SEO can be a complex science to navigate, so predicting SEO trends for 2018 is a little bit like reading the tea leaves and a lot of applying fundamental practices based on experience. Search engines continue to evolve with ever changing algorithm’s to improve the quality of user experience.
In order to stay ahead of emerging changes in the SERP’s we must pay close attention to the subtle ways in which search engines test results and how we can incorporate them into our strategies. It seems every 5-7 years there is a major disruption in which best practices are most important. I believe we are at a tipping point for that type of disruption in search engine optimization. To help you prepare your digital strategy, here are the top 5 SEO topics I think you should be focusing your efforts on to remain competitive in search results.
Schema Schema Schema
Google Search Webmaster Gary Illyes recently said “Add structured data to your pages because during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about”. And then he went on to say “And don’t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages”. “It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly, it leads to better ranks in some sense, because we can rank easier”.
I don’t know what more I can say to convince you to add schema to your content.
What Should You Do?
- If you are brick and mortar local business, add local business schema to your global footer and contact us page.
- Add schema to gain rich snippets in the SERP’s. Position 2 with schema is better than position 1 without it.
- Use the resources provided at schema.org to find opportunities to add schema to your pages where appropriate.
Voice Search
Voice search volume increased considerably in 2017, but ComScore predicts that over 50 percent of all searches could be voice searches by 2020.
For businesses to stay ahead of this, they will need to optimize their website content for semantic terms. Using a FAQ style question and answer section to address natural language terms such as; who, what, when, why, how and where, can help you answer these more ‘conversational’ questions.
Think of it this way. Instead of typing “downtown Seattle hotel with restaurant”, searchers might ask voice activated devices “what hotels near downtown Seattle have a restaurant?” or “what is the closest hotel to Swedish hospital”. This will significantly change the way you might write copy on your website, tag photos and conduct other content strategies.
What Should You Do?
- Use natural language modifiers in your content such as who, what, where, why, when and how.
- Build FAQ content to optimize for Featured Snippets in Google.
- If you are a local business, claim, verify and optimize your Google My Business listing.
- Add schema to your pages.
Mobile First
Ok, listen up. If your site is a already a fully responsive design (browser and device agnostic) then you are in the clear. If not, it is way past time to bite the proverbial bullet and move to a responsive environment. Google is planning a 2018 mobile first gut punch for websites that are not mobile first compliant. If you still don’t get it; Google will very soon start using the mobile version of your site as the primary version. If that version isn’t mobile friendly there is very little chance Google will serve up impressions of your pages in search, and a very good chance they will exile your site to the search equivalent of Siberia.
What Should You Do?
- Move From m. to responsive design.
- Make your content consistent across desktop and mobile.
- Focus on longer-tail keyword searches with stronger intent and a higher mobile conversion rate.
Crawl Budget
Crawl Budget has been a little discussed SEO consideration. As search optimization professionals we tend to focus on searchable elements that we can control. Crawl budget is how Google prioritizes what to crawl and when and how much resources to allocate to any given site. While SEO mostly focuses around user-experience, crawl budget optimization is primarily about making your site appealing to the search engine bots. This goes hand in hand with good SEO, you should be concerned about all the important pages being crawled, indexed and updated.
What Should You Do?
- Make sure that important pages are crawlable for search bots, while the pages you don’t want indexed (duplicates, dynamic pages, etc.) are blocked with your robots.txt, .htaccess or meta robots tag.
- Ensure that there are no unnecessary redirects and remove broken links to pages.
- The sitemap is a great help for the search engines to understand your site’s structure and discover new content faster. Keep it simple and organized.
- Silo site structure allows search engines to clearly understand contextual relationships between content themes and make it easier to index favorably.
Video Marketing
According to Recode spending on mobile video advertising is expected to grow by a whopping 49% in 2018, hitting numbers as high as $15 billion.
Online video viewership levels are higher than ever before, a growing number of businesses are turning to video marketing to build brand loyalty, engage with consumers, and advertise their goods and services.
Social media is the undisputed king of video-based marketing opportunities, with company pages commonly creating original, helpful content that entertains, informs, or educates viewers, rather than directly promoting products or brands. FaceBook captures more than 70% of social advertising revenue.
What Should You Do?
- Create and fully optimize a your YouTube channel (make sure it is connected to your other Google business assets such as Adwords, Analytics, Gmail and Google My Business).
- Consider live streaming with FaceBook and tools such as Periscope.
- Plan creative, engaging and evergreen content and re purpose across all business channels – particularly FaceBook.
- Push the video content to other syndication sites such as Vimeo and Daily Motion.
Conclusion
The future is almost now, and the line between optimizing for search engines and real users is becoming increasingly obscured. We have shifted entirely away from stuffing trophy keywords into pages of content and metadata, to providing meaningful and engaging experiences that more closely match users intent through our content.