No matter how 2018 went for you from a search perspective, it’s time to revisit your efforts. History has taught us that B2B search engine optimization trends evolve year after year; what were once search engine optimization best practices may or may not bear significant results in the coming year. That means it’s time to start thinking about your 2019 B2B SEO strategies.
In this article, we will discuss two strategies that you must drop going forward, two that you must retain, and two that you may have to adopt … if you haven’t done it yet. Please read on to understand how you can help win the search results game in 2019.
Two B2B SEO Strategies to Stop in 2019
Stop limiting your SEO focus on Google
Google is the largest search engine today. Without a doubt, that isn’t changing anytime soon. That’s why most B2B SEO strategists have their minds fixated on impressing Google’s bots and algorithms when designing their websites. But limiting your organic search focus to this giant search engine may be limiting your business opportunities in 2019. Here’s why:
The significance of visual content in online searches has grown tremendously well over the recent past. This has, in turn, made YouTube – the second largest search engine – very powerful. When designing your web content for 2019, therefore, you need to extend your focus to YouTube searchers. Explaining key topics in well-optimized videos can dramatically increase your reach.
Stop all black hat SEO tactics
Search engines have become very strict on sites that use black hat SEO strategies to try to deceive their algorithms and users. They have adapted sophisticated algorithms that will easily detect keywords that are inserted unnaturally, titles that mislead searchers, and click-bait meta descriptions. You will be jeopardizing your SERP ranking by adopting any black hat tactic in 2019.
How do you rank first? Deliver the best result with effective content creation. That’s it.
Two B2B Search Engine Optimization Strategies to Keep in 2019
Keep optimizing your site for mobile devices
The last two years have seen Google center its focus on mobile searchers, particularly by rewarding sites that have optimized their content for mobile with top search rankings. As you may have noted in 2018, your online success was tied to how fast your site responded on mobile, how good its user experience was, and how navigable it was on small devices. This trend will continue in 2019, so you must keep focusing on mobile to dominate your competition.
AMP stories (Accelerated Mobile Pages stories) have also become very popular among mobile users. As a bonus, while they’re similar to Instagram and Snapchat stories, they have the added benefit of appearing directly on Google’s search engine results pages – a huge win for publishers. (Companies like Ztorie do a great job of helping you create AMP stories with relatively little effort.)
Keep your social media game strong
If you’e reading a post about B2B SEO strategies for 2019, you’ve probably already realized how effective social media is in creating brand awareness, backlinks and traffic. You also may have noted that creating shareable content for different social platforms is now vital for increased on-site engagement by your online visitors. Though indirectly, these two trends have been contributing to high SEO rankings in a big way. Keep interacting with your prospective customers on social media, answering their questions, and giving them rich content to share.
Two Things to Start in 2019
Focus on Google’s Featured Snippets
Google has recently introduced a new search feature called Featured Snippets. This feature allows searchers to get comprehensive answers to their queries without having to click on any of the top links on Google’s SERPs. It usually has a short, precise, and keyword-rich bulleted answer to the search query. Readers often click on the site that has provided the snippet answer in a bid to explore further, and that gives you an edge over competitors. Going into 2019, ensure that your content is precise and well-structured to qualify for “Position Zero.”
Use AI to your advantage
Artificial intelligence is here with us; it’s the future of both B2B and B2C SEO. Google is already using AI to sort out pages in their order of relevance before displaying them as results to its searcher’s queries. You too will need to think in that line going into 2019.
How do you think like a robot? Simple: Start by thinking like a human. Search engine AI wants to deliver relevant results to real searchers; if you write well-crafted content for users, the bots will like it, too.
Ready to implement our 2019 B2B SEO strategies? We’d love to help. Contact us or call 610-421-8601 x122 to chat with our business-to-business organic search and lead gen experts.
