SEO Guide 2018

The best guide to dominating Google's search results in 2018.

This is NOT a helpless "SEO in 2018" forecasts post.

Instead, you're likely to see tested approaches which are working right now...and will work much better in 2018.

So if you are looking to up your search engine optimization game this year, you will love this guide.

 

CHAPTER 1

RankBrain & User Experience Signs

 

CHAPTER 2

Become a CTR Jedi

 

CHAPTER 3

Comprehensive, In-Depth Content Wins

 

CHAPTER 4

Get Ready for Google's Mobile-first Index

 

CHAPTER 5

Move All-In With Video (Or Get Left Behind)

 

CHAPTER 6

Pay Attention to Voice Search

 

CHAPTER 7

Don't Forget: Content and Links Are Essential

 

BONUS CHAPTER

Quick Tips for SEO in 2018

 

CHAPTER 1: RankBrain & User Experience Signs

"In the few months it's been set up, RankBrain has been the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query."

And as Google refines its algorithm, RankBrain will become even MORE important in 2018.

What's RankBrain, exactly? And how do you optimize for it?

That might sound complex, but it is not.

As you can see, RankBrain focuses on two things:

1. How long a person spends on your webpage (Dwell Time)
2. The percentage of people that click on your result (Click Through Rate)

 

RankBrain and Dwell Time
Dwell Time=how long a Google searcher spends on your webpage.

As it happens, RankBrain pays a whole lot of attention to Dwell Time.

In actuality, the mind of Google Brain in Canada recently confirmed that Google uses Dwell Time as a ranking sign. He said that RankBrain measures when:

"someone clicks on a webpage and remains on this page, when they return"

And a recent industry study by SearchMetrics supports this statement. They found that the typical Dwell Time to get a top 10 Google effect is 3 minutes and 10 minutes.

If you have spent any time digging through your Google Analytics, you know that a 3+ minute Dwell Time is untrue.

And it is no coincidence that pages with amazing Dwell Time have a tendency to rank best. In actuality, RankBrain is upranking those pages for this specific reason.

This makes sense if you think about it:

If you spend quite a while on a webpage, you probably enjoy the articles on that page.

And if enough people feel the exact same way, Google will uprank that content to make it easier to locate.

 

 

CHAPTER2: CTR - How to Begin

If you would like to master SEO in 2018, then you will need to become a CTR Jedi.

Yes, due to RankBrain.

 

In actuality, one industry study found that organic CTR is down 37 percent since 2015.

It is no secret why: Google is crowding out the natural search results with Answer Boxes, Ads, Carousels, "People also ask" segments, and much more.

And to stand out, your result should scream "click on me!" ...or else it is going to be ignored.

 

CHAPTER3: In-Depth Content Wins

Google Search Engine Optimization

In the old days, Google would examine your page to see how often you used a particular keyword.

To put it differently, they concentrated 100 percent on your page's content. So the Google spider would visit your page to check if your key word appeared in your:

Title label
URL
Image ALT text
Description tag
H1 tag

To be honest, they still consider the stuff. But today's Google is MUCH smarter than it was.

So rather than only measuring articles, they now concentrate on circumstance.

Remember: Google's #1 job is to demonstrate their user the very best result. And typically, the "best" result is not a bit of keyword-stuffed content.

Rather, the best pages cover an whole topic in-depth.

With in-depth information, a Google searcher will get everything they want in one location (one stop shopping).

 

The Way to Write In-Depth Content

So: how do you write the sort of in-depth content that Google wants to see?

First, publish content that is at least 2,000 words. This way, you can pay for everything a Google searcher should know about that subject.

Actually, our rank factors study found that more content (like supreme guides and long-form blog posts) outranked short articles in Google:

Insert LSI Keywords For Your Content
As soon as you've put the finishing touches in your 2,000-word monster, then add LSI key words to it.

LSI key words are words and phrases which are strongly associated with your page's topic.

By way of instance, let's say that you just published a post about The Paleo Diet.

LSI keywords are terms like:

Nutrition
Caveman
Weight Reduction
Recipes
Grains
And if Google sees these LSI key words on your webpage, they believe: "Awesome! This page clearly covers this subject really well."

How can you find LSI key words? Here are 3 simple ways to find 'em:

Simply enter your target keyword into the tool, and it'll show you a Lot of LSI keywords that are associated with that term:

Add any of those that make sense to your articles.

Secondly, use good ol' Google. Just look for your target keyword. Then have a look at the "Searches associated with..." section in the bottom of the search results.

Finally, it is possible to hack the Google Keyword Planner for LSI keyword thoughts.

Pop your key word into the Google Keyword Planner.

Then, scan the results. A number of them are LSI keywords.

The same as with the other strategies I showed you, scatter LSI key words from the Google Keyword Planner to your own content.

 

Chapter4: The Way to Make Google Mobile-first Index

Last year Google announced that they are switching over to a "mobile-first indicator".

In other words, Google will think about the mobile version of your site the "real" version. And this is going to be the case even when a person searches from a desktop.

Today, 60 percent of Google searches are from a mobile device. And that is just going to grow in the future.

Despite the fact that Google's Mobile-first index is not live yet, it is coming any day now. That's why I advise prepping for it now.

How to Get Ready for Google's Mobile-First Index: 3 Simple Steps

1. Make Your Content Presence On Desktop and Mobile

2. Transfer From mobile into Responsive Design

3. Ensure That Your Site Kicks Butt On Mobile

 

CHAPTER5: Video Marketing

In actuality, according to Cisco, online video will constitute 80 percent of all online traffic by 2021.

80%!

And that may still not satiate the world's demand for movie.

Regardless of the fact that there are more videos on the market than ever, HubSpot says that 43 percent of individuals wish to see MORE video content.

In short:

If you are not creating video content, then you are missing out. Here is how to make the most of video's SEO benefits in 2018:

YouTube is already the planet's 2nd biggest search engine.

And like every online video platform, it is growing quickly (The Huffington Post reports that the amount of time that individuals spend on YouTube is up 60 percent compared to last year).

In short, an increasing number of people are trying to find stuff on YouTube... and bypassing Google altogether.

So in case you wish to get more traffic from SEO in 2018, I suggest optimizing and creating content especially for YouTube.

It is a search engine that is too large to ignore.

Most entrepreneurs are too lazy to create videos. So it's pretty simple to get your videos seen (assuming you know what you are doing).

By way of instance, my station has fewer than 20 complete videos. And those 20 videos create over 100k views a month.

(And as you might expect, a great chunk of these viewers turn into website traffic, leads and clients).

It gets better: when you print SEO-optimized YouTube videos, you will have more Google property.

Why?

(And virtually all of those videos are from YouTube).

Here's an illustration of what I mean:

And considering that Google owns YouTube, anticipate even MORE YouTube videos from the search results in 2018.

Actually, Google has started to combine YouTube results into Google Image search:

Embed Video Content Into Text-Based Blog Posts
If people wish to see more movie, why not give it to them?

That's why I suggest embedding video content in your blog posts. In my experience, this may give you a critical dwell time boost.

 

CHAPTER6: Voice Search

Having said that, the prevalence of voice hunt IS growing remarkably fast.
For example, check out these eyebrow-raising details:

40 percent of adults perform at least one voice hunt daily (origin)
Voice searches performed in Google are up 35x because 2008 (origin)
20 percent of all searches on mobile are voice searches (origin)
Knowing that, smart SEOs are beginning to optimize some of their articles for voice search.

Including me

Voice search remains super duper early.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things we DO know about how voice hunt works... and how to optimize for it.

1
First, your content has to be on the first page.
Kinda obvious, but it is worth pointing out.

2
Next, it helps A LOT if your content appears in a Featured Snippet, such as this:
Google's algorithm has already assembled a convenient little snippet.

And in my testing, Google voice hunt (especially Google Home) will spit out the text inside of the Featured Snippet.

3
Finally, include a question (and answer) on your content.
The huge majority of voice hunts are query based ("How can I do a pullup?")

 

CHAPTER7: Backlinks & Content is Key

Without amazing content, you will never get links.

And without hyperlinks, you won't crack the initial page.

And if you are not on Google's first page, RankBrain, Voice Search and the Mobile-first algorithm won't matter. Those just come into play after you already rank for stuff.

Actually, Google recently came out and stated that links and content are their #1 and #2 ranking variables:
And when we recently examined 1 million Google search results, we discovered that the amount of websites linking to a page connected with positions over anything else.

In summary, links and content will still be the base of SEO in 2018.

And once you've got a handle on this, it is time to optimize your website for the new search engine optimization tendencies that I outlined in this manual.

 

BONUS CHAPTER: Quick Tips for SEO in 2018

In this chapter I will show you a couple quick win strategies that will work particularly well in 2018.
Produce Visual Content (Especially "Embeddable Pictures")
Exactly like video, visual content is growing quickly.

In reality, a recent survey found that 37 percent of marketers said that visual advertising was the main kind of content for their enterprise.

And thanks to websites like Pinterest and Instagram, visual content must continue to see growth in 2018.

How can you benefit from this trend?

Produce more visual content... especially "Embeddable Pictures".

(Embeddable Pictures are images which are easy for other websites to embed in their content. When they do, they will usually link back to you).

It is nice...but pretty straightforward.

Nevertheless, people LOVE embedding this picture in their content:

And because of that, that single Embeddable Image has generated a couple of high quality backlinks to my website.

Publish Specific Data
And in the event that you can hook them up with a stat, a poll, or a business study, they will throw links in your feet like rose petals.

For example, I recently published this analysis of YouTube ranking variables:

This content contains has plenty of data that individuals can cite (like the fact that the typical video on the first page of YouTube is almost 15 minutes).

And mention they do!

Invite Opinions on Your Website
Do blog comments help your positions?

The solution appears to be: "YES!" .

Last year Google reported that neighborhood (blog comments) will help "a lot" with positions.

And this season Google said that "Opinions are better onsite for involvement signals for SEO than going to societal."

And they are likely to pay much more attention to this position signal in 2018.

Proceed Podcasts
Podcasts are among my all-time favourite ways to create links.

It is like guest posting... with the BS.

In actuality, 67 million Americans listen to at least one podcast a month (that is up 14% vs. last year).

That means that there'll be even MORE chances for you to get links from podcasts in 2018. For more queries contact our SEO Company in Melbourne.