Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique used while writing content for the website in order to rank high in Search engine results. Thus, SEO is set of rules that webmasters or content writers need to follow in order to optimize the site content in order to dominate first page rankings in Google.As per the official figures in 2012, Google handles 40000 search queries per second that equals to over 100 billion searches per month and 1.2 trillion searches in a year. Search engines are helping people find answers to their questions by providing the most relevant information in the search results. Websites receive maximum traffic through the top five search suggestions and hence it is important to rank higher in order to make your SEO efforts effective. SEO is the most effective method to drive targeted traffic to your website. Traffic received from search engine is easiest to convert them into sales leads.
Recent years have seen many changes in search patterns and requirements of people. Keeping that in mind, let us look at the current SEO trends that will help you improve site traffic.
1. AMP For Mobile Users
With technological advancements, the function of mobile phone is not limited to calling and checking official emails. They are becoming pocket-sized personal computers. Tight schedules has meant that you need to be online 24X7. Thus, people are using mobile phones for reading, presentations, searching information and making an online purchase. With limited amount of time in hand, customers do not like websites that take time to load. AMP helps to create faster, beautiful and high-performance websites for mobile devices like smart phones, tablets, etc. Google has introduced stricter AMP rules in November to ensure that full-page content is available even on mobile devices. This enables mobile users to get the full information without having to click at few more links. Thus, online customers can get full information at a glance on the mobile webpage that saves their valuable time and helps them make decisions while buying a product. As per my site analytics, 41% of my site users are accessing my site using mobile devices. Thus, mobile SEO is equally important in order to gain traffic from Google.
2. Voice Search
What will you do when you have a question and need an answer to it urgently. If the question were too long, you would be hesitant to type it. Voice Search becomes very effective in such cases. According to search engine giant Google, 20% of the queries on the Android devices are voice based. If the current growth trend is continued, by 2020 voice search will consist of 50% of the total search queries. Voice search tools like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s voice app have gained more importance as valuable search tools. It improves multitasking abilities of individuals as they can get the information needed while doing other tasks. Google displays search results in the form of snippets of information. As a blogger, your goal is to feature as the top listing in the voice search results for your targeted keywords. In addition, you need to make sure that the information provided by Google for your site in the search results will force people to visit your site. In past local business would target keyword like “natural florist shops Mumbai”. However, if the same site would want to do well in voice search, it has to target more conversational keyword like “Where is the natural florist shop in Mumbai?” You need to start implementing the keywords that would rank well in both traditional as well as voice search results.
3. Link Building
Links and content are the top two factors playing a vital role in determining search engine rankings. Quality of external links pointing to a web page determine the utility of the webpage. All incoming links and mentions are important in determining the quality of a web page. In order to be successful in 2018, you need to focus on building relationships that will help you establish a brand name for yourself and attract links that will be beneficial for your site in the end. Competitive analysis is equally important if you want to beat your competition for the inbound links and rank higher for the targeted keywords.
4. Enhanced User Experience (UX)
Any SEO strategy will be effective only when users visit your site for significant time duration. Thus, creating you need to create a site with brilliant UX in mind. A good UX increases the odds of visitors staying longer and getting the information they are seeking. This helps search engines find which pages are more valuable for real people and favoring them over others. Google is progressively moving towards enhancing user experience in their search results. In order to improve UX, Google recently launched UX optimization platform called Optimize 360. Concentrate on having the best all-around user experience feasible for your site and you will be able to rank higher in the search engine results and having traffic that is easily to convert.
5. HTTPS dominate page one in Google
HTTPS is the protocol that guarantees your visitors view the site over a secure connection. It means that any sensitive data like credit card details are encrypted and secured. Google has influenced it to clear that having HTTPS is a major deal, and the search engine results page (SERP) demonstrates it as well. Back in June of this current year, 55% of locales on page one of Google were secure, as indicated by Moz. Experts predict that before the year is over, this number will increment to around 66%. In the event that your site is still HTTP, now’s an ideal opportunity to change to HTTPS.
Thus, if you want to dominate Google search rankings in 2018 your site needs to adapt to the SEO strategy changes in order to be successful.
