As we round up the first month of the New Year, it is time for a refresher course and what to expect from SEO trends in 2018.

There are a number of trends that we saw to begin to take place last year that you should be keeping an eye on to stay ahead of the curve

1. Voice searches
According to Google one in every five searches comes from a voice search. This shows us that the rise in the digital assistant is real and is changing the way search queries are performed. Because of the rise in voice searches, it’s important to make sure that your SEO marketing strategy shifts to meet with this growing trend.
This will mean needing to focus on longer keyword searches of a more natural and conversational tone.

2. Link building
The 2018 SEO trends that deal with link building sum up to one thing: quality over quantity. What you want to accomplish and acquire with your backlinks is to add value to your company, as well as become a stronger authority in your field.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that backlinks should or should not come from the most popular sites; what is important is that they should come from sites which are the most relevant to your industry.

The success of these kinds of SEO trends moves towards developing powerful contacts in your niche, as well as building a strong relationship in the long run.

3. User experience

User experience has become even more important in 2018. A number of search engines have made it clear, a great amount of the focus of your site need to be your User Experience, UX.

Delivering a hassle-free UX for your visitors increases the chances of people engaging in the pages that they visit. This, in turn, tells search engines which pages are more useful for visitors. Search engines will always favor a website with an excellent UX.

Another point to keep in mind when you are strategizing your plan of action for UX: People are using their mobile phones for everything! It is fair to assume that when people are accessing your website, its not only from a computer but from their phone. For that reason, it’s important to make sure that you provide an excellent experience through all devices.

SEO trends come and go, but these are three SEO trends that should be around for the long haul.