My presentation to Worthing Digital on 10 April 2018.

1. 2018: The Year The Rules Changed
For Your Website
David Rosam. David Rosam Digital Marketing
davidrosam.com | david@davidrosam.com | 07973 208824 | @davidrosam

2. What’s this year’s
big thing in SEO?

3. If only there was
just one!

4. 2018
Is the year just about everything changes for your website.

5. Let’s start with mobile

6. >50%
of Google searches are now on mobile devices. It varies by sector
You can find more mobile facts at Smart Insights.

7. How is your site for mobile?
● Have you looked at it from your phone?
● Can you read it?
● Is it simple to navigate?
● Is it fast?

8. If your site fails
on any of these,
your visitors won’t
hang around.

9. And they won’t be
spending money
with you.

10. Here’s the kicker.

11. Google’s
Putting Mobile
First
So your site is judged on its mobile
performance
● Some sites are already on Google’s
Mobile First Index
● The rest will be migrated by June 2018
● Be prepared for your rankings to slide if
your site isn’t up to standard for mobile
○ eg Google is expected to start penalising
slow loading sites from July this year

12. If you’ve got
mobile wrong,
you’ll be shunned
by:
1.Customers
2.Google

13. That’s a double whammy

14. Or a perfect storm

15. Whatever it is. Your bottom line is at
risk.

16. What to do?
Get on the case now.
1. Ensure your site is RESPONSIVE
2. Make sure site navigation works on
smartphones, tablets and desktops
3. Do fonts and images work well on
popular devices?
4. Fix speed issues (many businesses are
failing to address them)
5. If you’re unsure about your site and
Mobile First, find an SEO and ask their
advice

17. I should say a
little more about
speed.

18. Why you may have site speed issues
Small Business websites Gotchas
On budget, shared hosting Basic, slow servers; other sites suck performance
further
Built with little or no regard to speed Design, coding and functionality may slow site
Themes and plugins may be a major speed hog Chosen out of habit, popularity or received wisdom.
Speed issues are not just caused by the number of
plugins, but how well they’ve been coded

19. Faster web hosting and GDPR
Sorry to mention it - especially if you thought GDPR couldn’t push its way into an SEO talk.
● Moving to a GDPR compliant Virtual Private Server (VPS) helps you with both:
○ SEO: faster, more stable hosting
○ GDPR: online issues are possibly solved - does your site store personal data in its online database? Then you’ll need to
get pay attention to GDPR’s requirements. A VPS offers better security

20. Do you use Voice Search?

21. 50%
of searches will be voice searches by 2020, according to Comscore. 2020 is just two years away.
More stats can be found at Branded3.com.

22. Voice search is
not only on
mobile.

23. Voice search is at
home
● Google Home
● Amazon Echo
● Apple HomePod (although Apple appears
to be trailing Google and Amazon at the
moment in Voice Search)
And, over time, we’re sure to see more
applications in more situations.

24. SEO is still about content

25. But things have
evolved (of
course)

26. Content Rules
OK
(that’s Rules for Content, not a piece of last
century graffiti)
● Answer your customers’ needs - in SEO-
speak ‘understand searcher intent’
● Don’t write short content ‘for mobile’.
Google still rewards depth and detail
● Google likes well-written content
● In WordPress, don’t use Yoast SEO’s
traffic light system. It’s outdated
● You must still do your Key Phrase
Research and have a Content Strategy
● Include long tail ‘conversational’
searches for voice search

27. More details
about 2018
Content? See my
recent article on
Search Engine
Watch

28. Keep up with the constant changes in
Local SEO

29. Local SEO
It’s like National SEO, but with more to do.
● Online, Google is tweaking the Local
Pack, the information displayed, the size
of a locality… and on and on and on
● While online runs away with itself, you
can leverage your offline marketing to
support your Local SEO efforts

30. Does your site use https?

31. If it doesn’t, do it
now

32. It’ll increase your
customers’ trust

33. And it’ll stop
Google flagging
up your site as
somehow
undesirable

34. A few facts about SSL
● Most small business websites can get an SSL certificate for free (Let’s Encrypt is a popular source)
● You can even install the certificate yourself using SSL for Free (you’ll need a bit of technical nous,
of course)
● Do not just install a certificate. Keeping your SEO goodness is probably the bigger task, and the
tougher challenge
● There’s loads of advice online
● If you’re even slightly unsure about what’s involved, consult an SEO. It’s easy to lose the benefits of
years of work on your site
● Your developers may know about SEO, too

35. In Conclusion...

36. Four things to
do for your
site
To stay ahead of the game in 2018
1. Make sure your site is ready for mobile
2. Ensure you have an SSL Certificate
installed and you have migrated your
site with an eye to SEO
3. Keep up to date with Content changes
(including the demands of Voice Search)
4. Get up to speed with Local SEO and stay
there

37. Contact me!
David Rosam
David Rosam Digital Marketing
https://davidrosam.com
david@davidrosam.com
07973 208824
@davidrosam