SEO updates for 2018 requires reexamining priorities to keep up with new technologies which your blogs and websites need to do.

This article summarizes what some of the leading SEO experts claim are the key updates in 2018. I also include several recommendations for how your business can update its SEO and content marketing to keep up with these new trends.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was born in 1995. Since then, SEO continues to evolve. By 2018, only a few huge companies control the top online distribution channels.

Alphabet, Inc. (owns Google, YouTube, Calico, CapitalG, Google Fiber, GV, Verily, Waymo, and X). According to Google Search Statistics, it currently gets 3.5 billion searches per day.

Facebook (owns Instagram and WhatsApp). According to Facebook Statistics it gets 1.5 billion searches per day.

Together, Google and Facebook conduct 5 billion searches a day.

Artificial intelligence = Improved Personalized Searches

2018 sees the evolution of the Personalized Search making traditional “Top 10” (first page) search rankings nearly obsolete. Now search engines look at a searchers location, likes, and past search histories to personalize their searches.

Google leads the way using Artificial intelligence (AI) for its search engine. It began with RankBrain back in 2015 when Google created an “algorithm learning artificial intelligence system”. In 2018, RankBrain handles every Google search query.

Moz, the huge SEO software marketing company, explains Google’s AI in 2018 this way:

“What Google believes to be relevant to the keywords searches. What does Google think is the content that will answer this searcher's query?”

In other words, Google tries to understand the searcher’s real intent in a search query to provide more relevant search results.

Content is still King in 2018

Recent History

Back in 2015, I earned two diplomas (Online Marketing and Social Media Marketing) from the Shaw Academy in London, UK. Content was King for SEO back then. Blogs and websites with superior content prevailed with higher keyword search rankings. Encyclopedia sites like Wikipedia, Investopedia, and Britannica along with the Merriam Webster dictionary appeared in the Top 10 Google Search Rankings more often than other reference based sources.

In 2016, social media sites dominated Google Search Rankings with YouTube on top. According to a Searchmetrics study of “SEO visibility” for organic searches in 2016: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook most often appeared in Google Top 10 Search Rankings. “Online encyclopedias and reference sites all lost out in 2016.”

In 2017, “a surprising reversal of 2016’s fortunes, online encyclopedias and dictionaries were among some of the biggest “winners” in 2017”. While YouTube remained on top, dictionaries (merriam-webster.com and dictionary.com) and encyclopedias (wikia.com and wiktionary.com) followed closely behind.

The Importance of Content in 2018

Today’s SEO favors quality content:

• Google currently favors “real topic experts” writing content instead of college students writing to pay their tuitions or content “mills” (factories) cranking out words for sites. Moz, a very large SEO marketing company, describes this in its 2018 SEO Checklist: “Have the most authoritative person create content that will serve the searcher's goal.” Therefore, the most authoritative content for a specific topic receives Google's highest rankings.

• Google now uses its “Featured Snippets” on top of their normal Search Engine Results Page (SERP). [See Below] The best content answering searchers queries regarding a specific topic appears as a Google Featured Snippet.

• Facebook updating their News Feed content to keep their users from visiting other sites. One way was to prioritize “meaningful” news feeds. Again, superior content in a Facebook News Feed gets priority.

SEO Trends in 2018

Based on the comeback of quality content for blogs and websites, the SEO trends in 2018 include:

Topic Clusters

2018 requires your site to be a “true expert”. While you aren’t expected to be a “jack of all trades”, you need to be an expert on a specific topic.

Topic Clusters are now promoted as the content marketing strategy for SEO’s future. “A topic cluster is simply a group of interlinked web pages built around one pillar page.”

The above example of a topic cluster with “Weight Loss” as the main keyword. Notice that 8 separate web pages link to the main “Weight Loss” page with each one using either “weight loss” or “loose weight” as its main keyword.

As you can see, the cluster pages link to the pillar page using the same or similar hyperlinked keyword.

If just one of these web pages does well, the entire topic gets a boost in rankings. This leads to more visitors with increased loop traffic and conversions. Your search rankings improve similar content leading to multiple Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings for the main keyword phrase. I accomplished this and explained it in my How to get Multiple Web Pages into Google Top 10 article back in 2016 published by the large marketing publisher Digital Doughnut.

In order to accomplish this, your site needs to implement topic clusters. This also leads to a more deliberate approach to your blog and social media postings. I explained this back in 2016 in my Digital Doughnut article, How to Use Blogs to get into Google Top 10.

Google Featured Snippets

Featured snippets (also called an Answer Box) are Google’s featured box below the Google ads and before the top ranking search result. Featured snippets jump out of the page to draw viewers’ attention. They provide Google's suggestion of the best answer to a user’s question.

Appearing in a Google featured snippet results in substantial exposure. Ben Goodsell of RKG Merkle, which owns 12 marketing companies, noted a 676% revenue increase from organic visitors and a 400% click through increase by appearing in a Google featured snippet.

Ahrefs , a data-driven marketing tool company, studied 2 million Google snippets and found that 99.6% of them already appeared in Google’s Top 10 Search Rankings for the users query. This makes it even more important to tweak your current Google Top 10 to provide the best answer than the other 9 competitors.

Look at the screenshot below of a Google Featured Snippet taken on June 5, 2018.

I wrote the "Last-Minute Tax Savings for 2017" post for the Smart Agents Real Estate Marketing Blog which is ranked Google #1 Search Results and the Google Featured Snippet at the top of the search results page.

Get Mentioned: Another way to get into a Google Snippet is to get a "mention" in another site’s snippet. For example, the screenshot below shows how 8 different sales blog posts were "mentioned" by another blog in the Google Featured Snippet.

8 Most Important Google Ranking Factors in 2018

BackLinko, a popular SEO Blog, recently published their Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2018). Yes, Google now uses over 200 factors in their search ranking algorithm.

Their report lists 209 Google ranking factors. The most important factors include:

• Content Quality: Google Caffeine updates favor recent content and updated existing content. That’s why you often see the first date of publication on SERP results. Fresh content is favored over old and stale content. Frequent page updates demonstrates freshness. Citing good sources and references are a sign of quality according to the Google Quality Guidelines.

• Trust Rank: Based on BackLinko examining a recently-filed Google Patent, search results based on trust is a vital factor. One way to gain trust, according to a recent industry study, is to link to authority sites to support your facts and claims. Reboot Online, a SEO marketing company, recent experiment shows outgoing links to authoritative sites resulted in more Google Top Five rankings than those who didn’t. Pages with many authority links tend to outrank pages with no authority links. That’s why you see so many links in this article.

• Referring Domains: Links to a site from an authority (high page ranked) domain is extremely important for Google rank factors. The authority ranking of the referring domain plays a role in the link’s value.

• Organic Click-Through-Rate: Google states that sites with higher click through rates get higher search rankings for the specific keyword.

• On-Page SEO: Moz, a popular SEO marketing company, claims title tags starting with a keyword ranks higher than those with the keyword towards the end. That’s why this article’s title begins with “SEO”.

• Dwell Time: The more time a visitor stays on a site, the better. High bounce rates where visitors quickly leave indicates a bad result for the keyword. SEMRush, a marketing software company, in a recent study of ranking factors discovered a strong correlation between bounce rates and Google ranks.

• Mobile Usability: In 2018, over 60 percent of searches originate from mobile devices. Mobile users must easily access and navigate a site. Sites not mobile friendly are penalized by Google. Google’s mobile-first Indexing emphasizes this by ranking search listings based on the mobile version more than their desktop version.

• Total Backlinks: A SEO industry study of 1 million Google search results shows that the volume of relevant referring domains linking to a site is still an important Google ranking factor.

Summary

Alphabet, Inc. and Facebook own the majority of online search vehicles.

SEO updates for 2018 include:

Google Featured Snippets are here to stay. Just getting into Google Top 10 Search Rankings for a keyword isn’t good enough anymore. The lucky one who gets into the Featured Snippet gets noticed by everyone immediately.

Personalized searches (using Artificial Intelligence) guess what someone really looks for in a search query. Factors such as his/her geographic location, past search history, and web surfing enables Google to tailor search results based on what he or she likes.

Content is still King because search engine queries seek information based upon quality content. Search engines answer questions posed by users by recommending the best content.

True experts provide the best answers to search engine questions. Therefore, sites regarded as true experts on a given topic will rank higher with search engines. Don’t use amateurs and content mill factories to write your blog posts and web pages.

Topic Clusters are the new content marketing strategy for 2018. The main keyword “pillar” web page surrounds itself by numerous same or similar keyword “cluster” pages linking to the pillar page.

Mobile Devices in 2018 determine a site’s search rankings more than its desktop version.

Facebook emphasizes its News Feed content to arouse user interest who spend more time on Facebook. This requires writing more meaningful news feeds.

Conclusion

Google Featured Snippet is the new Top Ranked (#1) Search Result offering greater exposure than the traditional #1 organic search result listed below the featured snippet.

2018 SEO updates requires quality content, website trust, referring authority domains, higher click through rates, longer dwell time, mobile usability, more relevant backlinks, and superior on-page SEO.

In a Nutshell

In 2018, your blog and website needs:

Superior content writers to help your site achieve higher Google search rankings. Your site needs "true expert" content. Your content needs to link to good sources and references. Viewers need to dwell on your site improving click-through-rates because the content interests and informs them.

Topic Clusters to push keywords into higher rankings.

Featured Snippets inclusion to increase your site viewability.

Superior Facebook News Feeds content increasing exposure.

Improving Content Quality for your blog and website should obtain higher Google Search Rankings, inclusion in Google Featured Snippets, and the ability to gain Trust from your viewers in 2018.

Copyright © 2018 – Steven Rich, MBA