There’s a lot of conspiracies regarding SEO, some of them are true, others are not. One fact remains though – content is king. If you don’t believe us, just ask Andrey Lipattsev, Google’s own Search Quality Senior Strategist. Even though content is a long-term investment for your businesses, the algorithms and play rules can, and probably will, change.

To succeed with your business in 2018, no matter if it’s an e-commerce or an affiliate, you need to overhaul your SEO every now and then. Here, we have put together a list of 5 new signs in 2018 that your website needs an SEO overhaul. We explained how you can improve your website SEO and adapt to the new circumstances.

• Your content isn’t optimized for RankBrain

During 2017, Google announced that RankBrain is the third most important factor for your ranking. What is RankBrain, you might ask? Without going into too much details, RankBrain is a learning system that measures how your potential customers interact with the search results. Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the fundamentals of it.

There are basically two things you need to check to make sure your content is adapted and optimized for RankBrain – the bounce rate and the CTR. In other words, how long they stay on your website, and how many people click on your result. You need to make sure you have super click-friendly meta, and also that your content is a great read that keeps your visitors attention for at least 3 minutes and 10 seconds – which is the average time a visitor stays on one of the Top 10 Google results.

• Your website SEO isn’t friend with Google Fred

If your website SEO dropped in rank in March 2017 that’s probably Google Fred’s fault. If you haven’t become friends with him just yet, it’s time to do so. The updated algorithm de-ranked content with too many ads and affiliate links and was aimed towards black-hat SEO tricks. You can still sell and have great website SEO, so don’t worry, but you have to do it with top notch content.

• You have hidden content, no responsive design and aren’t ready for Google’s Mobile-first index

In 2018, Google went live with their Mobile-first index. Did you know that more than 60% of all Google searches are from a mobile device? Google knows this. That’s why they now have launched this new index. It basically means that your website’s mobile version will now be considered the main one, not the desktop version.

To adapt to the Mobile-first index you want to make sure you a have a responsive design and no hidden content. Of course, it must be mobile friendly, which means not only does it need to look great but also be great to use, even when you’re on the go. The content needs to be useful to the mobile visitor and answer all their questions. For example, you should work with interesting headings, shorter paragraphs and clever internal links to improve the readability and user experience.

• Your content includes answers – but no questions?

Prepare for the future,  it’s just around the corner. Voice search is increasing in popularity and that is a trend that most likely will continue. What is voice search, you probably ask? This means thate Google searches will change, and more questions will be asked instead. Your website SEO not only needs to bring the answers, it also must pop the right questions.

• Google finds your website insecure and punishes you

Google have admitted that security can affect your rank, even more so in 2018. They prefer that you are using HTTPS sites, and not just HTTP. From now on, they will also punish sites who’s not using SSL to keep the visitors safe. This is especially important if you are running an e-commerce or a casino who offers online payments or if you are keeping confidential information. This can be a quick fix that will boost your website SEO.

How we can help you reach the top

No need to panic just yet. All you must do is ask. We can help you improve your content and can discuss ideas on how to deal with your SEO in the best way. Top notch content is evergreen and a good investment for your business, no matter if it’s an e-commerce, affiliate or just a site driven by a SEO-ninja. By now, we all know content is the key to success when it comes to SEO in 2018. This is not new news. The updates from Google all point towards more, better and user-driven content if you want to rank high or even reach the top. We’ll help you with that.

Reach out to us and optimize your website SEO in 2018, with top notch content.