There is no point in doing business if no one knows about it. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you are probably already aware that you need to invest a considerable amount of money, extensive research, and effort to promote your business. While much needs to be done for offline marketing, you must focus on online marketing too. The first and foremost step that you must take to make your business gain a strong foothold in the overly competitive digital space is chalking out a robust SEO strategy.
SEO is a complex field, and it changes and evolves with time. Contrary to the notion that it is not relevant to success in the online marketplace today, SEO is getting stronger each day and becoming indispensable for every business now. Every industry is currently experiencing overwhelming pressure, resulting from ever-changing customer expectations. To stay ahead of the competitive curve, implementing robust SEO techniques is vital.
The benefits of SEO services do not just stop at increasing the visibility of a business to its target market; it also includes providing the best possible experience to users. Standing in 2018, it is evident that the SEO techniques that yielded results in the past would not be as fruitful now, at least not all of them. While there is a need to be experimental and innovative, there are certain aspects of SEO, which even if old, are still relevant. For example, content is still the king, and keywords are still necessary.
Take a look at the factors that you must consider to design a robust SEO strategy in 2018:
Google is shifting to a mobile-first index
Mobile is everywhere. Fewer people today use desktop than the number of people who are comfortable with accessing information from one mobile device or the other. Almost 60% of searches come from mobile devices and now Google has made the decision to introduce the mobile-first index update. This signifies that the more mobile-friendly your website is, the better it will rank on Google. Having a responsive website is becoming imperative for achieving success in popular search engine results.
Remember, the aim is to provide your target audience with a seamless user experience across devices, both mobile and otherwise. Thus, you cannot have a mobile-friendly website that is optimized to the maximum level and another desktop website that is not optimized enough. To get the best results, have a thoroughly optimized responsive website that can perform equally well on desktop and a wide range of mobile devices.
Voice search cannot be ignored
Voice assistants have been around for quite a few years now. They are on everyone’s mobile devices. However, the accuracy of the results that this type of search provides has increased dramatically over the last couple of years with Natural Language technology improving by leaps and bounds. What is interesting is that people who were previously skeptical about the success of voice-based search are also starting to favor it now. This shift in preference is because of the convenience that voice search provides users with, especially during a commute.
Along with this widespread adoption, add the fact that there are multiple tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, and more that are launching smart home hubs based on voice technology. As these devices are being installed in more and more homes, businesses cannot afford to not optimize for them if they plan to stay competitive for long.
Optimizing for voice search means focusing on natural language searches. That means including long-tail keywords and complete sentences in content and optimizing them. For example, unlike before when one would search with ‘Robert Downey Jr. Age’, no one would need to optimize it. Today, it should be ‘How old is Robert Downey Jr.’
Link-less link building is a thing now
Does this one look a bit confusing? The truth is link building is still a valuable SEO technique, but only the links that add value can be counted now. Link building is not as convenient, or even easy as it used to be even a few years ago as Google has started penalizing sites with poor links with Penguin and Fred updates. In fact, Google does not spare bloggers if they have poor quality links on their site. To avoid this, focus on quality link building. Try to know how you can get your company’s name mentioned in other valuable sites. Set up a strategy to monitor the results of your PR, brand awareness, reputation management, and online reviews.
Invest in AMP, instant apps, or progressive web apps
As said earlier, Google is pushing to make the user experience better on the mobile web. To that end, it has started valuing the digital presence of those businesses that are innovative about creating unique mobile-based experiences for their target audiences. To make the most of this situation, you can implement Accelerated Mobile Pages or Amp, one of Google’s own solution. While it is still a hit and miss for search engine optimizers, Google is always upgrading it to make it faster, smoother, and even more engaging. You can also go for Android Instant apps that blend some features of a website with an app experience. It can also be shared and accessed by a link without the need to download. Progressive web apps or PWAs form another option, which fuses some features of the mobile experience into a website. This feature can function offline and can be pinned to the home screen.
There are some other predictions like Machine Learning and Knowledge Graph dominating the scene and SEO going beyond Google and Bing, which are ‘sure bets’ and will take off soon. Experts at many SEO Miami agencies believe that 2018 is not going to be too disruptive for SEO. However, the above factors will certainly decide how your site is faring on Google or Bing.
One thing that a business leader and an SEO strategist must remember is that there is no alternative to innovation. It pays to take a little risk in SEO, even if you are unsure about the results. As new algorithms keep redefining search standards, do invest in your time how you can leverage the latest technologies and trends to achieve the best rankings on SERPs. To stay on top of whatever is happening in the SEO arena, stay connected to SEO agency perth communities. Try to understand and analyze the trends before all companies start implementing them. Above all, remember that change is the only constant. The strategies that are yielding results today may very well become obsolete before long. So never stop experimenting.
Author: Charlie Brown
