2018 was an exciting year for SEO which is why at Ricemedia, we’ve taken time away from our festive celebrations to reflect on this year’s notable SEO trends. With the rules of SEO in constant debate, reaching the first position in the SERP is no longer the ultimate goal. Instead, search engines are creating exciting opportunities that are tailored to you and your business to provide the best search engine optimisation. So without further ado, here are 2018’s top SEO trends!
The Rise Of SERP Features
It’s well known that Google loves an update, and this year saw a beneficial rise in its SERP features. With the push in knowledge panels, featured snippets, rich cards (for mobile devices), local packs and news packs, along with many more it comes as no surprise that these are stealing searchers attention and clicks.
As we move into 2019, we can assume these will continue to develop with a focus on user experience.
Secure HTTPS Protocol
Two years ago, Google announced that the security of websites was impacting their ranking scale. The most secured websites were found to appear higher on their SERP. More recently, they developed this by flagging any sites that didn’t have HTTPS, naming them as being potentially unsafe. For just a small price however, developers could easily fix this to boost its rankings.
Make sure you check out our blog on the 5 Reasons Why Your Website Needs HTTPS.
Optimising SEO Strategies For Voice Searches
As mobile devices continued to develop, so has the way in we search. With a rise in popular speech-activated devices such as Google Home, Amazon Echo and smartphones, voice searching systems seem to be the way forward. This is because more people are choosing not to type their queries into search engines. In terms of content marketing this will change the way in how it is created, with valuable pieces optimised towards a more conversational tone that answers questions directly regarding to search intent.
Battle Of The Snippets
The rise in voice searches has lead to the requirement of instant answers, meaning the fight for featured snippets is greater than it has ever been. SEO Content is becoming far more direct in aid of smart technology. Nowadays, Google scans content to find the most accurate and easy-to-find answers for its readers. It looks for content that is precise and coincides with long-tail keyword and voice searches. These pieces are more than likely to feature within a snippet and consequently produce more traffic than those without.
Optimising your content for featured snippets is included in our list of SEO Content Quick Wins You Can Right Now To Improve Rankings.
Rise In Video SEO
During 2018, YouTube was announced as the world’s second largest search engine. It’s predicted that the majority of consumer traffic is soon to account for just video alone. As a result, the push for creating optimised video content is growing in the hands of SEO experts. This is done through the help of more Google SERP features. These include: embedded standalone videos, short clips or a combination of video and text.
Site Speed
After a long development process, Google finally announced that site speed contributes towards your ranking factor. Therefore, it’s important to make sure your site has a fast loading speed with a recommended time of under three seconds. This has become a much more focused trend this year, with users wanting fast loading pages. This ultimately drives a higher conversion rate. Overall, it’s a worthwhile investment to hit those top ranking spots which is Why You Need To Improve Your Website’s Speed.
Want to know how these SEO trends can help you? Why not let the SEO wizards at Ricemedia take a look for themselves! With an abundance of knowledge on offer including Digital PR, Technical SEO and Organic Search, we’re here to help! If you’ve any questions or queries, get in touch today.
