripura, link building is still one of the most important aspects of positioning stores and e-commerce platforms. However, there are times when we will have to change our view of getting links. In 2019, link building specialists should focus on strengthening the brand through cooperation with bloggers and sites containing content corresponding to a given niche. Besides, I wrote about this on Position in 2016 (link building a PR). And everything is still valid.
Forbes’ columnist argues that link building should acquire more authentic referral links from external websites, thematically related to our industry. So what do we come to? Well, it’s content marketing and SEO! I wrote about it a few months ago, developing the issue and giving many examples of application.
3. User Experience
UX site is a trend not so much the future as the present. And this is a very strong trend that positively affects the SEO of the e-commerce sector, and in principle on every page. I would call here the metaphor of Feng shui. These are ancient Chinese rules for planning and furnishing in such a way that we are well placed in them. UX is therefore such a Feng swebsite / online store. The arrangement of the elements and content makes the site look quickly, intuitively and pleasantly, and the user willingly returns to it.
The importance of UX is strongly emphasized by Google, which rewards sites rated as fast, consistent and easy to use. Here, for example, Page Speed is of great importance, i.e. page loading time. I was convinced of its importance a month ago in the entry “Website loading time – basic FAQ”. It will be necessary in 2019 to improve the readability of content on the store’s website, its composition (headings, paragraphs), internal links, as well as well-written texts that are pleasantly readable.
The columnist of the American magazine also draws attention to the need to apply the same principles in the case of the mobile version of the site. A site well-suited to human use works just as impeccably on any device, whether portable or stationary, but with an accent on mobile devices (remember that mobile has already jumped the desktop!).
4. Secure data transfer to the server
Another issue that will be urgent for the e-commerce industry next year. A few months ago we informed that the lack of secure SSL certificate on the store’s website will be penalized by Google in the form of the sign “dangerous side” from July this year. This has a key impact on the reputation, especially for sites that use sensitive personal data, including credit card numbers, payment numbers, ID cards, etc. I covered this whole article under the title “SSL certificate and positioning”. Google also announced that it reduces the visibility of sites that do not use secure server connection encryption.
In addition, sites marked as dangerous do not encourage you to leave your bearings on yourself, right? Currently, many users still pay little attention to whether the website address starts with http or https, but this may change next year. Public awareness of crime committed in virtual space, theft of passwords, login data, etc. is growing. Therefore, the use of secure data encryption and the passage of the site to the protocol https (http-sercure) and the green padlock icon before the URL is necessary for the industry e-commerce, which must process personal data from users to process the order and which commonly uses online payment systems connecting to the clients’ bank accounts. The use of the https protocol is a signal for users that their data is better protected.
Trends SEO 2019 – summary
That’s it when it comes to the main SEO trends for 2019 for the e-commerce industry. In fact, they are valid for all websites, so these recommendations can also be successfully applied to corporate websites, business cards or websites.
Picture Credit: geralt