VOICE SEARCH:
Google Voice Search & Google Assistant; Alexa (Amazon Echo), Cortana and a bunch of smart home devices, voice search is going to be crucial for SEO. Voice search is rarely structured like a search phrase on Google/Bing or any other search engine. Rather, it’s more conversational, possibly longer tail and a good focus on location. It would be interesting on how the SEO world to adapt to the NLP (Natural language processing) and the different challenges it throws up. 2018 will be an interesting year in this space.
PERSONALISATION OF SEARCH:
Search engines have moved away from a generic SERP to a more personalized experience over the years. With the introduction of newer input methods and the affinity of users towards mobile devices, SERPs have become more personalized. The aim of any search engine is to provide accurate results to any user query and with new indicators such as location, voice (mentioned earlier) it will be a challenge for websites to organically appear in a user’s SERP. The margin for error is very Mobile Responsive Websites.
MOBILE RESPONSIVE WEBSITES:
If you are alive in 2017 and do not have a mobile-optimized website (responsive or adaptive), chances are that you are living under a rock. Wake up and get going with building a mobile-first website.
Choose responsive design (because Google prefers it).
Your mobile site should load lightning fast. With Google most likely to switch to mobile0first indexing by early 2018, page speed and site load speeds are going to be critical ranking factors. Strip down unwanted images, forms and functionalities. Go lean & mean when you go mobile.
LINK BUILDING IS STILL YOUR #1 SEO HACK:
Backlinks remain an extremely important Google ranking factor. even in 2018. Focus on building high-quality links to your business website. Some link building tactics that would make you a winner:
Guest Blogging: No brainer. Reach out to industry-specific niche websites and start contributing to guest posts. Like I said, everyone needs quality content. Even your large industry publications.
Round-Ups: Like this post. Collate post excerpts around a topic or bring together experts to contribute on a subject. You will end up getting a lot of traffic to such round-up posts from Social Media and influencers who have agreed to contribute to your round-up.
Call your friend: Yes, I said so. Make a list of all your friends who have a website and request them to link back to your site. Your friends will not turn you down, unless they are not friends.