SEO rules and practices keep changing every few months. To ensure that your website gets maximum reach and a better ranking compared to your competitors, you should focus on the latest trends that keep happening in the digital world.
As we’ve reached mid-2018, the SEO trends set for the year so far are more or less going to remain the same throughout the year. Let us figure out what the best SEO trends for the year 2018 are:
Increase in Voice Search
Compared to 2017, there is a considerable rise in the use of voice search among the users. With search engines like Google that support voice search, users find it easier to search for what they want and save time by not typing it. Online surveys claim that most of the users use this latest feature for online shopping to search for products of their choice.
Mobile-Friendly Content
The use of smartphones has been increasing in the past years. With the mobile phones that come with all the features and more compared to their larger counterparts, users tend to rely on their smartphones for almost all their needs, whether it is personal or professional.
With a hype in mobile usage, the urge to make all content mobile-friendly is high. Being mobile-friendly has also become a factor for being termed as search-friendly by the search engines. If your content is not compatible with smaller devices, this could largely impact your SEO, and thus hit you badly. Ensure that the pages are optimized for mobile users and all the content that goes live are mobile-friendly too.
Optimisation Based on User Experience
One of the latest trends that can be seen in the digital world is that the content that appears in front of you would be a reflection of what you have been searching before that. Google algorithms are smart enough to detect the user behavior and churn out the kind of content that you would be interested in.
This feature is also followed by social media platforms for an enhanced user experience, showing you the kind of content that you would want to see, rather than you being forced to scroll down in search of something interesting to read or watch.
Importance of Local SEO
Local SEO is one of the aspects that has improved the user experience. This feature is beneficial for small and large businesses alike as it shows the brand details like address, phone number and other necessary details for businesses in the same geographical region. This feature helps you find businesses and brands around your location that is relevant to your search.
Marketing Your Content
Content marketing is one of the latest SEO trends that can be observed in 2018. SEO and marketing services go hand in hand, leading to better traffic and ranking of the website. There are multiple ways of content marketing to reach your content to the mass. On-page SEO and off-page SEO are among the best techniques that can take your website to a different level.
Think Beyond Google
Though it is known that Google is the top ranking search engine, the trends have started changing slowly. The other search engines like Bing Yelp, Amazon and even digital assistants like Siri, have started taking the place of search engines. To ensure that your content reaches the users who may use any of these sources to reach to you, your content must be search-friendly beyond being Google-friendly.
Use of Long-Tail Keywords
Another trend that has been observed in the digital world is the use of long-tail keywords. This is a smart move as it improves your search results and helps you reach a better ranking on search results. This makes the search less competitive and more relevant, making your articles have a higher chance of appearing in search.
For instance, it is extremely challenging to bring your article on “Benefits of Essential Oils for Hair” on a searched keyword “essential oils”. Instead, you can set the targetted keyword as “essential oils for hair” which becomes more specific to the content you share and would bring you the right user who searches for the exact content.
The Boom of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence or AI is no more just a term you’ve read about in sci-fi novels. Search engines like Google have come up with artificial intelligence that works just like, or even better than a human brain. This is one of the next big things that is going to rule the digital world.
Page Speed Matters
With more and more technologies and competition coming in, users prefer websites and pages that open instantly at a click, without having to wait for a minute or even seconds. The days are gone when users would patiently wait for the page to load. Ensure that the website page speed is high, which also means that the bounce rate would be low.
Use of Relevant Backlinks
Beyond all the techniques you follow to improve the SEO, relevant backlinks to your website are essential to improve the ranking of your website. With more backlinks, the website increases its credibility among both users and the search engines, making it easier for the website to position itself high on search.
Follow Each Trend and Ensure Better Ranking
All the above-mentioned trends have to be followed by the website to enhance and improve its SEO positioning. Since the trends keep changing often, there are high chances that new trends may come up in the near future. The brands have to be alert to these changes that happen in the digital world so that they don’t fall behind the competition.
With great content and the right strategies to promote your website and reach it to the target audience, there is no way your website would be termed irrelevant by the search engines. A perfect blend of these SEO strategies can ensure that your website enjoys a good ranking that stays longer, rather than a fluctuating ranking on search.