SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is constantly evolving and has changed drastically in the last decade. It’s a very complex science, but not the sort of science only Albert Einstein can get his head round. It’s how much of it you need to know that makes it really challenging.
As search engines strive to improve the quality of search results, they are learning more and more about us; the consumers. Some ranking factors will send you to the top of rankings, such as Answer Boxes and local search results. Some will also see you fall into oblivion. To stay at the top, you need to monitor and improve your SEO.
To stay ahead of the SEO curve, Beyond Clicks has put together a list of notable trends in 2018.
VOICE SEARCH
Retailers have seen a dramatic spike in wireless smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. This entail has seen a change the search market and we’re expecting to see an even bigger shift towards voice search in 2018.
It has been predicted that by 2020 over 50% of searches will be via voice search. These talking robots are quickly becoming part of our everyday lives by doing the small mundane tasks around the house. We can turn on lights, control the washing machine, find out the weather for tomorrow and play music.
To capture those voice searches, we have to create questions people are going to ask about your product. Think about all your audience types, not just people similar to you. You’re going to have to disconnect your professional brain to do this.
Create content that focuses on the longer more conversational search terms and more specific searches. For example, using a standard search, someone may search ‘best smartphone’. Using search voice, they may ask a more specific question as they are expecting a quicker answer.
RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
Most people are connected to the internet via a smartphone or tablet nowadays and have access 24/7. In October this year, mobile internet usage surpassed desktop for the first time with a share of 53%.
People want to access the same information no matter what device they are using. If your site isn’t optimised for mobile, you are well behind the curve.
Responsive web design means that the layout of your website on desktop resizes and replicates to the size of screen being used to view it.
Many people use more than one device to view online content on any given day. For example, when purchasing a holiday, a user will look at the same site on multiple devices across multiple days. Users expect to be able to do and see all the same content no matter what device they are using.
Websites can be penalised by Google if your site isn’t optimised for mobile. In April 2015, the search engine began rewarding websites that were built responsively in SERPs. Sites that were already mobile-friendly were not affected, but those that hadn’t noticed a significant drop in their rankings.
Blog Post: Why your business needs a responsive mobile site and why having a mobile-only site is bad news.
MORE CONTENT
You will hear this a lot and it’s true; content is king and it’s here to stay. Invest in high quality content.
However, Google is constantly evolving and learning to be better at understanding search intent, and now relies on topical relevance. Gone are the days of just writing content to fill a page that wasn’t relevant to your product or service. Google will now crawl your page and notice this and thus penalise you in search rankings.
The content optimisation now goes far beyond keywords, and requires a much more complex approach. It’s as the saying goes, “quality over quantity”. Keywords still matter, but instead of stuffing, use them in a natural manner, supporting them with topically-relevant context.
Instead of generating thin pages optimised for specific search queries, reconsider your keyword research and stop focusing around several keywords. Instead, learn about your customers and what sort of questions they are asking.
OVER-STUFFING KEYWORDS
“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practise of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in search engine results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, or out of context, all of which contribute to a negative user experience and will harm your site’s ranking.
A decade ago, you’d write a description or blog post and cram it full of the specific keyword you wanted to rank for. It didn’t even have to make sense, but as long as that keyword hit that magic number you would spot a few percentage points that made all the difference.
Obviously, that’s all nonsense now we know more about how search engines work. If a 1% keyword density is good, then 5% should be great.
Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.
AI & MACHINE LEARNING
Artificial intelligence and machine learning used to be a thing you’d see in movies, but in recent years it has come to the forefront, especially within digital marketing. AI is already learning and changing the way that search results are ranked. Machine learning can also facilitate the way searches take place, helping users find contextualised results.
You may have noticed that your search results have been more personalised and just thought it was a coincidence. Well, it’s not. Both AI and machine learning are contributing to a more personalised experience. They know what you are searching for, when, on what time device and how often. It can now tailor ads to you based on this information and SERPs are more tailored to you.
With the rise of voice search and digital assistants, SEO marketers need to be developing strategies to keep up with trends and convert customers into conversions.
LOCAL SEO
Local SEO is more important than ever that you optimise your on-site and off-site SEO strategies for clients and customers who may be searching for your local business. Whether that be a certain product/service you sell or the business itself, without the right strategies you won’t capture those search queries.
To get the most out of your local SEO tactics, you want to make sure that your title and meta descriptions detail what you provide and where. An acceptable title tag length is approximately 50-60 characters, with a meta description of approximately 160-200 characters.
According to Google, roughly four out of five consumers use search engines to conduct local searches. Whether that be directions, a nearby restaurant, public attraction etc., many small businesses have not claimed even a single local business listing online, which is a huge missed opportunity.
A good way to do this is to list your business on Google My Business (GMB). It’s free and can get you incredible exposure if you’re optimised enough to show up in Google’s local three-pack.
To claim your Google My Business, visit google.com/business. There’s a verification process, but is necessary because Google wants to confirm that your business is legitimate and that you are the actual business owner.
The next step is listing your GMB with a solid description, categories, business hours, types of payments accepted and so on.
Customer reviews go a long way in converting a potential customer sitting on the fence into make a purchase. According to a recent survey, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, and seven out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if asked by the business. The two places you should focus on getting reviews are your business’s Facebook page and Google My Business.
SERPS
Gone are the days of assuming the #1 organic ranking is the way to get as much traffic as possible. SERPs are stealing searchers’ attention and clicks from organic listings.
The ‘Quick Answer Box’ is the search list of information that appears in the search result when you enter a keyword like ‘how to’ or ‘what is’ in any search engine. This is something Google is pushing and will become more prominent in months to come.
Quick Box will search the web for a quick snippet of content and will display the answer for the search query. Therefore, you must optimise your content for the snippet feature to help users get the information in a concise and quick manner, instead of reading the whole article. It has been observed that the results that show up in an Answer Box can see a CTR of 32.3%.
A similar way to reach the top of the SERPs is through Featured Snippets. This brings out the need for a strategy on how to optimise a site’s content to meet Google’s standards for Featured Snippets.
Lists, tables and graphs tend to be popular, as they are quick to read and highly informative, as is content created in a Q&A format. All these make it easier for Google to extract the right content to show up as a Featured Snippet.
SPEED
We have all experienced it. You click on a website via a search engine, it takes too long to load, you look elsewhere. Website loading speed is big! Not only is it a ranking signal; it’s a major UX factor. UX, in turn, impacts rankings. It’s a loop of sorts.
The benchmark Google expects pages to load is under three seconds. To check the speed of your site, we recommend using Google’s Search Console, which details time spent downloading a page in milliseconds.
SEO CONCLUSION
Whilst many of the above factors will change the game for SEO in 2018, you shouldn’t focus on just one or two methods to improve your strategy. Take all of them into account and work on each one individually to dramatically improve your chances of ranking higher, capturing new customers and driving new sales. With SEO, if you’re not ahead of the curve you’re going to be swept away and forgotten about.
Search engines are constantly learning more about the consumers and how they interact with your websites, ads and SERPs. By optimising your site, you are increasing your chances of not only attracting new customers, but also beating your competitors.
At Beyond Clicks, we offer a range of extensive digital marketing services and are the leading experts in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) management for a huge range of services, including insurance, law, retail and many more.
Our experience spans 20 years in direct response advertising – over 17 of which are within digital. This, plus our constant desire to drive and innovate within our sectors, means we get results.
We over services in PPC Management, Social Media Ad Management, Display Advertising, Website Design & Development, SEO, Tracking & Technology and White Labelling.