5 Actionable SEO Tips for 2018 [For Beginners]

New Year Resolutions are always unique to the individual, but when it comes to most companies today, improving SEO strategy is typically on the top of the list of things to improve in the new year. 

Since SEO is a discipline that constantly changes with the times, we’re here to share some tips you can start applying today to improve your ranking and bring in more quality visitors and leads to your website that will be relevant in the year to come. Keep reading below! 

1. Create quality content

It’s hard to come across a website today that doesn’t have a blog. For products or services that are not content-focused, typically very few resources are put into content-creation. But if you want to improve the ranking for your website, soulless and frequent content just focused on keywords is just not going to cut it anymore.

It’s important to bring value to your audience by covering topics they’re interested in, optimise the timing of your content, and stand out with your tone. You’ll not only bring in quality readers, but be able to raise your brand’s status as a thought-leader in the process. 

2. Build solid backlinks

Gone are the days of building backlinks on any website you can find. With Google’s AI technology getting smarter by the day, it’s becoming less effective to simply build as many links as possible, since they’re now able to differentiate a reliable link from an unreliable one. Since backlinks are still one of the most effective ways to raise your ranking, it’s more about creating quality content legitimate sources will want to share, and investing in solid partnerships that can help you in this area. 

3. Enable the best browsing experience

The amount of time a user spends on your website greatly affects your SEO ranking, so it’s clear why their experience should be optimised to encourage longer browsing. This means fixing all broken links and bugs, have an easy-to-use navigation structure, optimising the speed, and similar to above, having engaging content your audience will want to spend time reading. Invest in a knowledgable UX/UI designer, and you're guarranteed to see your SEO improve. 

4. Look Sexy on Mobile

The entire web is going mobile, as more and more people are opting to surf using their phones. For this reason, Google will only increase its prioritisation of mobile displays as time goes on. Making sure your website is mobile friendly will help with SEO, and ultimately conversion from the user’s side. This entails making your site responsible, loads quickly, and all the content is easily legible. 

5. Know what the people want

Google is not just all about trends. Rather, trends guide their business. With user behaviour moving away from long from text and towards more images and video content, it’s only natural that Google catches on and follows suit. Incorporating more forms of media in your content for 2018 is a way to not only create stickiness for visitors on your site, but you’ll be ahead of the curve as Google plots new algorithms to keep up with this trend.