Top SEO Trends for 2018

Top SEO Trends for 2018The new 2018 is rapidly approaching, which means it’s time to learn about the main SEO-trends that he is preparing to meet him fully armed.

1. Voice Search

According to Google statistics, today every fifth search query is a voice search. At the same time, the popularity of digital assistants continues to gain momentum. Such a rapid development of voice search technology promises to radically change the information processing system in the near future.

Accuracy of speech recognition will be improved, and at the same time the number of users using voice search will increase.

This means that in the near future the search market will go through a serious transformation, and a voice search will play a significant role on it. Therefore, it will be useful to focus on long-tail queries and the use of natural language, as communication with voice assistants occurs in the form of a dialogue.

The popularity of voice search will also contribute to the introduction of this functionality in the management systems of smart homes. As soon as dialogue search goes beyond smartphones, a new vector of development will appear in the field of SEO and content marketing, which will open many new opportunities for promotion.

2. Link Building

Despite numerous predictions about the imminent disappearance of such a phenomenon as link building, its role in SEO continues to grow.

But do not forget that not all links are equally useful. Only those obtained from popular resources devoted to the same subject matter as the promoted site have real value.
In other words, in 2018 the SEO strategy must necessarily include the creation of useful links, the development of relations and the obtaining of qualitative links.

If you use guest blogging, do it as carefully as possible. In the spring of this year, Google reported an increase in the number of spam links in such articles. The company does not object to guest posts, but only on condition that they contain useful information for users. If the only purpose of placement is to redirect the reader to the author’s site, the search engine will regard such a post as a violation.

Developing a strategy for link building, it is necessary to focus on complex work with links. Getting single links from questionable resources will not be of use, but, on the contrary, will only harm the site.

3. User Experience

The value of the user experience in 2018 will increase even more. Google constantly emphasizes that the user for him is the most important thing.

UX-optimization allows to achieve maximum involvement of the user when interacting with the site. And engagement rates help search engines determine how useful pages are for users.
Improving the usability of the site begins with the optimization of download speed, readability and competent construction of the navigation structure. These are the main components of good usability, but there are many more minor nuances. In order not to lose sight of them, regularly study the patterns of user behavior.

Since every year the number of mobile Internet users is growing, the optimization of the site for mobile platforms is still an indispensable condition for its effective promotion.

4. Quick response

A few years ago Google integrated blocks with search results to revive it and provide users with faster and more convenient access to information received in response to the request. Now the sites have the opportunity to bypass the competitors in the TOP, because the so-called zero position with answers from Google overrides the top delivery.
It remains to understand how to get there.

Most often, lists, tables, graphs and step-by-step instructions fall into the block with answers. Also, Google loves content in the “question-answer” format, because this format facilitates the process of extracting information for display in the block with the answer.

Pages falling into zero positions have a CTR of 32.3%, so a carefully thought out strategy of getting into the block with the answers can give an impressive result and significantly increase the conversion of the site.

5. Mobile-first index

Google is actively testing the mobile-first index, which means that its launch is coming, which will make it clear how successful the business is impacted by mobile devices.
Keywords on mobile devices are ranked quite differently than on desktop, so mobile-first content is an indispensable condition for the company’s advancement in mobile search.

But this is not the main reason why you need to adapt sites for mobile devices. According to statistics, 57% of the world’s Internet traffic falls on smartphones and tablets. A company that cares about its customers must make the site as convenient for viewing on any device.
he speed of the site is one of the most important criteria for search engines. Google AMP technology allows you to download mobile pages for 1 second and increase the time spent on the site by 35%. This makes more and more publishers use this technology, so it is quite natural that in 2018, the demand for it is expected to increase.

In order to check how much your site is convenient for mobile users, you can use the Mobile-Friendly Test tool from Google. Just enter the website address to find out if your site is mobile.

6. Visual Search

The share of visual content on the network is increasing every day, so the world’s leading technology companies such as Google, Bing and Pinterest have gone beyond the text format and are actively working on the development of visual search engines. This suggests that in 2018, special attention should be paid to optimizing visual content.

As an example, you can consider the service Google Lens, which works as follows: the user downloads a photo and gets useful information about the object depicted on it. For example, if you upload a photo of a restaurant to Google Lens, you can find out its address, hours of operation, and see the menu.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence already plays a huge role in the ranking of search results. Users are offered pages that match the context of the request. Thus, the process of interaction with the search engine becomes more accurate and personalized.

The growing popularity of voice search and virtual assistants is an excellent ground for the development of artificial intelligence systems, which will certainly lead to an increase in the positions of sites that take this trend into account.

You just got acquainted with the main trends in the field of SEO, which are prepared in 2018. Of course, traditional techniques will not lose their relevance. But, perhaps, the main thing that is important to understand in the coming year is that SEO has long ceased to be a blind pursuit of positions in the TOP. This is a huge work, which includes a lot of directions – working with ready-made answers, contextual advertising, voice search and local SEO. Only using a full range of tools can achieve a powerful result.

Image credit: Kaufdex

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