5 Must-Know SEO Concepts to Help You Prepare for 2018

• Updated on: 2017-12-16
• Read original article here

2017 was a relatively calm year, at least in terms of major Google algorithm updates.

In 2016, we saw the advent of Penguin 4.0, Possum, a major Mobile-Friendliness update, and big changes to AdWords, to name a few.

This year, Google’s been relatively quiet since the “Fred” update dropped in March.

What we have witnessed, however, is a redoubled focus on creating the best user experience possible.

Trends like mobile optimization and machine learning aren’t going away anytime soon, which is why you need to understand these five critical SEO concepts as we gear up for 2018.

You’re probably keenly aware how important it is to have a mobile-friendly website. Over 55 percent of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, and that number is only expected to increase. What you may not be aware of is that having a mobile-friendly site isn’t enough anymore – now you need to be “mobile-first.”

Google announced late last year that mobile-first indexing is going to be the new norm. This means that your ranking signals are now going to come from the mobile version of your site, not the desktop version.

In other words, it’s time to stop thinking of mobile as an adjunct of your desktop site and start prioritizing your mobile SEO first.

Here are a few practical ways to improve your mobile SEO:

The goal of Google’s Hummingbird update in 2013 was to improve search accuracy by better understanding searcher intent.

Today, semantic search has evolved even more, and search engines are better than ever at understanding query context and the relationships between words.

The goal of semantic search is for search engines to understand natural language queries better. So if a user asks Google “what’s it rated?” and they’re standing in front of a French bistro, ideally Google would be able to know that in this context “it” refers to the bistro and the searcher wants to know a star rating.

There are many subtle nuances to the mechanics of semantic search, but ultimately what it means for you is that an authoritative page that dives into one specific topic in-depth will usually rank better than dozens of pages built around different keywords.

That’s because one comprehensive resource is better at giving Google (and, by proxy, its users) all the context it needs to satisfy searcher intent.

Here’s how to build content that embraces semantic SEO better:

*There’s no easy solution if no entity is found, but you can try using schema markup for your business and your product, creating a Wikidata entry for your business and product, verifying your social media accounts, and creating a Wikipedia article.

Try to feed Google as much info as you can!

Machine learning is closely related to the topic of semantic search in that it’s a way for search engines to make “educated guesses” about what ambiguous queries mean and to deliver better search results as a whole.

We also know that machine learning systems are integral to many search engine ranking algorithms – Google announced in March 2016 that RankBrain is their third most important ranking signal.

RankBrain and other machine learning systems examine user behavior to deliver the “best” search results possible. Unfortunately, what’s deemed best for one query might not be the best for another, which makes machine learning very difficult to optimize for.

Best practice is to keep creating robust resources optimized for semantic search and user experience.

A few years back, Google introduced Featured Snippets to their SERPs, which aimed to provide users with “rich answers” – short, fact-based answers to simple queries.

There are many different types of featured snippets, but I’ll be referring to them all as “Featured Snippets” for simplicity’s sake.

Google creates featured snippets by analyzing trillions of pages to answer questions such as “When was the moon landing” or “How do I build a computer.”

Google’s goal is to generate answers in real-time via text, lists, images and even videos so that users can find answers without ever needing to click on a link.

Featured snippets are incredibly powerful because they occupy the coveted “position zero,” which means that they precede top ranked websites in SERPs.

Interestingly, the top-ranked website isn’t always Google’s source for their Featured Snippets. According to research published by STAT, about 30 percent of featured snippet URLs rank in Position 1 organically, while the rest are plucked from websites ranking between Positions 2 through 5.

How to make content that competes for featured snippets:

The final SEO concept you need know about is the rising trend of voice search and virtual assistants such as Siri, Cortana, and Alexa.

Google reports that 55 percent of teens and 40 percent of adults use voice search every day. And, according to a 2017 study by VoiceLabs, 33 million voice-first devices (e.g., Amazon Echo, Google Home) are now in circulation – up from 8 million in 2016.

The meteoric rise in voice search and virtual assistant usage ties back into the prevalence of mobile devices people’s need for quick answers to queries while on the go.

You can already ask Google simple questions like “what’s playing tonight” when you’re looking for a movie to watch, but it won’t be long before virtual assistants are regularly responsible for booking restaurants and buying concert tickets.

Optimizing for voice search requires understanding how and why it is used.

An estimated 22 percent of all queries are for local content and information (as of 2016), which suggests that local businesses stand to benefit the most from voice search optimization. Discovering immediate answers to simple questions (e.g., featured snippets) is also a common use.

Some ways to optimize your content for voice search:

As machine learning plays a bigger role in our industry, the future of SEO looks interesting indeed. We’ve now moved wholly away from stuffing the right keyword into a page description and toward providing bigger and better experiences for our users through our content.

I predict that 2018 holds an even greater shift toward mobile, voice search, and virtual intelligence than we saw in 2017. The best way to meet that rising tide is to double down on high-quality content – and continue pushing for more, better, and deeper content than ever before.