5 SEO Marketing Statistics You Need To Read
Ready to start mapping out your 2019 SEO strategy? Here are the 5 SEO marketing statistics we're using to inform our approach this year.
Voice Search Is Coming
By 2020, 30% of all website sessions will be conducted without a screen. How? All thanks to our friendly virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa.
But with the intrinsic nature of web searches changing in such a big way, how can your website keep up? Simply put, your content needs to be written in the way that you speak.
Instead of incorporating snappy keywords like ‘best hair salon Brisbane’ that tend to be more common when typed, think of how these keywords would be spoken – ‘Hey Siri, what is the best hair salon in Brisbane?’
Targeting these long-tail, question-based keywords will help your website remain visible in voice searches. If you’re not sure where to start, we’d suggest creating an FAQ page with questions you think potential customers might ask a virtual assistant.
Page Speed
Perhaps one of the scariest SEO stats to surface over the past year, is that for every extra second your website takes to load, you’re estimated to lose 11% of website visitors.
And given that page speed is a significant factor in Google’s ranking algorithm (correlation of 0.97 according to SEO Powersuite), a slow page speed could see both your website traffic and Google rankings spiral downwards pretty quickly.
But fear not, there are great tools on the interwebs that test whether your page speed needs to be addressed. We use Pingdom to test the average time it takes any Australian website to load from Sydney. If you get a result longer than roughly 3 seconds, we’d suggest getting in touch with your web developer to find out whether the problem lies with your website itself, or your hosting services.
Long Search Terms
If your business is just getting started with SEO, it can be a real challenge to compete with established websites for popular keywords related to your business. Like ‘furniture online’ for a furniture store, or ‘best cafes Melbourne’ for a local café. These keywords have a high search volume, yes, but that also means there are many businesses trying to rank for them.
However, as per an interesting read from one of our favourite SEO databases Ahrefs, less popular long-tail and highly-focused keywords actually form a large proportion of all internet searches. They found that an enormous 92% of all keywords in their 1.9 billion keyword database, had 10 searches per month or fewer.
And because of their specificity, long-tail keywords like ‘best online store for white leather sneakers’ will likely give you website visitors with a much higher chance of conversion.
To get started, this article by Ahrefs, Long-Tail Keywords: The Secret to Getting Tons of Website Traffic, has some brilliant tips on how to incorporate longer keywords into your 2019 SEO strategy.
Amazon’s Rise
According to a study of 3,100 global consumers, 56% visit Amazon first if they have shopping in mind. With numbers like these, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Amazon is turning into the Google of e-commerce.
So if your business sells books, electronics or any other product frequently sold on Amazon, we’d recommend revisiting your keyword strategy to make sure it’s catering to Amazon’s search algorithm.
Amazon have developed their own highly sophisticated keyword research tool Alexa, and have produced a number of resources to help e-commerce businesses increase their visibility. This article, E-Commerce SEO: A 40-Point Checklist to Optimise Your Online Store, is a great starting point.
Website Security
If you haven’t made the switch to an HTTPS website yet, 2019 is well and truly the year to take action. Why? According to GlobalSign, 84% of people will abandon a purchase if they’re dealing with an un-secure website.
We discuss this in detail in our podcast episode The Latest in Technical SEO, but in a nutshell, all of the major search engines are putting an enormous weighting on secure websites. Browsers are flashing warning messages at website users of non-HTTPS sites, and search algorithms have likely already incorporated site security as a ranking factor.
So to keep your conversion rates, bounce rates, and search rankings as favourable as they can be, make the switch to a secure website ASAP. Read Search Engine Land's guide on securing a website, or get in touch with your web developer.
If you'd like a hand developing a killer SEO strategy for 2019, our team of SEO specialists, web developers and tech heads can help. Connect with us for more info.