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Online visibility is an essential ingredient to any company’s strategy, however the digital environment is in a continual state of change so it’s necessary to stay on top of these changes to make sure that your online visibility is optimised. Google releases between 500 and 600 updates annually, with the majority of them merely tweaking their secretive search ranking algorithm. With Google being such a dynamic force in today’s online environment, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has become increasingly important for businesses to increase their website traffic, customer engagement, and essentially their profits.

User behaviour is evolving rapidly with new technology, so Google must keep track of these changes and modify their search algorithm respectively to ensure the user experience is as seamless as possible. If a website is going to blossom online, they too must remain on top of the changing trends in SEO. Actually, using old SEO techniques can result in penalties that reduce a website’s search engine results page (SERP) listings, so here we’ll review the top SEO trends to bear in mind for your website in 2018.

Voice Search

A large number of users are now wanting to utilise voice searches rather than more traditional keyboard searches, so this will organically be a top SEO trend in 2018. Voice searches are faster and more convenient, which is why it isn’t surprising that 1 in 5 online searches come from voice queries. If the current growth in voice searches continues at the same speed, nearly half of all online searches will be performed via speech by the year 2020!

What this implies for websites is that they should begin combining more long-tailed keywords into their SEO strategy, particularly those with a natural conversational tone. As an example, if a website has a keyword phrase such as “best Sydney restaurants”, it could also be followed with a phrase such as “Where are the best Sydney restaurants near me?”

Link Building

Link building has always been a crucial tool for SEO, and this will still be a pivotal element in determining SERP listings in 2018. Generating valuable links to reputable websites is still the most convenient way for Google to ascertain if a website is trusted, so adding value through quality links that helps you establish an authority in your target niche is an effective strategy.

Having said that, the trend towards link building is now more long-term, so having links from sites related to your industry and referral traffic will be very useful in the future.

Mobile Optimisation

Since 2015, online searches by mobile devices has surpassed that from computers and laptops, so Google has made it very clear that websites that are optimised for mobile devices will be ranked higher in SERP listings.

The reason that mobile optimisation is a top SEO trend for 2018 is because Google has announced that they are experimenting with mobile-first indexing, which clearly implies that mobile optimisation will be prioritised in the forthcoming year. If your website hasn’t already been optimised for mobile devices, now is most definitely the time to start!

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Website loading speeds play an essential role in SERP listings, and Google’s search results algorithm will obviously favour those with quicker speeds. In fact, Google has put together an open source project that assists websites to load pages faster on mobile devices. The project named ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’ (AMP) allows individual web pages to load 4 times faster than standard pages, and uses only 10% of the data in doing so!

While AMP is not directly related to SERP listings yet, it will impact other areas closely related to Google’s search results algorithm, including bounce rate and session duration of users. AMP can be easily installed into HTML or JavaScript code, though plugins will be needed for content management systems such as Drupal and WordPress.

How To Work On SEO For Your Website in 2018

Although conventional SEO techniques like link building will still be productive in 2018, there are other emerging trends that Google is targeting in the future which may substantially evolve the practice of SEO. It’s clear that SEO is already adjusting to stay up to date with changes in user behaviour and to maximise the overall user experience. By recognising the latest SEO trends and implementing strategies now, your website will be optimised and ready to acquire targeted clients from higher SERP listings.

If you have any questions or concerns about how you can optimise your website to conform with the latest SEO trends, speak with Internet Marketing Experts Nowra on 1300 595 013, or visit their website for further information: http://www.internetmarketingexpertsnowra.com.au

The moment has finally come where Twitter users can express their displeasure with the 140 character limit in more detail, now that Twitter has formally verified that they have lengthened the character limit to 280 per Tweet!

The social networking service, which was launched in 2006, grew dramatically to become one of the most trendy social media platforms around the globe, however recent slumps in growth induced the social media giant to make some alterations. Twitter differentiates itself from other social media networks with its ‘microblogging’ feature, which is greatly unique to equivalent social media platforms like Facebook and Google Plus. Twitter has just over 330 million users that send about 6,000 Tweets per second.

Despite the 140 character limit that solidly defined the social networking service, Twitter disclosed on November 7 that they want every individual throughout the world to ‘easily’ express themselves on Twitter. After running a series of tests over the past couple of months, Twitter determined that they wanted to raise the character limit, but only where necessary. Countries like South Korea, Japan, and China will stay at the 140 character limit, only because there’s no warrant for an increase, as sending messages in these languages can be shared in a short amount of characters. Languages like English on the other hand, encounter jammed Tweets with 9% of English Tweets hitting the preceding 140 character limit.

So, why the change?

After running an array of tests to certain users, Twitter gained valuable results and conceived the 240 character limit would be favourable for most users. Since 9% of English users were hitting the 140 character mark, many would need to spend time editing their Tweets to make sure they didn’t have to send several messages. In addition, users would now have the ability to conveniently fit their views into a single Tweet, so they could say what was on their mind and send them quicker than before.

The question is, what influence will this have for online marketers and SEO providers? Here are a few alterations that they can expect to see.

Increased engagement

Since Twitter broadened the character limit, users have enjoyed a higher level of responses which generated more followers. Clearly, this has been a step in the right direction, as there has been a reported higher satisfaction rate from content producers coupled with more Likes, Retweets, and Mentions.

Improved user experience for followers.

The increased character limit means that users will have reduced threads of conversations, considering that they can fit more information into a single message. Users with long threads of conversations mentioned that it can often be challenging to follow and respond to. Furthermore, brands are loving the longer Tweets as it allows them to fit more descriptive information into a single Tweet which leads to higher engagement rates.

Increases customer communication

With the surge of enterprises using social media as a channel to manage customer service matters, customers can now express a problem in more detail on Twitter which is advantageous for both the customer and the business, as communication is greatly enhanced. Prior to this update, many users would have relied on other social media platforms like Facebook to report customer service issues simply because the character limit was too restricting.

More Creativity

Longer Tweets means that enterprises can heighten the creativity of their communication with their target market through storytelling, Q&A’s, and more engaging Twitter Chats. Companies would ordinarily have to use other social media sites if they wanted to get creative, however brands can now successfully use longer text to their advantage by connecting with their audience on a more personal level.

Whilst some users have argued that the increase in character limit by Twitter makes them more similar to other social media sites, the vast majority of users seem to be very happy with their latest update. Nothing is concrete in social media, as making changes to keep up with shifting user behaviour is essential for survival. For the time being though, both users and marketing specialists seem to have emerged the winner!

If you require any suggestions about how your company can leverage the increased character limit to your advantage on Twitter, simply talk with Internet Marketing Experts Nowra by phoning 1300 595 013, or alternatively visit their website for additional information: http://www.internetmarketingexpertsnowra.com.au