SEO strategies are always changing, Orange County. As technology evolves, new ways of getting your brand recognized come to the forefront. The Google algorithm changes. New social media platforms become popular. You need to be aware of what is happening within the sphere of optimization at all times if you wish to remain competitive. So, what must you know about SEO Orange County in the latter half of 2018?

You Must Rank For Your Brand, Not Generic Terms

In the past, it could have been a large part of your SEO strategy to try and rank for generic search terms within your niche, Orange County. But that is not so much the case these days, because those terms have so much competition. It’s still nice if you can rank for them, but it will be more to your benefit to make sure that you are ranking for your brand name, including misspellings of it. If your brand name is unique then this becomes easier. You shouldn’t think of ranking for both generic industry terms and your brand as one aggregate. Use analytics tools to figure out the best keywords that will make your brand stand out, and make sure you’re optimized for those.

Machine Learning Has Made Better Content A Focal Point

The axiom “content is king” was never more important than after the introduction of machine learning. When that became part of the Google algorithm, it killed your chances of ranking by trying to leverage a few variables, the trickery that dominated SEO a few years back. Machine learning has enabled Google to value content that informs, educates, and entertains. Well-written content that gets a lot of organic traffic has the highest value. To break it down to the most basic terminology, Google is smarter now. It’s pointless to waste time trying to fool it.

There’s certainly room for speculation as to what the next innovations will be in SEO, Orange County. Will the following Google algorithm turn everything we know on its ear again? Will the advent of some new technology mean that we’ll have to recreate the rule book, as we did when mobile website use overran desktop use? We’ll have to wait and see. Part of SEO is staying flexible, and never becoming too set in your ways. Best practices are always changing, always evolving.