With 2017 solidly behind us and 2018 nearly a third done, where does your content marketing strategy stand? Sure, you know not to keyword stuff, but is your content still meeting SEO best practices otherwise? With the constant changes in the industry, it can be really difficult to figure out whether your content requirements are up-to-date or so-ten-minutes-ago. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to catch up with the latest trends. Here’s a look at what’s currently hot for 2018 SEO best practices.
Recent, High-Quality, Original Content
One of the biggest factors in ranking content is its originality, quality and how recently it was added. This has created strong demand for a much different type of content than was popular just a few years ago. Instead of spinning a similar article, your website should be regularly updated with unique, original content that has been developed to fit a specific need in your industry or market.
Make it Mobile
Early last year, mobile searches outstripped traditional computer searches on Google for the first time, and that trend is continuing to grow. For that reason, part of your search engine ranking is based on how mobile-friendly your website and content is. Trade in high-res photos or graphics to cleaner versions that load faster and don’t tie up data connections. Make sure your page layout works well on a range of device sizes, from small smartphone screens to huge desktop displays.
Watch Your Character Count
Though you probably won’t get penalized for it directly, having too many characters in titles, meta descriptions and similar areas can still lead to problems with your SEO outcomes. For titles, try to keep it below 70 characters. Why? Even though you can use up to 150 characters in your title, on mobile devices, the maximum character count is 78 characters. In the same vein, you’ll want to keep meta descriptions at or below 150 characters, with some mobile searches only displaying 110 to 120 characters. To take advantage of both lengths, request that the most pertinent information show up in the first 110 characters with an additional snippet that can show up for laptop or desktop searches.
Stick to High-Quality Links
Links to and from other websites can help improve your search engine rankings, but that doesn’t mean all links are created equal. If Google thinks you’re stuffing links, you may get dinged with a penalty to your rankings. One of the factors that is used in determining whether your website is penalized or not is the quality of the link. Instead of swapping links with tons of low-quality links, hold out for a few really great ones to build your search engine rankings.
By staying on top of 2018 content marketing best practices, you can ensure that your high-quality content isn’t being penalized or left behind. But knowing the current best practices doesn’t mean you need to do everything yourself! If you need help finding the right writer to rock your website, online or social media content, the talented individuals at WriterAccess are here to help. Please reach out today with any questions or to get started on some serious rock star content without the rock star prices.
Cathleen V is a multi-talented writer with extensive knowledge in a wide variety of areas. As a top 1% content writer out of over 22,000 on another site she writes on and with excellent feedback on Writer Access, she has a finger on the pulse of what’s trending on SEO and the internet today; as a reliable, intelligent, creative writer, she can fulfill your needs now and in the future!
