Top 10 SEO Trends of 2018 still necessary for your online presence

2017 is fast approaching and it’s time to compile the SEO trends set to rule search marketing next year.

2015 brought to the fore more in the realm of business access via the web than ever before. Today’s modern-day discerning consumers are ever-connected to the internet and essentially demand easy accessibility from their favorite brands. Companies that aren’t able to provide customers with a pleasing experience on the internet are losing out as today’s consumers demand more from the World Wide Web every day. No wonder, it has become important for business to be creative than ever in their SEO endeavors.

 The watchdogs of search optimization keep on predicting changes and it is better to keep up than be left in the dust. So, if you’re curious about what 2017 has in store for SEO to stay ahead in the game, here are 10 SEO trends that businesses can expect to see in 2018.

 1) PAGE TAGGING

Yep, we saw a number of brands going mobile-friendly in 2017. And we’re going to see more of the same this year. Given that mobile usage is set to outpace desktop usage in the next few years, it could mean that, soon, writing heading tags will be a norm, rather than the exception.

 Cellular data networks are much slower than WIFI to high-speed wired network connections. So, it’s important to maintain consistency in the structure down to H5 tags in order to make it easy for different devices and browsers to load pages effectively. In addition, it’s smart to pre-load most searched information so that your users do not need to wait for the network.

 2) CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION (CRO)

 This was a winner last year and it’s still here, Conversion Rate Optimization. Though marketers were able to drive traffic and engage their visitors, conversion still remained a distant dream for many. And this realization pushed many marketers to embrace CRO in 2015. In fact, according to a Venture Beat survey report, conversion rate optimization is a vital part of marketing technology. 

Experts believe that the use of conversion rate optimization will become more advanced in 2018. More and more marketers are expected to use CRO to increase conversion across different stages of the sales funnel and cope up with the ever-changing dynamics of the market. In addition, web tracking and event tracking in Google Analytics is likely to become popular amongst those looking to convert users quickly and effectively.

Related Blog :- What is Local SEO and Guidelines To Do it Better

 3) APP STORE OPTIMIZATION (ASO)

In 2015, mobile apps accounted for 52% of all user time spent online. Quite obviously, app store optimization (ASO) has become important than ever. Increasing number of businesses are expected to run In-app A/B testing to test their idea and push the envelope. Furthermore, deep linking will become all the more important in order to improve the overall visibility and relevancy of an app page dramatically. Measuring in-app analytics will become essential. Success and failure of apps will be largely dependent on app open rates, click through rates, conversions, and more.

Related :- The Detailed Guide to Off-Page SEO

 4) LOCAL AND VOCAL SEARCH

Local SEO was a major win for us last year and is likely to be continue as a trend for 2018 too.  Accepted more prevalently, local SEO is expected to make marketers concentrate on local strategies. To stay ahead in the game, local businesses must clean up their NAP – Name, Address and Phone directory and add local terms in website content. In addition, it makes sense to put schema tagging and local listings to ensure increased visibility in 2018.

Google’s Hummingbird algorithm is already working hard to make search more conversational and Voice based searches including Google Now, Windows Cortana and Apple Siri pushing voice search into everyday usage. In fact, an ever-increasing number of people rely on voice based searches to get results quickly. Presumably, these voice based searches are going to change the dynamics of the search eco system. Quite naturally, 2018 will also see businesses working on their social SEO techniques to get rank higher and increase their visibility in the voice search engine result pages.

 5) DIFFERENT PHASES OF SEO (RESEARCH AND BUYING)

The world of SEO is set to take a giant leap in the year 2018. Marketers and businesses are likely to construct different techniques and strategies to categorize SEO into different categories depending upon buyer’s journey. It will include figuring out separate sets of keywords to target visitors in different stages of their buyer’s journey. It will also take into account user behavior attributed to site use and conversion.

6) MICRO-MOMENTS AND THE FRACTURED USER JOURNEY

Given the rise of mobile devices, the way people consume media has changed dramatically. Predictable, daily online sessions have now been replaced by many fragmented online sessions spread throughout the day. But then there are high-intent moments when people turn to their mobile device to buy something, browse or watch videos. These moments are called ‘micro-moments’, a concept recently introduced by Google. Micro-moments are decision-oriented.

Marketers looking to stay ahead in the game must devise strategies to identify the micro-moments that matter the most to your business. Once, you identify the micro-moment, reach out to consumers and provide them with information they want and how they want it.

7) REAL TIME PENGUIN UPDATES

Recently, Google’s George Illyes indicated a real-time Google Penguin update could be launched in 2018. Penguin analyzes the value of a site and penalizes sites that are not in line with Google’s quality guidelines. A real-time algorithm upgrade is sure to make the competition in the world of SEO even fiercer. So, if you wish to spearhead the market in 2018, do well to start working on high quality content and White Hat SEO tactics.

8) GOOGLE’S CONTENT ALGORITHM UPDATE

This is a pretty audacious bit of 2018 SEO predictions. In 2015, Google declared that it will penalize Scraper sites that offer content copies from other sites. So, if you’re looking to improve your ranking, don’t even think of scraping content from different sources and use them into content sections of your site. Make sure your content is unique and well-written to win the rat race of ranking in 2018.

9) GOOGLE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH GROWTH AND TRAFFIC DROP

No matter, how much money you’re spending to source a creative website design by launching a crowd sourcing contest at a popular site such as iMOBDEV, all your efforts will go down the drain if your user isn’t able to find much information about for your brand name when searching online. This is where Google’s Knowledge Graph comes to your rescue.

Search engine titan, Google is all set to maximize the information on its search results pages. This will make things much easier for users. You can now find a host of information when you run a search for local listings and reviews. Although it’s a good news for users, it threatens the volume of organic search traffic to sites. But you don’t need to worry, you may optimize Knowledge Graph in order to get more search traffic by using entity keywords, using schema markup everywhere possible, optimizing your Google+ pages and inviting user reviews.

10) THE RISE OF INTERACTIVE CONTENT

Here’s another 2015 trend on the list and it looks it will take the center stage in 2018 too. Interactive content has been the talk of the town amongst marketers and consumers alike. Online quizzes, microsites, interactive infographics and interactive white papers are known to encourage user engagement and interaction with a brand. 2018 is likely to see an increasing number of marketers and businesses embracing Interactive content to drive traffic, engage visitors, generate leads and boost conversion

So there it is, our 2018 SEO predictions. It’s difficult to say which of these trends will become a major hit and which of them will die a fast death. But one things is sure. More awesomeness will come in the world of SEO and SEO Services Company can boost your sales with the future trends. So, cheers to more exciting SEO strategies and techniques!

Original Article has been published at Polaris SEO Agency's Blog