Strategies to consider for your SEO in 2019
SEO is constantly changing. What worked a year ago may not work today. There are always new tactics and strategies coming to the fore. The year 2019 is no different.
There are a number of new or emerging tactics that it would be worth a site owner’s time to consider implementing. This isn’t going to be a list that includes standard tactics like create a blog or optimize your title tags. Instead, we are going to look at five strategies you probably aren’t using but should.
Have a mobile-friendly website
In 2018, Google rolled out the mobile-first index. This update gave priority to mobile websites and made having a mobile responsive site a necessity. That’s because you may not show up on mobile results if you don’t have one. There really is no better time to invest in creating a mobile site than 2019. Seriously, if you are only going to do one thing this year, make it converting your desktop site into a mobile-responsive site.
Optimize images
It’s no surprise that images are being used more and more on the net. We humans are visual beings and phones and laptops are getting better at displaying images and videos every day. They are also appearing more and more in Google. In fact, over a quarter of all search results contain images now.
That means you need to start optimizing your images and videos if you haven’t already. Getting the file size as small as possible while still retaining quality should be your first step. The smaller the file size, the quicker it will lie. Don’t forget to add a descriptive file name for your image and add an optimized alt tag to images, too. There’s no need to stuff, but you should add keywords where appropriate.
Make your website as fast as possible
Website speed is becoming an incredibly important ranking factor. People just can’t be bothered to wait for a site to load today. If it takes longer than a couple of seconds they will go elsewhere. This has led Google to prioritize those sites that load quickest. You can use Google’s page speed tool to see how quickly your site loads and get personalized recommendations on how to decrease load time. You could also consider creating Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) that can give your site a speed edge on mobile devices.
Does your site need the hreflang tag
Is any part of your website in Spanish or another foreign language for that matter? You could be a great candidate for installing the hreflang tag. This tag shows Google that your content is written in a specific language. This can be particularly helpful if content is very similar across all pages and it can help you get a rankings boost in foreign language Google searches.
Keep an eye on your XML sitemap
You’ve probably created an XML sitemap and submitted it to Google already. But have you checked it recently? Is it still up to date and showing all the pages that you want it to? It’s worth going back and checking your XML sitemap to make sure everything is still in order and all your pages are being indexed on Google.