SEO Ranking Factors in 2018: What’s important
If you are one of those new marketers or just had a new website, then these days it is equally important to be active on an online platform. However, today, only a mere online presence with a good website layout is never going to help you attain your business goal. In fact, in last few years, SEO has changed the way of conducting marketing, gaining customer’s attention even for those who are not new to the industry.
“Definitely, the old tactics or formulas are not going to work anymore.”
Today, as a business owner, it has got more vital to apply most novel and smart SEO strategies and perform business online. In last ten years, the Google has made various changes in the algorithm, and so it has got essential to add most effective SEO tactics to improve and increase the website ranking. The regular changes in the algorithm have made even challenging for SEO experts to make the website’s visibility noticeable in various search engines. Definitely, the old tactics or formulas are not going to work anymore. 2018 is about to come, and the real factors that are going to play a significant role in coming days are:
In-depth Content will add extra benefit
Let us not forget that a few years back, Google search engine used to analyze the webpage and measure the specific keyword density. In other words, they gave an excellent weight to webpage’s content. The Google spider used to visit your webpage and examine if the keyword appears in the title tag, description tag, H1 tag, URL, and Image ALT tag. Although Google still will count those factors, in coming a time, instead of only just computing content, the focus will also shift to context. With in-depth content, a Google searcher will be able to find required information in one place.
Don’t ignore Google Mobile-first Index
Last year Google declared that very soon they will switch over to a “mobile-first index”. In simple terms, very soon Google will consider the mobile version of website the “real” version. Let us not forget that these days approximately 55% of Google searches are from a mobile device, and in future, the percentage is going to increase further. Though Google’s Mobile-first index isn’t live, in 2018, you got to be prepared.
Website Security
Website security is once again going to be the most important SEO factor. In recent times, the internet security has turned out to be the most critical factor for protecting the businesses from any cyber-attack, and in the coming year, the concept may gain more significance. Google has taken action to secure the web by using the ranking signal. The higher ranking of HTTPS percentage depends upon the keywords volume, their length, and long tail comparisons.
Pay Attention to Voice Search
“Voice search” is going to be the next big thing in SEO. As per Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report, since 2008, Voice searches performed in Google has gone up 35x. Adding to that, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, recently announced during Google I/O keynote, voice searches are going to score 20% off altogether searches on mobile devices. Though voice search might appear to be new, recent facts can’t be ignored. So to optimise voice search, content needs to be on the first page. As mainstream of voice searches are question-based, so in next few months including question & answer in the content will get important.
User Experience
Google has apparently defined that your website must focus on the user and you better have a website that can deliver a smooth UX to each and every online visitor. A good UX proportionately increases visitors’ engagement ratio. It’s important how successful you are while engaging your audience including your quality content, titles, tags, and keywords. As per the study conducted by SEMRush the more user stays on your website, higher the chance of your website getting ranked well. So, you got to keep monitoring your website’s speed, its readability, and navigation structure. In 2018, UX will also be the key to maintain search traffic by generating an engaged audience.
Links will be Key to success
With few essential points been said, SEO is more about links and content, and so links will again be the decisive factor to crack the first page. Links will still be the base of SEO in 2018. However, a key challenge for 2018 will be managing the guest blogs and opt for a right method or tactic to involve them as a part of a link building strategy without bringing any negative impact on a brand’s reputation.
It is essential that you accept the fact that as we proceed towards 2018, SEO is already changing, and to gain a good ranking is going to be more challenging. Once you have a handle that factors explained above, you could be able to optimise your website for the new SEO trends.
