As search engines are constantly changing, the trends are also changing rapidly. To gain a competitive edge, you need to know how the small business SEO paradigm is changing. This article will help you get acquainted with the present-day SEO trends.

Mobile optimization is the future

In a recent survey, it was found that there is a significant difference in the number of mobile searches and desktop searches. People are not going to spend their time searching for information on a desktop when they can find them easily on a mobile device. This means that if your website is not optimized for mobiles, then you will lose out on a lot of revenue opportunities. It would be advisable that you optimize your site for mobile devices so as to provide an exceptional user experience to visitors across all mediums such as computers, laptops, and mobiles.

Faster loading sites is a trend

Another important SEO trend that all small business owners need to consider is the speed of their website. Many websites have a very poor page loading time and this is something they cannot do anything about. However, if you own a web design or development company, make sure that your clients’ website loads in an exceptionally fast manner. Loading time does not only affect the bounce rate but also affects the readership numbers for a particular article on your site. If people visit your site and find out that it takes too long to load then they will not be ready to wait and will simply move on to another site that is faster. You can check the speed performance of any website by using tools like ‘GTMetrix’ and ‘Pingdom Tools’.

Keyword density: Is it still relevant?

Keyword density is definitely not what it used to be. A lot of experts in the SEO world feel that you should not obsess over keyword density anymore and focus on writing content for your users rather than search engines. If people come to your site, they will naturally get a chance to see certain keywords which you have been targeting throughout your page. In addition, Google has also started integrating semantic search into its algorithm which means that it can understand phrases and sentences instead of just words. So, if you want your website to appear in the SERPs then try and use multiple keywords naturally within your content instead of stuffing them into a single post or article.

Does social media impact your SEO performance?

Social media has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. In terms of SEO, content shared on social media gets indexed quickly by search engines and helps you increase your visibility to a wider audience. It also helps you connect with influencers within your industry which could turn out to be extremely profitable if done right.

Linking out To informative content

Link building was considered a very effective way to drive traffic from other relevant websites but Google has started penalizing sites that are participating in this kind of acting aggressively. Many webmasters have been forced to de-link numerous websites from their sites in order to remove the penalty. If you want to drive traffic through other websites, then the best way is to create a list of relevant resources and submit it to directories like Yahoo! and Business.com so that people can find out about your brand easily.

Search engines are crawling social media sites now!

Web crawlers have started crawling social media sites more aggressively than before which means that if you share an article on Facebook or Twitter, it will affect your SEO performance drastically. Google has already started giving special preference to social media sites in its search algorithms because pages shared on such platforms get indexed within hours whereas it takes several days for other websites to show up in SERPs. So, if your content is good and engaging enough, it will get shared on social media sites easily which will improve its visibility.

Time to switch from link building to link earning?

There is a subtle but significant difference between link building and link earning. In the past, search engines used to give webmasters a lot of importance to links that were built manually but now they have started giving more weightage to links that are earned naturally. If you want your website to rank higher in SERPs then start writing quality content on a regular basis so that people can come across it without having to rely upon any external source. However, if you have been using PBNs for backlinking purposes then it is time for you to stop doing so because Google has been targeting such spammy activities aggressively over the last few months.

How to build links for beginners?

While it is true that people no longer obsess over link building like they used to do in the past, webmasters still need backlinks in order to improve their site’s authority and gain visibility. Finding high authority sites that allow you to contribute guest posts regularly can be a daunting task but if you know the right way to approach them then it’s not an impossible task. You should start by finding relevant communities where you can share your content because such platforms give quality backlinks without forcing users to follow any rules or guidelines. The second step involves reaching out to individuals who run certain websites and asking them politely if they would like to include a link to your website within their next post.

Don’t spam forums!

Google has started manually penalizing websites that are participating in link schemes by marking their domain as “Spam” or “Malicious.” So, if you want to stay away from problems then it is advisable for you to avoid posting links on discussion boards without providing an anchor text. It is also not a good idea to share the same article multiple times because search engines are smart enough to detect such spammy behavior which can end up hurting your brand’s reputation. Spammy backlinks can get removed easily so make sure that you don’t post anything new on the internet without submitting the old ones first.

Wrapping up!

SEO is ever-evolving and to stay relevant in the industry, your business needs to follow the latest trend to boost SEO and customer experience. Keep these aspects in mind to grow your small business through the power of SEO. 

Author Bio – 
With over 13 years of experience as a leader in digital marketing, Mansi Rana is Managing Director of EZ Rankings. Passionate about all things data; providing actionable business intelligence in digital, future tech; and venture bubbles categories for everyone, everywhere.