7 SEO Trends in 2018

7 SEO Trends in 2018

In online marketing, few strategies are as competitive or as quickly evolving as search engine optimization (SEO). Marked by a history of algorithm updates, new technologies, and new techniques to win real estate at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs.

2017 was still an exciting year for SEO, and I’m anticipating even bigger changes on the horizon for 2018. Based on Experts observations, some trends that unfolded through the end of 2017, and some speculation on some newly unfolding technologies, I’ve come up with a list of predictions for the trends I think will dominate the SEO field in 2018

1.     Video and image search will vastly improve. 

Gradually, our online interactions have evolved to become more visual. Over the past few years, faster internet speeds, more visual-friendly social media platforms, and a general public desire to engage with more images and videos has led to a surge in visual online interactions. Accordingly, I think we’ll see some changes to how Google and other search engines treat images and videos in an online environment. Dallas SEO Consultant

2.    The Knowledge Graph will dominate. 

For a few years now, Google has been steadily increasing the frequency and specificity of featured snippets—the concise answers to questions users pose in their search queries.  I think this event could portend the rise and eventual dominance of Google’s Knowledge Graph, replacing a good chunk of the space currently occupied by featured snippets in an effort to provide users with even better, more consistent answers.

3.    Voice search will sharply increase.

 Do you have a smart speaker? If you don’t, I bet you know at least a few people who do. This could drastically change the types of queries we see, and reshape the way businesses think about SERPs (since they may no longer be as visual).

4.    Individual customization will change.

Google has been pushing the development of more personalized search results for the better part of a decade, relying on individual search histories, browser cookies, and other information to give better, more customized SERPs for individuals. Dallas SEO Consultant

5.    Machine learning will spell the end of traditional search algorithm updates.

 Though Google hasn’t released any official news about when or if it plans to roll out more machine learning updates to its core algorithm, my guess is by the end of 2018, we’ll see a greater influence of machine learning over typical search results. Eventually, though it will probably be years from now, we may see algorithm updates fade away entirely, in favor of an automated, continuous and iterative algorithm updating process carried out by machine learning.Dallas SEO Consultant

6.    SEO will expand beyond Google and Bing.

 Over the past few years, I’ve seen an increased trend of companies competing for ranking space outside Google. Google still dominates the search engine sphere, remaining the most popular search platform by far, but third-parties like Yelp and Amazon, as well as digital assistants like Siri have stepped in to become relevant search engines in their own right.

7.     Hyperlocal results will finally take off. 

Experts anticipated 2017 to be the first major year for hyperlocal marketing   experts weren’t wrong about the increased influence of local search and local SEO, but the world wasn’t ready for hyperlocal intent to become the new normal. By “hyperlocal,” we’re referring to the process of targeting customers (or presenting search results) based on physical proximity, down to less than a block radius. Dallas SEO Consultant