If you have a business website, then you need to stay on top of the latest search engine optimization (SEO) trends. Google is always tweaking its ranking algorithms, and companies that do not keep pace risk losing search positions, visibility and business.
With this in mind, here are three search engine optimization trends to expect in 2018.
Voice Search
As personal digital assistants (smartphones, Amazon’s Alexa, etc.) that can recognize human voice commands have become more popular, so has voice search. In fact, according to Search Engine Land, 20% of Google searches are voice searches. That number should reach 30% by 2020. SEO tactics and techniques will need to adapt to this trend. This might mean focusing more on user intent and long-tail keywords.
Accelerated Mobile Pages
Google introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in 2015. These are super-fast loading pages designed to improve the mobile user experience. As mobile internet usage increases, AMPs are becoming more important. The last thing a company wants is to frustrate its customers with a bulky, slow-loading website. Google also rewards these lightning fast sites with better search rankings, which leads to more business.
Responsive Design
More users now surf the internet using a smartphone or a tablet than a desktop. Websites designed for desktop viewing do not render well on mobile devices and create a frustrating user experience because the text is too small to read and links are too close together. A responsive site, on the other hand, fits all screen sizes and pleases users. It is also an important SEO tool because Google rewards mobile-friendly sites.
Search still provides one of the most cost-effective ways to reach an audience, but as search evolves, your company’s SEO strategy has to evolve right along with it. The days of tweaking a website’s metatags or adding a few new keywords are long gone.  Voice search, AMPs and responsive design are the future of SEO.  Now is the time to embrace them or risk having your company website buried by the competition.
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