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5 Not to Miss SEO Trends That Will Dominate in 2018

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The holiday season is coming to its end and with it, the season of gifts and indulgence is also almost over. As we enter in 2018, it is about time to get back to business and get things straight. It is time to reflect on what will dominate SEO horizons in 2018, what kind of year it would be for Webmasters and businesses, and what can we expect from the year?

Search engines have continued to evolve last year, maintaining their tradition to refine and improve search result quality. At the same time, more businesses are taking an interest in internet marketing and optimization efforts. With sophisticated and complex algorithms, raging competition, and increasing awareness around Search Engine Optimization, SEO is becoming more complicated than ever before. SEO is no more just about keyword density and backlinks. In fact, some of the famous SEO techniques of the past have become serious offenses deserving penalties in the current optimization landscape. Ranking factors are always changing, with some dominating the others while others are completely falling apart.

Therefore, it is the right time to contemplate and discuss latest and the most important SEO trends of this year, preparing and aligning SEO strategy to stay ahead.

Team ESP Interactive Solutions, as the leading Bay Area SEO company has prepared a list of the dominating SEO trends for 2018. Here is what we expect SEO landscape to look like in this year.

#1- Evolution of SERP and Featured Snippets

SERP or Search Engine Result Pages are nothing like these have been two years ago, let alone a decade ago. In the past, there were ten links shown on the result page with title text in blue, links in green, and meta description in black. That was it! The theory that the top results in organic search get most clicks

But, now it is not that simple anymore. The new features like position 0, local 3-pack results, relevant images, and news have been introduced in SERP, stealing clicks from the first organic result.

For example, you type and enter ‘Apple Pie Recipe’ in Google’s search engine. A typical result page looks something like this.

Apple Pie SERP

On the top is position 0, where you can read the steps without clicking on the link. Position 0 is Google’s way of quickly answering questions to the user, displaying information on the top. You can also see information including user rating, image, votes, baking time, and calories along with the link, title, and description. These rich snippets are a product of structured data.

Structured data facilitates search engine to crawl, understand and interpret content. As such, structured data has not been a confirmed ranking factor and it is most likely does not improve ranking. However, through properly displaying content in search results, it attracts users and increases click-through rate which improves ranking.

What Should You do?

It is time to take featured snippets and changes in SERPs seriously. Adopt structured data tools such as schema.org to make sure that your content is organized and concise. It is also a good time to start tracking your ranking on different SERP features like top stories, videos, and images as these can be potentially sucking traffic from you.

#2-Speed and Security

Page speed matters and matters a lot. Since 2010, Google has confirmed page speed as a ranking factor. Fast loading websites align with Google’s goals of building a user-centric internet experience. Page speed will continue to play a major role in determining the quality of UX or User Experience of a website which in turns contribute to ranking. Google has an unsurpassed speed of loading in half a second, while it can be overambitious in some cases, you must aim for a website loading in under two seconds. Google’s recommended speed for web pages is three seconds, but the faster, the better.

Website security is a big yes! Digging a little deep in the Google’s SERP, you will realize that almost all links are HTTPS and SSL domains. According to SEMrush survey, 65% of the website that ranks on top 3 positions are always HTTPS. An unsecured site sends untrustworthy signals to the users once they land on the page, resulting in high bounce rate; and you can expect a drop in rankings.

Google Page Speed Benchmarks
Google Page Speed Benchmarks By SmartInsights

So, if you have not considered site security yet, you should make sure that all of your pages are sent over secured servers. Choose HTTPS domain for your website, and not only it will help you to build a secure website, but it will also reward you with improved ranking as well.

#3-Voice Search on the Rise

You would be aware of the fact that Google has launched a voice search assistant for Android. More and more smartphones and devices are launched with built-in voice assistants. If you have turned a deaf ear to buzz about voice search till now, 2018 is the time to rectify it.

Google’s study reported that a whopping 41% of adults and 55% of teens use voice search more than once every day. Need more facts? 1 in every five searches already come from voice search, and 25% of searches on Android devices in the US are voice searches (jaw-dropping?). Google with its Pixel 2 phone, Google Home, and Google Assistant along with Amazon’s echo are determined to make voice-activated devices part of everyday life, and we can already see the momentum gaining around these devices.

Voice Search Statistics 2016

If you have been skeptical about voice search, it is time to mend your ways. With voice search, queries become more of a conversational nature rather than an odd collection of words. So, the SEO webmasters need to pick up this trend of making content conversational, concise, and relevant to everyday language use. It also emphasizes the long-tail keywords and common syntax.

#4-Mobile Is Only Going Uphill

You would have read about mobile friendliness in the past too. They have been making to SEO masters’ new year resolutions for quite some time and was also part of SEO trends of 2017. But, no matter what, the importance of mobile in optimization cannot be emphasized enough.

With increasing voice searches, you may think that mobile friendliness is not that relevant anymore or mobile searches are not big anymore. But, it is another way around. Most of the voice searches come from smartphones and mobile devices, and as voice search increases, this trend is expected to rise.

So, Google’s impending mobile-first indexing, rising volume of mobile search, increasing trend of voice search, and mobile-friendliness as a confirmed ranking factor are the signals all pointing towards the need for mobile optimization. Not only your website should be mobile-friendly with fast loading times, but it should offer a seamless mobile experience to the user. If a user needs to log in to your website from a desktop to read, to get information or to place an order, you are most likely losing a sizeable chunk of your potential customers.

#5-Personalized and Biased SERPs and Machine Learning

Do you think that search results are same for everyone for the same query? I hope you don’t. Search results are modified based on the location of user and business. Or in a geeky way, Local search modifies the result from location to location.

So, do all users searching for ‘best HIIT studio in San Francisco’ see the same results? Or do small business owners looking for ‘best social media marketing company in Bay Area’ see same results?  No! Search results are not only defined by the location of the user, but also integrate factors like user’s search history, interests, and frequently visited websites.

Google’s personalization of search results began in 2002 and had advanced a lot in these years. Personalized SERPs are displayed through data taken from history, account information if the person is logged into Gmail in the browser, and cookies stored in the cache. However, it does not mean that you do not stand a chance.

But, it means that you must focus on producing user-centric, informative, and authentic content that grabs attention and is capable of bringing the user back to your website. The personalization of SERPs is an opportunity if it is used in the right way. If you have been successful in being among the top results when the user first searched the query and user landed on your website, you can use cookies to store some information of your website in user’s browser. Furthermore, if user stayed on your website for a good time, there are chances that you will be among top results for any subsequent queries.

Take Away?

So, if you want your SEO strategy to perform in 2018 and beyond, you should stay current on the latest trends and ranking factors along with a futuristic outlook. The year has just begun, and like last year, Google’s confirmed, and unconfirmed algorithm updates can roll anytime. Things may change in due course with changes in ranking factor and their relative importance. Till then, focus on making it to rich snippets, knowledge graph, tweaking your website to make it secure and fast, modifying your website and strategy to make it voice and mobile-friendly, and finally using personalized SERPs for your benefit.

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Top 10 Techniques for Quality Link Building

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Tips for Quality Backlinks

We are in 2017. It has been five years that Google launched its critical Google Panda update that heavily penalized low-quality websites filled with useless links. Google Panda not just changed the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) forever, but it also had the lasting impact on the link building part of SEO.

backlink

With Panda filter becoming an integral part of Google’s core ranking algorithms, Backlinking did not remain as easy as just uploading anchor text rich articles with a backlink on every other website. Such content farming websites with spam or fake backlinks saw a major throwback in ranking as Panda was rolled out. But did backlinks stop making a difference in ranking? No.

Even in 2017, inbound links make up one of the most important ranking factors, and there is an average difference of 10,000 links on the websites ranked on 1st position, and the site ranked on 10th position. It is also true for the local SEO. According to a study by Moz, the backlinks or link signal make up 29% of local search ranking factor, and link signal includes the quantity of backlink, anchor text, the authority of the linking domain, etc. So, even if you are a local SEO expert, the ranking is mainly based on the number and authority of domains pointing to your domain.

Ranking factors

Even the Gary Illyes from Google has confirmed that “ranking without links is really really hard.”.

However, at one point the websites with too many links are penalized and at other point websites with more number of inbound links are ranked higher.

Scratching your head and wondering what to do? The backlinking has become as much about quality as much it is about quantity.

Here are the top 10 tips that can help you with acquiring quality links to improve your website’s search engine ranking and to build its authority.

  • Build Relationships, Build Links

Good relationships pay off. If you are a beginner at link building, it is time to learn it from the pros in your specific niche and start participating in niche community forums online. There are online communities of bloggers and guest posters on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By actively participating in the groups and positively contributing to the discussion in comments and posts, you can build relationship and authority. You can acquire good and valuable backlinks from these communities by mutual participation. Also, you will also stay up to date with latest industry news and can always have reliable advice from professionals.

  • Turn to Friends and Family

Do you have bloggers in your family or friend’s circle? If you do, it is time to turn to them for quality backlinks. Ask them to include a link to your domain in the content that is relevant to your niche.

But, if the website is not related to your industry or has no relevance to your products and services, such links can also take you to Google’s bad books.

  • Use Testimonials for Good Links

Companies are always looking for positive customer feedback. By writing testimonials for the companies, you can give your feedback and get a backlink to your website.

It will help businesses to build customer trust and boast about their products and services, and it will help you to acquire a quality link for your domain. For example, you are a business in New York and have partnered with a New York SEO company for digital services. When you write a testimonial for them and include a link to your website, they will be happy to publish it and link it back to you.

So, it is time to say few good words about the companies.

  • Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a time-tested solution for acquiring backlinks. However, Google’s Panda algorithm penalized websites with spammed guest blogging links. Since then, it is believed that the guest blogging can hurt your ranking if it is not done properly. You can read about successful guest blogging techniques here.

Make sure the guest post makes an original contribution to the host website, and the article is related to your industry. A guest post written with the intention of information sharing instead of bragging about your company positively impacts ranking.

Think about the guest post as a mean to build your authority and reputation.

  • Eavesdropping on Competitor’s Backlink

One all-rounder advice from all SEO experts is to closely watch your competitor’s website. Be it keyword research, on-page optimization, or off-page optimization, if your competitor can do it, you can do it better.

Use your competitor’s knowledge and experience in backlinking to your advantage. There are online tools that can help you track your competitor’s high-quality backlinks. You can contribute your content to these websites and can request them to link your website.

  • Mend Broken Links to Website

If you have recently upgraded or re-launched a website, there are chances that there are some broken backlinks to your website. The broken links can occur due to bot’s error in crawling the wrong spelling of URL or because you have moved the page or have changed some of its information. When the broken links are clicked, they give a 404 page not found the error to the visitor.

There are online tools available to check the broken link profile of your website. You can enter the URL in the tool, and it will give you a report of all broken links. With the information of broken links, you can either rebuild the pages or redirect them to some other pages on your website.

  • Extend Broken Link Building

When you are done fixing broken links to your domain, it is time to extend the efforts to industry’s reliable and authentic website.

In this link building technique, find some of the popular websites in your industry and do some research on their broken links using the online tools. Make a list of the pages that return ‘page not found’ errors and 403 errors. If you have pages with relevant information, you can ask the webmaster to redirect those broken links to the relevant pages on your website.

You will get an authentic backlink while the other website can repair its broken link profile.

Another way of doing this is to check the broken link on Wikipedia and replace them with the relevant link to your website. Wikipedia has NoFollow links, but they pass on significant authority to your website.

  • Get Backlinks from Infographics

Visual information has become a large part of the online content. Just as the images are becoming an integral part of the web pages, the infographic is a technique to acquire quality backlinks. Many users find it easier to read and understand visual information than pure textual information and therefore, websites and webmasters accept infographics and allow you to backlink them to your website.

Another way of acquiring backlink is to conduct a reverse research in Google Images. It will help you identify the websites that have posted your infographic without linking it your domain. You can do this by adding the original image name in Google images, and it will display the relevant results.

Infographic-for-backlinks

  • Use Q&A Platforms to Build Audience and Backlink Profiles

On the Q&A platforms like Quora and Answer.com, people are asking questions of varied nature. Providing information that people need is another method of link building that leverages trust and authority. Find the questions that are relevant to your niche and industry and try to answer them with relevant and comprehensive information. There is an opportunity to urge your audience to read more on the specific topics at your website.

Not only that you get a quality link that can help in improving ranking, you can also get significant traffic from that link.

  • Earn Your Links with Quality Content

Quality never disappoints. In the myriad of content that is shared on the web every day, the quality content never fails to attract users and crawler bots. Around 27 million pieces of content are shared on the internet every day. What makes your content stand out from them and earn its backlinks is the quality of content.

If your content is accessible, readable, and engaging, more people will mention it and link it back to your domain. The earned backlinks drive reputation along with traffic. So, instead of buying your backlinks, you should earn them.

Conclusion

Earning the quality backlinks that leverage authority, trust, and ranking is not the easiest thing to do. But, it is definitely one of the worthiest factors for top ranking in 2017.

Building relationship and leveraging relationship in your niche community, creating shareable and interesting content and posting it as the guest blogger, helping others with relevant information, and fixing the technicalities are some of the important tips to build your backlink profile.