Brands and companies that want to utilise SEO in Australia are clearly falling in step with their overseas counterparts. From North and South America to Europe, Asia and Africa, businesses all around the globe are tapping into the power of optimisation to develop and grow their digital presence.
The past few years has seen an evolution play out where the old rules that governed the practice have altered. In the beginning, exact matching domains (EMDs) could elevate a website from nothing to becoming a market leader. Today, that simple technique would fail to gain any traction and might even be punished should it be viewed as using black hat SEO strategies.
When we look at SEO in Australia during 2018, the introduction of new technologies and attitudes towards various techniques has come into play. Brands need to be more savvy of their duties and obligations, yet also recognise the opportunities out there to earn more traction.
We will outline those opportunities here as a fresh set of optimisation trends have become evident.
Personalised SEO
There has long been a concept that has been around in the early years of the search engine where online users were viewed through the prism of groups and demographics. Whether that was in relation to their age, sex, location or formal associations, people were put into specific boxes as a collective.
For SEO in Australia in the context of 2018, there is a personalisation process occurring where the search results produced from one individual would be different for another, even if those terms were identical. This user-focus gives a more accurate detail of results for that individual, but this micro-analysis and overt accuracy also complicates a once simple messaging campaign.
Re-Optimisation
Recycling or regurgitating content, however you perceive it, has become a more common facet of SEO in Australia that should be acknowledged. Running by a more technical term that is more relevant to this discussion would be re-optimisation. This is a practice that will see written content be transformed into a podcast, a video or a PDF file. Not only is switching content formats one type, but also editing miniature copies or expanding on previous topics also fits this category. For many websites, fresh and dense content is not always feasible, so the ideal way of offering something new is to repackage what was old.
Voice Search
Voice search is clearly becoming a major player when it comes to SEO in Australia. With smartphones gearing their applications to this mode of communication whilst other digital outlets produce technologies based on user interaction (Amazon Alexa for example), this is seen as a natural extension to the more conversational search that engines like bing and Google are catering towards. Exact keywords were once the bastion of optimisation, but today there is far more versatility where enterprises can include their on-brand message in the context of a standard conversational tone.
No Linked Content
Links and backlinks have been seen as the pillars of SEO in Australia for many years. However, the degree to which artificial intelligence has evolved has diminished the need to backlink to other brands and organisation names to give sites the capacity to offer up no linked or linkless content. Consider the rate at which users write out ‘Apple’ or ‘Google’, the search engines have recognised that the need to rank according to hyperlinks has become almost redundant in 2018.
Mobile Domain Speed
If SEO in Australia is important to your domestic business, then ensure your mobile domain is running fast. A quick diagnostic can examine if there are any problems with this field for you, as a majority of online traffic today is run via the smartphone. Search engines recognise this trend and reward those sites who cater to this market.
Summary
The practice of SEO in Australia will never remain static. What is true in 2018 won’t be the scenario for 2019 and beyond. What is imperative for brands and businesses is to ensure they are educated and aware of developments as competitors rise and fall according to their competence regarding SEO in Australia.