If you want to succeed in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), you have to make sure you stay on top of the waves, like a surfer at the beach. As a San Diego SEO expert, my whole day is spent trying to get the pulse of the SEO landscape. In the process, I uncover some interesting trends that help me to create better SEO strategies for my clients, reflecting on how SEO changed in 2019. (Image Credit: Muneebfarman/Pixabay)
So what interesting trends have come up in 2019 in the world of SEO? As it turns out, many of them are the same as last year. However, there are three interesting ones that are new.
GDPR
You can thank the European Union for the emergence of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There has been a contentious and controversial issue that this new regulation covers. The EU recently passed this the GDPR. The regulation solves questions regarding the ownership of user data. Before this, data generated by the interactions of users online belonged to the companies that collected that data. However, now the users own their own data, and they can ask a company to show it to them. If the company is found to not be in compliance with these regulations, then it could easily pay either €20 million (approximately $22,577,000) or 4 percent of its annual profits, whichever is greater.
While this regulation covers consumers and companies in the EU, it also affects international companies that do business in the EU. Because of that, Google now doesn’t keep user data past 26 months. As a site owner, you can also implement your own default period on data collection. Websites also required to delete all the data of its users when they ask for it.
Ranking by Brand
Google uses mentions of brands online to help their algorithm rank webpages. There are two ways in which this can happen. One way is when the website mentions a brand without links. In that case, the search engine crawlers learn of the existence of your brand. Google analyzes the instances in which your brand name is mentioned. Then, Google uses that to determine the authority of your brand in a given field.
The other way is by analyzing the sentiment and context of each mention your brand gets. That includes solving complaints, advertising, trust-building, reputation and so on. By analyzing the context, Google will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff as far as brands are concerned. That means that the sentiment around the mentions of your brand can affect your ranking.
The Growing Prominence of Amazon
While Amazon is a niche-specific search engine that searches the internal website, it has an algorithm similar to the one Google uses and also happens to be the go-to search engine for most online shoppers. Most people will first go to Amazon when they want to do some shopping or at least check with it after finding products on other sites. Amazon is Google’s equivalent in the world of e-commerce. If you are trying to sell any products, then you’re going to need to consider having an Amazon listing and also including Amazon optimization in your SEO strategy. This will help your brand catch up to all of the ways SEO changed in 2019.
