Aaronknight Search engine optimization is constantly evolving, and that is what makes it a challenge. SEO has become incredibly complex over the years as Google considers over 200 factors to calculate search rankings. Also, all the search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms to improve the search results for billions of queries made by their users.
This constant tweaking of algorithms also means that the factors that were important to rankings yesterday may not remain relevant tomorrow. Here is a list of some of the important trends in search engine optimization that have an important effect on the rankings today and are likely to see become even more important in the coming years. So, sit back and chew through the information provided below to get some perspective on the future of Search Engine Optimization.
You need to rethink your strategy if you still believe that obtaining top rankings on the first page of search results is all you need to do, in the future. Search engines have been increasingly introducing new features on the first page of search results that are taking clicks away from the top organic rankings. Some of these features include local packs, featured snippets as well as knowledge base panels among other things. A cursory look at the history of search engine results by Google will tell you why these changes are justified and expected.
These new features require you to take some important actions. You need to track all the rankings, and it's also important to monitor the search results for the targeted keywords to make sure that none of these features are taking clicks away from your website. There are tools available on the market that can help you accomplish this.
For instance, the SEO Power Suit Rank Tracker can help you track up to 15 SERP features on Google search results as well as organic results. Once you start a new project, the tool will show you all the features that are displayed in the search engine result pages in the Google search features column. These are highlighted in green for easy reference. The search analytics tab will allow you to measure the volatility of all the features.
Data is everything when it comes to search engine optimisation. This collective data will allow you to identify new opportunities to get more clicks to your web properties. For instance, it will tell you whether you need to get into the local pack or apply the knowledge graph. This ties up into our next topic of discussion which is Structured Data.
A special format and a special vocabulary are used for structured data. This structured data helps search engines in interpreting content better, and this is how the SERP features display this information.
Google has never confirmed that structured data plays a role in rankings and you may be wondering why anyone should try structured data if it's not that important. However, you need to understand that it still has a lot of benefits. Presenting data in a structured manner allows you to enhance the search engine listings in some important ways. Presenting content in structured form allows you to enhance the click-through rate from the search engine result pages by up to 30%. Some studies have also confirmed that better click-through rate also means better rankings.
Search engine results are increasingly becoming more diverse and structured data allows you to stand out. It's an opportunity for you to get more traffic to your website and shouldn't be ignored.
You should start right away. While there is quite a few structured schema but it's better to use the schema.org option. It's a good place to start, and you will easily understand the step-by-step format presented there.
Anyone who has been involved in SEO knows that Google gives weightage to the web page loading speed, but you also need to know that it's an important user experience factor. User experience can also improve your rankings. Here is what search engines mean by ‘Fast’.
What You need to do?
Google has provided an online tool called the PageSpeed Insights tool. You should use it to check the loading speed of your website. This feature is also integrated into the WebSite Auditor, and you just need to begin a new project to take advantage of this feature. Go to the Content Analysis section and enter the web page that needs to be tested. This will give you a full-blown analysis of the on-page factors, and it will tell you a lot about various technical factors as well as Page speed.
Google search algorithms have become a lot harder to convince about the quality of content present on a web page. In fact, it's much easier to get a penalty these days. A large number of tools are used by Google search algorithms to check the content quality, and one of these tools is known as Latent Semantic Testing. In simple terms, it means that these algorithms study millions of related texts to understand the context of content present on a web page. All these tools put together add quality to the search results.
The key to quality is to make your content comprehensive. You need to take a close look at all the top ranking webpages for your targeted keywords and figure out the common features. This is also how the Rankbrain algorithm works. It's not possible to do it manually, but you can do this analysis with the help of a specialized TF-IDF tool and WebSite Auditor. The report will provide you with a full list of all the related phrases and terms, sorted by the number of competitors using these terms.
If you do not take voice search seriously, you're going to be left behind. Google has recently reported that more than 50% teenagers as well as more than 30% adults regularly use voice search. In fact, one of the important Googlers, Behshad Behzadi, has also been quoted saying that voice search is the fastest-growing type of search. Since voice search is completely different from the normal search, it also requires a different kind of keyword research.
One of the best ways to get help on voice search is Rank Tracker. It can help you research questions that voice search users might ask. You can also use the free version of this tool for this. You just need to choose the features from the drop-down list along with the keywords.
It is estimated that more than 50% of searches on Google will be done through voice and on mobile devices of various shapes and forms. Also, most users connect to Google through their mobile devices, and this is the reason mobile friendliness has become more important than ever. You can ignore mobile traffic at your own peril.
Your first step should be to ensure that all the pages on your website are mobile friendly. WebSite Auditor allows you to test the mobile friendliness in the Content Analysis section. You just need to type in the page URL that needs to be tested and choose the friendliness for mobile in the technical factors to check for this factor.
It won’t be wrong to say that the most important factor used by search engines for rankings is links from other domains and this is the reason most professionals in the SEO industry spend countless hours to get high-quality links. However, things have changed and these days, mentions that do not include any real links play an important role in rankings.
While you need to keep checking back links, you should also use a web monitoring tool to find out mentions of your brand as well as products online.
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