Web marketing is in constant evolution, so it’s vitally important to stay up to date with developments across the entire sector. In this article, you’ll find an overview of the major web marketing trends for 2019 and the impact they’ll have on SEO, online advertising, and user experience.
Everyone knows that keywords are essential to building an effective SEO strategy. However, it’s starting to look as though keywords are becoming less and less important to Google’s algorithm when it comes to rankings.
These days, search engines are effectively reacting to user requests based on how users formulate their search queries – how the question is asked, the keywords used, and so on – and consequently look for specific results. Our experts, then, will prioritize SEO strategies that involve fulfilling a specific need so you can rank at the top of search results (SERPs). These strategies will be based on in-depth analysis of what your customers are looking for.
This new trend in SEO will be reinforced by voice searches and smart speakers. Users no longer search for keywords. They now speak directly into their mobile devices, asking specific questions to get specific answers. In 2018 in the US, 20% of mobile queries were voice searches.
All in all, mobile searches continue to increase to the point where they are now playing a larger role in all search engine queries. In fact, over 50% of global searches on Google are done from a mobile device. That’s why it will be crucial to optimize your website for mobile devices this year. You need to make sure that your site is responsive (mobile-friendly) and that loading time is as short as possible so you can meet Google’s mobile-first index criteria.
The possibilities for promoting your brand and your products online are close to infinite.
This year, programmatic advertising will keep expanding and should continue to monopolize digital advertising, notably on Google Ads. In fact, programmatic buying is already the preferred method for 80% of digital ads in Canada, the US, and the UK. As ad exchange platforms continue to grow, adding more and more websites, their share of the SEM market is not likely to decrease.
With over 3 billion active users worldwide, social media is almost a necessity and advertising on social media platforms has become central to online advertising (74% of programmatic advertising). And this trend will only continue in 2019. Advertising on social media is changing, though. Now it’s video ads that perform better on social as they solicit active interaction from the user. Clearly, for better results, it will be advantageous to prioritize video ads.
Our specialists also believe that partnerships between brands and influencers will also be a trend to use to your advantage in 2019, especially on certain specific social networks. These kinds of partnerships work toward building a favourable brand image.
It’s also important to know what users want and how users behave when they land on your site as a result of your SEM or your SEO strategy. This is where user experience comes into play. You want to make it easy and pleasant for users to browse your site and to find what they’re looking for. The right website design helps conversions happen. When they find what they need, when you answer their questions, users will make that purchase and sign up for that newsletter.
While optimizing 2D design has been the focus in website design over the past few years, the latest trend is to integrate 3D animations into web design with a view to increasing interactivity with users (your customers).
In 2019, this new approach to design will lead to personalized experiences for users, with customers seeing pages that are tailored just for them when they log into their user accounts. This kind of specialized customization will create feelings of closeness and proximity between vendors and users, creating a sense of trust between the two (in other words, between you and your customers).
This year, with the growing number of smart devices and appliances, with expansion of the internet of things, the multi-device user experience will become easier thanks to the development of apps for smartphones, smart watches, tablets, and so much more. This increased facility will lead to more users for apps that allow multichannel use as the Uber app already does, for example.
At Index, we strive to stay informed and up to date on the latest trends in web marketing so we can provide our clients with the best solutions for their digital strategy. Discover all our services and solutions have to offer you now!