We’ve researched and compiled 75 of the best SEO tips for 2018 so you don’t have to.
Find everything you need to optimise your website in 2018 without browsing 1000’s of sites with conflicting data.
As you know, SEO has been a game changer in online business, but the game has changed.
Websites evolve, and so do search engines. So this is a chance for you to gain the knowledge you need on the latest search engine optimisation trends for Google and beyond.
These tips are available in bite-sized chunks so it cuts to the chase and lets you spend more time implementing them. Read on to get started:
1. The name of Google’s current algorithm is Hummingbird.
2. Google RankBrain AI is part of the algorithm that learns itself rather than being programmed by a human.
3. RankBrain helps rank websites in Google by reading words on a web page and signalling relevance.
4. Google uses hundreds of ranking signals to rank a website.
5. RankBrain is in the top 3 of ranking signals.
6. Backlinks are still in the top 2 ranking signals and act as votes of confidence to a website.
7. Content is still king. Websites must have high quality content that is relevant to the keywords.
8. RankBrain learns from user search queries that people search for. It can focus on long tail key-phrases and match associated words rather than exact words.
9. Google’s Knowledge Graph makes the connection between search terms and questions entered by a user.
10. Do not write content like a robot designed for search engines – write content for people.
11. Keep content natural as if you were talking or explaining something in person.
12. RankBrain learns country-specific data. If you are in the UK, write for a UK audience.
13. Write good page titles to attract user clicks. Rankbrain boosts results that return a good click through rate.
14. Make sure your content is high quality and matches the good page title. If a user clicks on your website and leaves straight away, Google RankBrain will make a note of this and could drop ranking.
15. Work on keeping visitors on your site, aka Dwell Time. Dwell Time is the duration someone stays on your website.
16. Keeping visitors on your site (improving dwell time) reduces Bounce Rate. Bounce rate is when a user returns to the SERPs or presses back on their browser after landing on your site.
17. Longer time on your web pages = Google notes that you like what you see.
18. Don’t forget the foundations of your content. Title tag, url, description tag, Alt text and h1/h2 tags. These are still important in 2018.
19. Comprehensive content or in-depth content often ranks better.
20. Aim to write content between 1500-2500 words for serious in-depth content.
21. Long articles rank higher than short articles.
22. Google shows the best web pages to provide the best service to its customers. Make sure your website lives up to this requirement.
23. Write content with latent semantic indexing keywords (LSI for short). LSI keywords are topic related words, e.g. travelling = flights, accommodation, currency, insurance.
24. Topic match is just as important, if not more important, than keyword match.
25. LSI keywords should be included naturally within content.
26. LSI keywords can be found using this site: https://lsigraph.com/
27. Google is smarter than ever. Do not try to trick Google.
28. To find more topics and keywords to rank, use Google suggestions & predictions and related searches. When you do a search Google predicts the query based on other users’ searches. It also shows related searches at the bottom of the page.
29. Make your website mobile. It is more important than ever for SEO in 2018.
30. Google focuses on mobile sites first. It will look at the mobile version of your website before the desktop version.
31. More than half of Google searches are from a mobile device.
32. Show all of your content on both mobile and desktop versions of your site. Do not hide content.
33. Make sure your website is responsive. Responsive websites ‘respond’ to a persons device size and shows the correct version of the site to them.
34. Responsive websites reduce Bounce Rate.
35. Is your website truly mobile friendly? Some sites look terrible and are awkward to use on mobiles. If this is the case then yours will not be providing the best user experience and may reduce your ranking in Google. Check your website with this tool: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
36. Create video content to rank higher. Video popularity is off the chart. People want to see videos. Short videos, long videos, tutorial videos.
37. Videos rank high in Google and are often displayed at the top of SERPs.
38. Get a YouTube account. Not only does Google love YouTube videos, people search directly in YouTube for what they need.
39. Put your videos in your content. High quality relevant content combined with a related video will not only boost your rankings, but also improve Dwell Time, which will contribute to long term sustainability of rankings.
40. Voice search is now. People are using voice search on their device to find things they need quickly. Optimise your websites content for voice search.
41. Voice search is part of the increasing natural language search. Natural language optimisation means producing content as if you were talking or explaining your information to another human. Use everyday language and questions & answers.
42. Search engines love featured snippets. Questions and answers and lists are great for featured snippets. Often displayed at the top of SERPs, these snippets are used a lot in giving direct answers to the user along with being spoken in voice search.
43. Link building is crucial for small businesses.
44. Poor link profiles can hurt your website rankings. Make sure linking sites are high quality.
45. Mentions can be as important as links. Use website monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand on the web. People who talk about your brand can help boost your rankings even if a link is not present. However, a natural link often follows a brand mention.
46. In 2018 people want fast, speedy, to the point answers to their questions. Especially on mobile. Ensure your website loads fast and does not frustrate the user.
47. Add Schema.org markup to your site to help Google better read your content. Particularly good in product views.
48. Include your keywords are the start of title tag.
49. Write titles for the human eye which can be read naturally. Do not stuff keywords.
50. Do not duplicate title tags across multiple pages. Make sure titles are unique and do not cover the same topic.
51. Include your keywords in your h1 tag, but it does not have to be the same as your page title tag.
52. Use WordPress plugins such as Yoast to ensure your content reads well and gets a good Flesch reading ease score: https://yoast.com/flesch-reading-ease-score/
53. Make sure content senetences are short, snappy and to the point.
54. Get a blog. Blogs are important for fresh relevant content that helps keep your site relevant. Got a site about DIY? Blog about decorating. Got a site about money? Blog about interest rates. Got a site about plumbing? Blog tips for burst pipes.
55. Include questions and answers within your content. Google loves natural content as if asked and answered by a human.
56. Get social. Social media pages such as Facebook, twitter, Pinterest and Instagram have never been so important than now in 2018. People and search engines love shared images and photos that may be relevant to a particular topic.
57. Create your own images. Image search is a huge part of SEO and allows people to embed images within their own site or blog, which often returns a natural backlink.
58. Engage with your audience via blog comments. Participation with users can not only boost time spent on page, but also telling Google you have an active discussion taking place.
59. See what your competitors are doing. Search Google and look at their site. They rank, you don’t. See where your going wrong instantly with this quick comparison.
60. Once you’ve checked the visual errors you’re making against your competitor, use offpage SEO tools to analyse their site. Tools such as Ahrefs or Majestic can tell you a lot about a website and its backlink profile.
61. If you provide a local service, get a local listing. Google and many other reputable directories have a local submission service. SERPs are constantly changing and local services dominate results in 2018. Google returns the best, most relevant results they can, so why would they want to show a site for a plumber in Scotland when the user is located in London?
62. Give your content some authority and a personal touch. Sometimes users (and search engines) love when content comes with a name, photo and social media links. It gives people the chance to connect with the content and the author. It also helps results stand out in SERPs.
63. Keep your most important content near the top of the page.
64. Expand on what you have already. If you’ve already got web pages set up and you think they are high quality but wondering why they’re dead, it’s time to expand. Expand on the content you have already and add media – photos and videos. 10 years ago 500 word articles were golden, now 1200 words is barely enough.
65. Research not only keywords, but topics. And by research this means know the ins and outs of it. Are you an expert? No? Then go and research some more. In order to produce the best content in your niche you need to know everything.
66. Make use of old web pages with the Wayback Machine on Archive.org. Get historical data and expired content from: https://archive.org/web/
67. Consider a secure server (HTTPS). Most websites (used to) use HTTP, but many are now switching to HTTPS. It helps secure the website, adds authority and increase rankings in search engines.
68. Get rid of 404’s. Do you have expired content or broken web pages? This will often return a 404 error, especially if content has moved. Either re-populate the page or redirect it to its new home. A single 404 can negatively impact your rankings. Think about how Google wants to return the best, most relevant result to its user. If a person searches and clicks on your broken 404 page, it will quickly find itself disappearing from SERPs.
69. Guest posting still works in 2018. Got a friend with a website? Why not ask to publish an article / post on their site with high quality, relevant content. Of course a backlink will be included naturally. It’s a win win situation. Useful content for your friend, a up-vote for you. A couple of years ago people thought this method expired, but that is because guest posting become the new 500 word spammy phaid link swap to manipulate search engines.
70. Consider PPC advertising. PPC is still alive and well in 2018. Social networks are offering this service along with the likes of Google. Can work well running parallel to your SEO campaign.
71. Don’t forget to update your sitemap. XML sitemaps are a staple of any website and allows search engines to crawl the web pages and increase rankings.
72. Directories are not dead. Submit your website to high quality reputable directories that are related to your industry or have a category for your niche. However, ensure the title of the link is your brand or website address, not keywords.
73. Use Google to find reputable directories that are SEO friendly in 2018. To do this, search for your topic or niche alongside ‘directory’. If it is (still) listed in Google SERPs today, then it is most likely reputable. Many spammy directories and the directories of the old days were booted out of Google completely.
74. Cover your back with link building. With the search engines constantly evolving, it is important to make sure you have your back covered. This means having control over the place where your link is present. Should things change in the future, you can easily change or remove the link.
75. Create content that people will want to link to. Even if your competitor is producing good content, try and offer something they don’t. If you’re a plumber and your competitor explains how to change a toilet handle, how about you create a video showing how you change a toilet handle?