3 Factors That Will Affect SEO in 2018

SEO is influenced by a lot of factors, and they can have a tremendous effect on the success of any Search Engine Optimization campaign. This 2018, new and more complex ranking factors that may change how SEO is carried out. So if you’re interested to know what 2018 has in store for you and your site then here are three items that you should be aware of.

RankBrain

RankBrain is one of Google’s newest and most prominent ranking factors, and is actually the third most important signal that affects the results of all search queries.

RankBrain is a machine learning system that allows Google to sort out search results by measuring user interaction with said results. This is done by measuring two factors:

– Dwell Time or how long users spend browsing a particular page
– Click Through Rate or the number of people that click on a particular result

By measuring these factors, RankBrain is able to measure a site’s quality based on how actual people interact with it, which of course changes the whole way SEO is done. So those days where backlinks and quality contents were important are gone.

In order to have a successful SEO campaign in 2018, you will also need to make sure that your site has a high Dwell Time and Click Through Rate. If it does then RankBrain is more likely to boost its ranking on the search index.

Mobile First Index

Google’s Mobile First Algorithm is going to change SEO in very profound ways. These algorithms are designed to recognize the mobile versions of web pages to be their true versions, whereas those versions that have “hidden content” will be completely ignored.

For example, if your site’s desktop version features a writer’s bio or even a video but the mobile version does not then Google will post the latter on its index, which means that people who are looking for your site will see the version that has less content, or they worse, they may not even appear on the index at all.

Needless to say, this outcome will harm your overall SEO campaign, which is why you need to display 100% of the content present in your site’s desktop version on the mobile version as well. It’s part of the SEO system now.

So if you haven’t upgraded your site’s desktop version to become more mobile friendly then now is the time to make some changes.

Voice Search

Google’s Voice Search tool is relatively new, and no one’s sure how it will change SEO in 2018, but a large portion of adults (around 40% according to some estimates and a little less in others) now use voice search to find stuff online.

However, just because it isn’t a big issue in the past doesn’t mean that it won’t be a big issue this year. It’s quite possible that Google may change its search to accommodate more voice searches, and such changes can affect how SEO is carried out. In any case, it’s important to be prepared, which is why you should start optimizing your content for voice searches.