There are well over 200 ranking factors Google bots use that determine whether your business website is likely to be seen by potential customers – and these factors are changing. All. The. Time. While you might have an innovative, game-changing product or offer reliable customer service, these things won’t matter if you’re not staying on top of ever-evolving search engine optimization (SEO) trends. If you want to maintain, or expand, brand awareness in 2018, add these 7 SEO trends to your list of New Year’s resolutions:

1. SERP features. Results pages have come a long way since the dawn of the internet, evolving away from the tedious list of blue links. Nowadays, search users’ eyes will be drawn to any number of visual enrichments, such as shopping results, star-ratings, local listings, and featured snippets. To trigger these SERP features, businesses need to ensure they are utilizing relevant keywords throughout their content and optimizing HTML for search bots.
2. Structured Data. While you speak English, Google bots speak HTML. Structuring data is simply a way to ensure your site speaks in a language Google’s indexing algorithms can understand. Including digital vocabulary, such as title tags and meta descriptions, will not only ensure your business site appears at the top of the SERPs but can also trigger rich snippets, which have been shown to boost click-through rates (CTR) by 30 percent.
3. Loading speed. Nearly half of all consumers expect a website to load within two seconds. Take longer than three seconds and 40 percent of your potential customers are gone. In terms of revenues lost, each second delay could cost your business millions of dollars. Keep your website operating at light speed with optimization tactics, such as browser caching and reducing plugins use, and regularly checking the performance of your site with fast and free website auditing tools.
4. Voice search. Typing is apparently lame – and can cause carpel tunnel syndrome. More than half of teens and 40 percent of adults use voice search on the daily. Even though search users might be talking to an inanimate mobile object, they are likely to use more conversational, free-flowing sentences than short search terms and precise questions – your keywords and phrases needed to reflect that.
5. Mobile optimization. More than 50 percent of Google searches are conducted via mobile device – and this trend toward handheld gadgets is only expected to grow. Businesses need to ensure their sites are smartphone and tablet friendly with mobile responsive design that promotes easy navigation and caters to user intent.
6. “Linkless” backlinks. When other sites link back to your website or cite your content via hyperlinks, search algorithms recognize these backlinks as a sign of trust and authority, which boost your page rankings. While these hyperlinks are still important, search algorithms are now advanced enough to spot and index off-page mentions of your brand, aka “linkless” backlinks.
7. Personalized SERP. Just as online ads are based on user data, search results are becoming increasingly personalized based on a person’s info, including location, search history, and interests. To secure your spot at the top of these individualized results, continue to follow the best practices in SEO, including, in particular, creating and optimizing a Google My Business (GMB) listing.

These are only 7 ranking factors that have the potential to push you to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) – as mentioned above, there are well over 200. And Google doesn’t publish a yearly list either – their algorithms are proprietary and top secret. Instead, lists of SEO ranking factors are published by inbound marketing experts’ analysis of the data. Small businesses really ought to turn to the pros to ensure they’re getting the most out of their online strategies. If you’d like to maximize your online exposure in 2018, contact Social Spice Media. We’ll implement established and emerging SEO tactics to push your website above-the-fold, garnering your small business the attention it deserves.