The SEO game in the year 2018 will be more fierce than ever, and only those who play by the rules will stand a chance to win it

After more than a decade of continuous changes and regular updates in Google’s algorithms, SEO has turned into a complex science that you cannot take lightly anymore. Today, it’s not your lack of knowledge but the frequency with which rules keep changing that makes the SEO game really tough. As a business owner, if you wish to survive today’s cut-throat competition and Google’s wrath, then learn to stay ahead of your time and competitors.

Since 2017 is almost over, you should look back at all the SEO strategies that you used throughout the year and how efficiently they worked for you.

Even if you had a moderate year, keep aside all your setbacks and start preparing for the next year. Remember — The sooner you begin your preparations, the better results you can expect. While doing so, keep in mind these SEO trends 2018 that are supposed to dominate the next year.

1.The Fastest Will Win The Race

Gone are those days when you could avoid your website’s load time and think about getting organic traffic from search engines. Now that Google has started paying more attention to things that affect users’ overall experience, site speed has become one of the crucial factors for every B2B Marketplace, service focused-business or e-commerce store the seeks to rank high.

In 2018, the fastest will most likely win the race. So, start working on your website speed immediately. What you can do is browse Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and see how fast your website is. Based on the insights shared by Google, you can make specific changes in your website and optimise it efficiently.

2. Mobile Friendliness Will Do Wonders  

The speed at which the number of smartphone users is rising across the globe, you cannot afford to have a website that’s not mobile-friendly. Moreover, Google has made it clear times and times again that it considers mobile-friendliness a huge factor while showing any site in the search engine results. If you have not already made relevant changes on your website, then do so right away and optimise it for different devices.

3. SSL Certificate Is Unavoidable

There is nothing new in the fact that Google prefers to give higher rankings to those sites which have SSL certificates (https) installed. However, recently Chrome browser started showing ‘Not Secure’ warning on all those websites that didn’t have SSL certificates installed. This is not the end but a new beginning of Google’s fast-changing approach towards providing a better experience to its users. If you wish to gain higher ranking in SERPs in the coming year, then install an SSL certificate on your site without any further delay.

Also read: Carousell is winning in SEO, and we can learn much from its data and methodologies

4. Google’s Rising Focus On AMP

Being a tech business owner, you must have heard about AMP or accelerated mobile pages at least a few times in 2017. While many publishers earning money by showing ads on their sites didn’t like this concept initially, Google kept pushing the idea of AMP constantly. Sites with AMP witnessed a huge increment in their rankings throughout the year 2017. More or less, the story will remain unchanged in 2018 as well. So, install AMP on your site without any further delay.

5. Engaging Content Will Be The King

Google has always given top-priority to those websites that publish high-quality content with in-depth researched information that can add value to readers’ time. It’s going to be the same in 2018 as well.

If you wish to gain the first page rankings, then instead of relying solely on text content, include infographics and videos in your on/off page SEO strategies so that you can get fast and positive results. Attractive graphics can easily get users’ attention, so you can start preparing more infographics and improve the engagement on your site. They will also help you get backlinks from other authority websites, and increase your rankings overnight.

Overall, the SEO game in the year 2018 will be more fierce than ever, and only those who play by the rules will stand a chance to win it. There is no point in ignoring the SEO trends mentioned above if you wish to get desired outcomes in the coming months.

Leading marketplaces like Exporthub, Amazon, Alibaba, etc., have already implemented necessary changes to lead next year’s game. Now it’s your turn to take the first step in this direction.

Do you think there is any other SEO trend except the ones mentioned in this post that will have a huge impact on your site rankings in 2018? Please share your feedback with us in the comments section.

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