5 good SEO practices to follow in 2018

Natural referencing is one of the main ways to attract traffic to its website. But how to reach the first places in the Google serps?
Here are some keys to focus on in 2018.

1. Anticipate research

Before you start writing multiple content on your website, it’s important to be interested in what Internet users are looking for. And even better, what will they look for!

Google helps us with a keyword analysis tool called “Insights For Search”. It will help anticipate consumer expectations, indicating the interest of users for a keyword over time. Its comparison system also displays the popularity of keywords against each other.

It is from the analysis of these data that editorial content choices can be made. A publication schedule can also be put in place, prioritizing content on keywords whose volume has recently increased. If searches correspond to seasonality, programming of content related to these topics can be anticipated.

2. Answer questions from users

If Google was until now a search engine, today it seeks to become an engine of answers. Internet users pose more and more questions, a trend favored by the arrival of voice search.

Since 2017, the voice has become a real research tool and will certainly become a new use in the years to come. It already represents 20% of requests made on mobile.

This voice search involves rethinking the semantic strategy of its website. The queries are longer, so it will be necessary to work on key phrases long tail (greater than 4-5 words). But the voice also favors queries turned into questions (who, when, where, how much …). For that, it will be necessary to include in its contents the interrogations posed by the Net surfers, followed by answers of quality.

A free tool can help you to list the questions that may be typed in search engines, from a keyword: https://answerthepublic.com/

3. Give priority to the quality of content

A few years ago, a lot of websites were writing for Google. That is, articles were over-optimized with keywords repeated many times. Today this practice is to be banned completely, because it harms the natural referencing. On the contrary, it is better to vary the lexical field.

So be sure to offer quality content, which clearly answers the question of the user. The session time of the visitor counts for the SEO. Thus, if the proposed content does not match or is not clear enough quickly for the user, he may flee. So, favor a rich content, which follows the method of the inverted pyramid.

In addition, an article must be at least 300 words long to be relevant to search engines. It can of course be longer, if the subject approach requires it. Needless to say, add paragraphs if they do not provide additional information, or address another topic that could be addressed in a second article.

4. Offer multimedia content

To promote reading and make it more fluid, it is important to include in the middle of the text, images and / or videos. Especially if the article is long, it is necessary to continue to capture the visitor and keep it focused.

Regarding images, prefer those that will illustrate the subject, rather than abstract visuals that will have little meaning. While they air the text but are of little interest to the reader.
These images can play on natural referencing, if their alt tag is well informed. It is also advisable to add a caption next to the picture for better understanding by the user.

For its part, video acquires a decisive place in a quality SEO strategy. This media promotes the visibility of your site while improving its reputation on the web. It attracts the curiosity of the surfer, who sees a playful source of information more accessible than a long text to read.

Let’s note two numbers. Youtube is today the second most used search engine. And according to a November 2017 Ericsson Mobility Report (in English), the video will account for 75% of mobile traffic within 5 years.

5. Bet on the speed of its site on desktop and even more on mobile

The speed of a website has become a fundamental value for Google. It enters as an essential criterion for the user experience. A site whose performance is lower causes users to flee. Otherwise, with a fast page loading time, the traffic is boos the conversion rate increases, and visitors are more satisfied.If the challenge on the desktop remains major, it is even more mobile, support where Internet traffic has become the largest on the scale World. Google has announced that from July 2018, the speed of loading websites will affect the ranking for mobile search. With information published six months before its application, this Speed Update may be an important update, which we will have to be wary of. So to get ready, start by testing the speed of your site with the free Google tool itself!