The team here at Contractor Charlie specializes in SEO services for contractors. Every year, the trends change, which means we always stay current. These are the top trends for SEO in 2018.
1. Write Content With Voice Searches in Mind
More people are using voice search to find the information they need online. Google says that 1 out of every 5 searches is made through voice search. That means we have to write content that is natural and conversational. If you are a plumber, for example, you need to write directly to the person who has a clogged toilet.
It’s clear that many people are adding voice search to their browsers and devices. This technology is changing the way we do SEO copywriting. Our writing voice can’t be technical like we grew up being taught in school. We have to write like we are sitting down with our friend over a cup of coffee.
2. Build Links For Successful Searches
There have been some rumors in the SEO world that link building is dead. This strategy is far from being over. That is why our team focuses on link building as a way to get your page to rank. We do this by strategically linking to inner pages on your website and external pages off of your website.
Link building done right will give your website more credibility. Link building done wrong will actually hurt your rankings. That’s why you need to use a company that knows how to do it right.
3. Choose the Right Keywords
Keywords are the phrases and words that someone will use to search the information they want. To get your page to come up in search results, you need those phrases spread throughout your website. If you don’t have the right phrases in your content, then Google won’t show your site in the results.
Using a free keyword planner tool is all you need to come up with the right phrases or long-tail keywords. Before we write content for our clients, we find the best keywords to include on their blogs and website pages.
4. Publish Local Content Pages
It is more important than ever to have local content on your website. By local content, we mean pages that specifically talk about the city and surrounding cities you serve. That’s why we added city page content to our SEO package.
The Google algorithm uses a person’s location to decide which websites to show them. If you are a local business or contractor company, you need web pages that are specifically targeting local areas.
5. Invest in a Mobile Responsive Website
It is estimated that at least 57% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. If you have Google analytics on your website, you might see that your mobile traffic is even higher. Most of your customers are probably using their phone to look for your services so that they can make the phone call.
Google has talked about implementing a mobile-first index. That means if your website is not functional on mobile, it will lose out to other websites that are. When you use our services, we will build you a new website and make sure that it works on mobile.
6. Visual Search is Taking Off
Including images and videos on your website takes your user’s experience to the next level. You need the content on your site to get Google search engines to bring people to your site, but you need the visual aspect to keep the user there.
One of the ways that we use images to your advantage is by adding alternate tags to the picture. When someone searches the keywords we attach to the image, Google will bring it up in the image search.
7. Personal Assistants Affect Search Results
Many people use a personal assistant like Alexa and Siri. These assistants are learning bots that create a user’s experience based off of what it learns about the user. This artificial intelligence (AI) will affect the search results a user sees.
In order to optimize your site for AI, you have to write relevant content pages. Each page on your website should have valuable information and an easy user experience. Writing great content that is relevant to your ready is key. That is why our writing team invests so much time into writing city pages and blog posts for your site.
Contact Us For SEO Help
If you are ready to take your business to the next level and invest in your online presence, the team here at Contractor Charlie can help you. Fill out our contact form and we will get in touch with you right away. We look forward to helping you.