If you know anything about search engines, especially Google, you know that you can’t afford to be on a standstill with your strategy and constantly need to have a finger on the pulse. New technologies like AI and the prevalence of mobile search are only two things that are reshaping search and SEO as we know it. But by staying on top of these trends, you can have a leg up on the competition and start building a strategy that will pay dividends in the long run. Here are some of the top trends to watch in the world of SEO this summer.
Mobile First Indexing
This is probably one of the most impactful changes, not only for this year but in the history of search engines. Mobile search is slowly taking over, and Google is doing everything to reflect this. This is why they decided to officially roll out their mobile first index.
What this means is that the mobile version of your site will become the default version and the one Google will use to rank your site primarily. That means that if the mobile experience is lacking, no matter how much time and money you spent on tweaking your main site, you’ll see repercussions in your results.
This means you’ll have to go for responsive design immediately if you haven’t done so and analyse your site from a mobile standpoint to make the proper adjustments. You can use a tool like WebSite Auditor and it’s mobile performance function to check how smooth the mobile experience is.
Your Brand is Becoming a Ranking Signal
If you told people 10 or even five years ago that non-link mentions would slowly surpass high PR links with search engines, they’d tell you that you were crazy. But the people at Google aren’t sitting on their hands and know how easy these can be manipulated. This is why independent non-linked mentions are becoming more important than ever and are used as a ranking factor. That means that you’ll have to add a PR component to your SEO strategy and increase the number of organic mentions you get.
This can be complicated, however, and you might need the help of professional search engine optimisation services to do that. They’ll be able to devise a content strategy for you and know through which distribution channels you should publish it. By doing this, you’ll be able to put your brand in front of the right set of eyes and let them build it for you.
Page Speed
This is another one of these factors that used to make no difference not too long ago but makes so much sense from Google’s standpoint. Their goal is to provide their audience with the best results possible, and site performance plays into that as well.
You cannot afford to neglect performance and site speed these days, and if your site is lacking, it will eventually reflect in your results. This means you’ll have to streamline your site and simplify its code, compress everything you can, remove outdated widgets and heavy features like flash, and switch to a dedicated server if you’re using shared hosting.
Conclusion
These are only some of the trends to watch out for this summer. By being aware of those, you’ll be able to reshape your efforts and stay ahead of the pack this year.