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SEO is a chaotic space that demands digital marketing experts to push the boundaries every single day. SEOs across the globe always keep their fingers crossed as they are constantly haunted by the fear of an impending Google update or another type of penalty. When their worst fear comes true, they go into a frenzy, trying to find fixes, doing damage control, trying to restore the site to its previous glory.

If you’re someone who has gone through such tense situations, this post can help you foresee what Google is planning for its future algorithm updates and prepare in advance. However, Google isn’t always right. Check out how Host SEO was accidentally given a manual penalty.

This post will give you a head start in understanding the most critical SEO factors that will define the SEO landscape in 2019. This should hopefully be an eye-opener for SEO professionals who want to go beyond tricks and hacks to create SEO and digital marketing strategies that would have a long-lasting effect.

Methodology

We have analyzed more than 20 major patents that Google has been working on, or have implemented within the past couple of years. Depending on the type of technology, some of these can take years to actually show up in Google search.

Overall, we will point out 11 major areas that SEO and digital marketers should pay close attention to in 2019.

1. Sharper Content Relevance and Intent
2. Go Multilingual in 2019
3. Apple = Apps, but Google = Google + Apps
4. Prominence on Location-Based Search
5. Empower Online Communities and Increase User Reviews For Local Search
6. Speech Recognition – The Search Mode of the Future
7. Image Optimization and Disambiguation
8. A Retake on Ranking Parameters
9. Tracking Events in Videos and Ad-Placement
10. Tailor-Made Search Results and Faster Access
11. Avoid Using Copyrighted or Third-Party Multimedia Content

1. Sharper Content Relevance and Intent

If you have been dealing with SEO for some time, you may already be aware of the classic page ranking algorithm that the founders of Google wrote.

PageRank Algorithm

Most of us are aware by now that only a fraction of the PageRank algorithm remains active to rank web pages today. PR algorithm has been misused by the SEO community, and Google realized that it needs to continually evolve to provide relevant rankings and content to its users. However, Google may still be using the PageRank algorithm internally.

While that was a pioneering effort, the search engine space has evolved since then with a prime focus on providing accurate search results. Moreover, a large share of the credit goes to Google’s continuous R&D in developing patented internet technologies that have paved the way for a great search experience and driving revenue for millions of companies like yours.

After finding rampant misuse of the PageRank algorithm, Google understood the need to assess content relevance as the primary ranking factor. Since then, Google has been investing a significant amount of time to create technologies that could draw a relevant correlation between pages concerning context.

As far as our experience goes, we have seen websites that create content with closely knitted topics and leading the SERPs for major keywords. This is where the emphasis on content clustering comes into play.

Google’s patent on content clustering sends a similar signal. The algorithm primarily considers a topic and then creates a distance matrix of subtopics from the main topic. The closer the subtopics are to the main topic, the better its chances to appear in search results.

In fact, the emphasis on clustering seems to be quite mainstream. It’s so profound that the HubSpot’s marketing software shows a correlation percentage of a subtopic concerning the main topic.

As you might know, HubSpot encourages its users to create content on three different levels. As you create a topic on the next level, it gives a correlation factor and allows you to see how closely the topics would be connected.

A lot of people who implemented HubSpot’s technique have admitted that their traffic and inquiries have gone up after following the method of content creation which is nothing but a form of content clustering.

The idea of a content cluster in HubSpot methodology. HubSpot’s marketing software gives a correlation value to all subtopics created under a main topic or pillar content.

With this patent, Google is looking for content creators to build content as clusters with high correlation which they can further analyze with engagement metrics to award relevant rankings.

There is another Google patent titled as questions answering to populate knowledge base which seem to augment or support this entire exercise of content clusters. Google is also empowering contextual relevance by amalgamating it with personalization. One of the examples is the patent for a dynamic summary generator, which emphasizes creating different summaries of data with respect to the user that is fetched from accounts, cookies or devices.

In addition to that, emphasis on contextual relevance is also reflected by one Google’s patents that is built around promoting advertisements with reference to context. The patent explicitly talks about promotion within web pages, suggesting a closer connection and contextual relevance of the content.

What Should SEOs Do?

Focus on keyword and content mapping and create relevant content. This is going to work both ways, i.e., in SERPs and helping publishers earn more from ads.

2. Go Multilingual in 2019

Multilingual search results are gaining a lot of priority. As the app-based environment gained momentum, we have seen both Google and Apple lay more emphasis on multilingual apps and search.

While Apple is limited to apps, Google’s business model, which is built around search, derives a lot from multilingual sites. As of now, more than 50% of the world’s population does not have internet. With respect to demographics, these people are most likely to be familiar with their native language instead of English.

Setting sights on that, Google has come out with a number of patents that would give more weight to multilingual sites.

Crowdsource Human Translation

Google has been awarded a patent on a web technology that enables the developer of an arbitrary website to create an “opt-in” option for human translation.

While we have been receiving machine-based translation on our browsers, the apparent lack of quality of the translations is well-known. This is why Google is now investing in technologies that would bring in human translation for a more sig