SEO Techniques and Strategies for 2018
(1) Make Your Site Super-Fast
Web users don’t have that much patience to wait for websites, that take too much time to load.
As a marketer, put yourself in the customers’ shoes and think about it:
How long will you linger over a slow-loading site?
Of course, not for long!
Without speed, there is nothing.
So, here’s the deal:
Optimize the formats and responsive sizes of the media that you have uploaded onto your website, and eliminate loose links and pointless data that slows down loading time.
Remember: it’s a race.
And most importantly, Google has publicly confirmed that website loading speed is one of the major ranking factors that Google uses.
You can use one of the following tools to check your website loading speed:
Pingdom or GTmetrix
For example: We have texted our blog in GTmetrix.
Now:
You can instruct your web developer to work on those factors which are affecting your website speed.
(2) Maintain Mobile Friendliness
Have you ever asked yourself: “Do I need a mobile friendly website?”
The truth is, a major section of the online customers is surfing the internet through their smart phones.
Google has already programmed an algorithm on April 21, 2015, which shows sites, that are responsive in nature, will be prioritized, and rank higher in mobile search results. They have given clear guidelines about how to make a website mobile friendly.
Use the Mobile-Friendly Test tool by Google to see if pages on your site are mobile-friendly or not.
So, what are you waiting for?
Make your website mobile-friendly today.
(3) Use Long Tail Keywords in Your SEO Strategy
Long tail keywords are keywords or key phrases that are more specific to your product or service than more common head keywords (one word).
In general, long tail keywords get less search traffic, but will usually have a higher conversion rate.
The more specific your keyword is, the less competition you will have to face.
If you have just started your SEO campaign for a brand-new website, then you should concentrate on long-tail keywords.
Why?
The fact is this:
A new website doesn’t have that much of authority to compete with big branded websites.
Here is a small case study:
We were trying to rank once with one of our article for the keyword “SEO tips”.
We quickly realized that it will be very difficult to rank in the top of Google for that term.
Why?
Just look at the Google’s first page results for that keyword:
As you can see in the image above, Search Engine Land, entrepreneur.com, Ahrefs and other big websites are ranking for that keyword.
Also, there were about 11,900,000 search results, which is HUGE!
Did we give up?
Of course not!
This is where long-tail keywords come into action.
We targeted the long tail versions of the keyword “SEO tips.”
We decided to target “SEO tips and tricks” instead of SEO tips.
We noticed that this long tail keyword was less competitive.
Have a look:
Case in point:
The keyword SEO tips and tricks was getting decent searches per month.
That way, we quickly ranked higher with this less-competitive keyword.
Quite effective, right?
If you build quality backlinks to your blog post, you’ll also rank higher for the competitive terms like “SEO Tips” with ease.
(4) Produce In-Depth High-Quality Content
Developing the right kind of content is not like composing a music track: it’s not very likely that you will become a one-hit-wonder with just one post.
Quality trumps quantity when it comes to online content.
Professional SEO companies never limit their knowledge to just optimizing, they create high-quality content as well.
Write. Provide. Research. Offer.
Keep posting articles that you have written with passion for the subject and that will help others too.
What is Search Engine Optimization anyway, if it does not involve quality?
Be smart. Write well.
Google loves fresh quality content.
Now:
If you find it hard to select awesome topics for your next blog post, don’t worry.
There are dozens of ways to find amazing blog post topic ideas.
Google news and Buzzsumo are two of my favourite tools to find awesome content ideas.
For example:
Go to Buzzsumo, select Past year from left, enter a broad topic and then click on the search button.
Buzzsumo will show you the mostly shared content in the last 12 months like this:
These are the best-performing articles in the last one year.
Also, you can use Google News for latest content ideas.
Here is how:
Easy, right?
(5) Update and Republish Old Blog Posts
There is no secret in the fact that, people love to read updated content all the time.
Not only people, Google also prefers to show their users up-to-date content for better user experience.
Therefore, you should update your existing web content with newer ones for getting a better result.
Wondering whether updating old content works?
The short answer: YES.
As you can see in the screenshot above, organic traffic for one of our old blog articles increased by 33.21% in 30 days by updating that post.
Now:
The post is ranking #1 with the target keyword “reasons to hire a virtual assistant”.
Not only that, the same post is ranking for several similar long tail keywords:
Bottom line:
Update your low performing old blog posts as soon as possible. It’s usually 10x faster (and more effective) way to re-publish your old content than creating something new from the scratch
(6) Link Building: Keep Quality in Mind, Not Quantity
A search quality senior strategist at Google recently has revealed that “Backlink” is one of the top 3 ranking signals in Google’s search algorithm.
Look what Google is saying about the role of backlinks:
So:
What is quality backlink?
A link from relevant and high-quality website is considered as a quality link.
For example:
Your blog post is about SEO tips. Then, your blog post will need backlinks from other SEO blogs.
You can build links from Digital Marketing or content marketing blogs too, because these are (SEO, Digital Marketing or Content marketing) closely related topics.
On the other hand, you can’t build links from fashion related blogs or articles for your SEO tips article. Those will be irrelevant ones.
The fact is this:
The higher is the relevance between the original content and backlink content, the greater becomes the quality of the backlinks.
Also, you must know by now that buying hundreds of links back to your website is a trick that no longer works.
Understanding the mindset of the search engine users will help you generate better links with proper keywords, instead of having to resort to cheap antics like buying fake links that redirect people all over the net.
Don’t irritate the user. Help them.
Simple and self-explanatory links will do just that, and won’t even cause you to be banned from the Search Engines.
Beware from Google Penguin algorithm. Penguin penalizes websites that are building low quality and irrelevant backlinks to their website.
Bottom line:
If you want more organic traffic for your website, quality link building is a must.
(7) The Rise of Voice Search
Speaking to computers was unimaginable until movies like Star Trek popularized such ideas of future technology. Being able to speak to machines and having them work for us gradually came to the trend for the R&D of various companies.
Today, it has been a well-known aspect in case of online queries. Programmes like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana are becoming more popular day by day with improved user interphase.
Optimizing for voice search can increase the likelihood that your article would appear in the featured answer box, which is also known as “direct answer” and “rich answer”.
This will free the user to put their fingers to better use like holding the morning coffee on the way to work, etc.
After all, who wants to type so much?
Now, you might be wondering how to optimize your content voice search.
It is high time to improve your website content by incorporating long tail keyword. Conversational phrases should be added while optimizing conversational voice search. Apply a keyword strategy that goes well with how people talk and ask questions in real-life situations.
Think about questions that can be thrown at you by the customers, and create content that focuses on those conversational search terms.
(8) Switch Your Website to https
If one were to describe the internet, adjectives like ‘private’ and ‘confidential’ would hardly crop up. To this date, there are many internet activities missed out on because people are cautious of their personal information and don’t trust the internet as a secure and private medium.
Changing your site from HTTP to https will secure the connection with the user and protect their details.
During online transactions or filling up E-commerce forms, everything would remain safe through https only. Also, Google gives a ranking boost to secure hyperlink transfer protocols.
Do you really want to miss out on that?
Make your business website secure right now!
(9) Make A Strong Presence on Social Media
Social media is HUGE.
The first websites newbies are exposed to are Facebook and other social media accounts. Almost everyone online has at least one or two social media accounts.
Why not? Who wouldn’t want a personal page on the internet that states all about their lives?
Now, it would be really unwise not to strive to be a part of that.
A single post showing up on someone’s timeline can interest the user to click it. Moreover, they share, comment, re-post, and contribute till they ensure that the people they care about have read those articles.
Through the use of social media, your marketing content can be shared more and more. This would make the content reach more people within short span of time.
The more eyeballs you can attract, more chances are there that your services would get exposed to the wider audience, resulting in increased follower base.
Bottom line:
Share useful content on your social channels to grow your follower base. Thus, it will catalyse your SEO strategies with the increase in social media sharing.
Social media can encourage more external sites to link back to your quality content. The more relevant external links you have, the more recognition you’ll achieve in Google search engines.
Don’t miss out on social media, it is the door to home for many internet users, and engages a vast potential market for optimization. Post and let your articles thrive on social media.
(10) Google Is the King, But Don’t Forget Bing And Yahoo
The domain of internet doesn’t revolve around a particular search engine only. Understand that search engines aren’t a monopoly. No engine has reached that epitome of performance yet, so that it can command every search query.
There are still users who prefer Yahoo or Bing, and some are just plain used to it. Some unknowingly set the others as default browsers and never notice a change.
Understand that this requires you to adapt to the workings of the major search engines and develop your site accordingly.
Remember:
It is called Search Engine Optimization, not Google optimization.
Adjust your site to match the ethics of these engines as well. It will improve your SEO over multiple engines by bringing a hike into your SERPs.
Just like you have competition, Google has too. Tap into it.
(11) User Experience Is the New SEO
Rule of sales: Customer is always right.
Rule of internet: User is always right.
Of course, don’t take this too literally, but understand the message behind this. Right from the first click, your site must service the user like a shopkeeper must service a customer.
Guide them through the various options that your site offers at a good speed. Strategical assistance will do wonders in this field. Keeping the experience pleasant and user-friendly will guarantee a return and better ratings.
Don’t just communicate, SERVE.
The advanced Search Engine Optimization techniques and strategies in 2018 are expected to improve the functionality and quality of a large number of websites.
With more people becoming educated on the subject, we can expect much better experience from engines as well as leading sites like Wikipedia, etc., to boost their game and improve one of the best things in the world: The World Wide Web.
