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'There are two kinds of discovery driving use of nontraditional engines'
A quarter-century ago, when SEO was in its infancy, it was as easy as slathering on a heavy layer of keywords and tossing in abundant backlinks to rise in the rankings on search engine results pages. But by 2018, that rudimentary approach will be a distant memory, with Google, Bing, and other search engines' sophisticated algorithms in a state of constant refinement. Those organizations will seek to outwit unscrupulous players determined to manipulate results at the cost of user experience. Meeting the challenge of effective SEO may take on even more importance in the year to come, considering the renewed pressure on search engine providers to help users weed out fake news and other low-quality content.
Search behaviors also continue to evolve. Google remains, of course, the outsize search champion, so an in-depth understanding of its algorithms is critical for SEO marketers. Alexander Kesler, founder and president of digital marketing agency inSegment, says, "This year, there have been a lot of changes happening to the Google algorithm and Google RankBrain [Google's machine learning artificial intelligence technology], and the pace of those changes is only accelerating."
But with consumers using nontraditional search engines, including Facebook, Amazon, and Google Maps as their initial stop-or issuing verbal commands to kitchen countertop virtual assistants to conduct the search for them-there are still some nuanced, critical best practices for SEO marketers to consider implementing in 2018 to help their organizations and brands rise above in search.
WHOSE GOOD OPINION DO YOU SEEK?
First, a quick review of the search engines that matter right now. "As far as search engines go, Google is still by far the biggest player," says William Richards, founder and CEO of EasyRedir, a URL redirection service that helps organizations reinforce their brands and maintain SEO. With upward of 78% of desktop searches and an astounding 95% of mobile searches conducted via Google in January 2017, according to NetMarketShare, there's simply no way to master SEO without understanding what makes Google's search engine algorithms tick.
Beyond Google, the same January 2017 NetMarketShare figures show Bing and Baidu ranking second and third, with 7.8% and 7.7% respectively, while Yahoo (5.1%), Ask (0.15%), AOL (0.05%), and Excite...