As 2018 arrives, the New Year is a great time to revamp your marketing and explore new opportunities to connect with audiences. When you create a marketing plan for the upcoming year, it’s important to pay attention to the trends that will matter for 2018. Some of the key Internet marketing trends that you should be aware of so you can make sure you modernize your efforts to connect with new customers include the following.
- Voice searching: With the rise of digital assistance including Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, more people than ever search with their voices instead of with a keyboard. This provides an opportunity to expand your efforts to target new customers through long-tail searches. Targeting your content to reach people doing natural language searches will also be essential thanks to the rise in voice searches, which are very different from searches done by text.
- Relationship building: Building relationships will become more important than link building in 2018, as search engines become better at determining whether your links come from sites most relevant to your industry. Google has warned that it’s taking a closer look at guest blogging to weed out questionable links that may not be directly on target, so you’ll need to cultivate more relationships with high-quality sites that are directly related to the services that you provide so you don’t inadvertently hurt your brand’s reputation.
- Changing expectations for user experiences: Google has indicated it’s emphasizing user experience in search engine rankings, so improving your interface could be essential for SEO. Providing a good user experience also means that consumers will engage with your content more, so you’re more likely to convert visitors into potential clients. You’ll want to focus on speed, navigation structure, and site reliability to provide the best user experience possible. To maintain a loyal audience, you may also want to consider ways you can provide increased personalization.
- Increased competition for featured snippets: Featured snippets have become more popular and sites are increasingly competing to become featured in the Featured Snippets that show up for certain google search queries. Optimizing your site to appear in the snippets could significantly increase engagement with your site, drawing in many new potential clients. Using tables, graphs, and links could help you to appear in the featured snippet. You could also create content that is featured in Google’s answer box if you can provide content that answers a question asked by searchers.
- More focus on mobile: Mobile has become increasingly important in recent years and this trend will continue in 2018. In fact, in 2018, mobile may no longer be an afterthought as a growing number of people view content on phones and tablets. With as much as 57 percent of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, focusing on providing a great mobile experience could pay off big time.
If you want to keep abreast of new online marketing trends and ensure that your marketing plans for 2018 are embracing new trends so you can keep growing, one of your best options is to work with SEO professionals who can help you.
Rita Chaires
Director, Web and Online Marketing Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com
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