8 SEO Trends in 2018

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life.” If he were alive today, one might think that he was referring to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Like all technology, SEO continues to change at a sometimes-alarming rate. Much of the changes in SEO are due to Google’s constantly changing algorithm, which means that the SEO strategy that worked yesterday may not work today. Also, the technology available to SEO professionals is continually evolving.

There was a time when there were only two types of search result listings: blue hypertexts and clearly marked ads. Today, SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) have become filled with images, videos, links, social media mentions, in-depth article listings, widgets, and ads. Google SERP features can include AdWords, featured snippets, tweets, image packs, shopping results, and more. This means that even if you do everything right and find yourself in the #1 SERP slot, your message can still get lost. We aren’t saying that SEO page ranking is no longer relevant; it still is, but it’s a little more complicated.

In the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise’s character Maverick says, “I feel the need for speed.” The film may have been released more than thirty years ago (1986 if you’re curious), but the quote applies to websites (and just about everything else) today. We live in a fast-paced society where people expect immediate results. This has been true for a while but has become even more relevant in 2018. Google recommends that your website load in three seconds or less. If it doesn’t load fast enough, people will quickly leave your site for one that does.

There are currently two types of snippets: rich and regular. A snippet is the result you see when you search for something. A regular snippet includes the title, the URL, and a description of the page. A rich snippet, on the other hand, shows additional information. For example, if you search “how to make pie crust,” you’ll find a lot of rich snippets that include information such as recipe rating, how long it will take to make the crust, and the calories, and even videos that are embedded directly into the search engine results page, as shown below.

Forbes reports, “According to research by Ahrefs, 99.58% of featured pages that have snippets already rank in the top 10 of Google Search. While over time this may increase to include more results, there is a correlation between high search engine results page (SERP) position and having a rich snippet result.”

This is a high priority for Google. They want to provide the best web browsing experience by providing search results that are relevant to what the person is looking for. They’ve come a long way and can even deliver results that not only match the words that people use but the intent behind them.

Today, the number of people who use their smartphones to browse the web is higher than the number who search on a desktop computer. Google knew this day was coming and have used mobile friendliness as a search engine factor in their algorithm for some time. Having a mobile-responsive website is no longer an option if you want to get found online. In fact, in 2018 Google implemented "mobile-first indexing" in which the mobile version of a website is the starting point for how they determine rankings. Prior to 2018 your desktop version of your website took priority.

As mobile devices become more prevalent and voice recognition becomes more advanced, more people will be making online queries verbally rather than typing it out. People do speak differently than they type, so it’s important to understand what key phrases and words are being used in verbal inquiries if you want to rank higher on the SERP. To learn more about SEO for voice search, check out our earlier blog post.

When you include a link from another source on your website, it’s called backlinking. Backlinking gives a web page authority and helps make your website rank higher. Today, search engines can now associate a mere mention of a brand, institution, organization, etc. without a backlink. This means that the text around a hyperlink becomes almost as important as the link itself.

Can you say “Big Brother”? Today’s search engine’s use information about the user – such as browsing history, location, and interests – to provide a more personalized search results list. This has been going on for quite some time, but we’re seeing it becoming more and more relevant to SEO. If you can get your page to rank well and a user clicks on it, that page will be more likely to show up in future searches by that user.

If you want to discover how your website is doing based on the current SEO trends, check out PMI’s free SEO checkup . If you’d like to improve the results, give us a call at (484) 297-6395 or contact us online, and we can talk about how to use SEO to get your business found online!

This blog is a summary of “ SEO Trends to Look for in 2018.”