SEO Best Practices in 2018

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an ever-evolving practice that helps determine how/if a website/webpage will be found by search engines particularly for Google, Bing and Yahoo. (Those are currently some of the key players in the search engine arena).

SEO is a practice that when performed properly and consistently typically can yield results between four months to one year from implementation of approved and appropriate SEO techniques. There are numerous factors that can impact SEO results however a few proven best practices that can impact site ranking per Google are outlined below:

  • Fresh, relevant, and helpful content

  • Good User experience

  • Mobile friendly

  • Good navigation

  • Fresh, relevant, and helpful content

A common saying in the “SEO world” these days is “Content is king.” This is very true in 2018 and very likely to be true in future years to come. Great content results in providing a better user experience to visitors of a site seeking information on a specific topic. A site that provides in-depth, unique, and relevant information is going to have a higher perceived value than a site on the same topic with outdated information that may or may not have any current relevance. Often depending on the topic site visitors are seeking information to help them solve a problem, to help understand a topic, or just to get a quick answer. Well-thought out, solution-oriented content will be more highly valued than surface-level non-solution oriented content.

  • Good User experience

The site visitor’s experience at a website is important because it indicates if the visitor was able to find the information they were seeking when visiting the site. If the visitor found it easy to locate the information they were seeking at a site that will create a favorable impression and likely keep them on the site for a little while longer versus leaving immediately if they find the information unhelpful or irrelevant. Also when you think about it, in an indirect, non-literal way when a user types in a topic on google to find an answer to a question or whatever their purpose is the results that come up are almost like recommendations from Google as good sources to find the information the user is seeking. So if Google determines that the quality of the information or the site they are “referring” users to is subpar they will naturally want to change that to “recommend” a better site that will provide a better user experience and more effectively assist the user with obtaining the information they are seeking.

Which translates to

Good user experience = potential higher page ranking vs

Poor user experience = potential lower page ranking

  • Mobile friendly

In 2018, having a mobile friendly site is a must because mobile search has grown exponentially over the years and can impact your business sales. In today’s smartphone obsessed world smartphones are in use practically everywhere. Studies have show 74% of people make a purchase based on information researched on their smartphone (according to Google). Also, in many cases the interest that sparked the search was an ad the user saw on their smartphone. So a significant way to get a piece of this action is to ensure that your website is mobile friendly so that users can easily access your site while also ensuring that your ads are mobile optimized.

Additionally, it’s important to learn how customers interact with your website (both mobile and desktop) and adapt the site experience according to their behaviors to ensure you are giving users what they want based on actions they take and thus improving user experience.

  • Good navigation

Also as mentioned previously good navigation on your website is very important because if users visit your site and have a difficult time finding what brought them there initially, or find themselves clicking on a broken link or anything that isn’t functioning properly on the site it’s going to give them an incentive to leave your site and a potential customer may be gone forever. However if everything works properly on your site and it loads quickly and answers their question that’s an incentive for them to stick around and possibly even return to your site in the future.

So overall ensuring that your website is as easy to use, helpful, relevant, and accessible on the desktop version as well as mobile devices are just a few tips to help place you in a winning position from an SEO perspective. (Keep in mind there are many other important factors that can impact your page ranking, and these are just a few). Ultimately the Search Engines want to help direct users to the best websites that will most effectively meet the site visitors’ needs. The more effectively you accomplish providing a great user experience the better position you are potentially placing your website in SEO rankings.