Good marketers are aware of the constant change in digital marketing trends. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those ever-changing trends. It is a constant trend in digital marketing, but if you’re new to the game or you haven’t been around for a while, it’s important to consider the most current, basic SEO trends.

“Basic SEO isn’t hard to get started with, it just takes time and plenty of patience,” says Scott Langdon of the online SEO agency Higher Visibility. “Web pages don’t typically rank overnight for competitive keywords. If you are willing to create a solid foundation of optimization for your website and put in the time to build upon it, you will achieve success and grow your organic traffic.”

As a beginning marketer, don’t get caught up in complicated algorithms and expensive SEO campaigns. Patience and basic SEO allows your strategy to work more successfully and reach a broader audience. Here are some modern SEO basics to remember.

SERP

Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are pages that search engines bring up following a query. It’s important to not only understand this concept and how it works, but also the many features that you can use to track rankings, monitor features, keep up with competitors, and develop keywords.

Be aware that this project will take time and finesse because it’s always changing.

“The appearance of search engine results pages is constantly in flux due to experiments conducted by Google, Bing, and other search engine providers to offer their users a more intuitive, responsive experience,” explains an article from WordStream. “This, combined with emerging and rapidly developing technologies in the search space, means that the SERPs of today differ greatly in appearance from their older predecessors.”

As you evolve with SERP trends, there are many tools to assist you, such as SEO PowerSuite’s Rank Tracker and CognitiveSEO. You might also consider more comprehensive SEO packages, including SERP features, from agencies that specialize in the trade.

Speed

The smartest and fastest websites will survive in this rat race called digital marketing. The speed of your website affects your search engine rankings as well as user experience.

The majority of users report getting impatient with or abandoning websites that take longer than three seconds to load, but that’s not the only reason to speed up your site. According to research, Google wants your web page to load faster than three seconds, and if it doesn’t, you’ll receive a ranking penalty.

Value Proposition

Quality is another key indicator for search engines. If your website does not satisfactorily answer customer queries, your rankings will take a hit.

Knowing your value proposition and delivering is vital to successful SEO. “Experience shows that you don’t have to be a huge website for a major brand to rank in the top spot for a given query,” says Fili Wiese of Search Engine Land. “Google doesn’t care which sites show up high in SERPs, as long as the page lives up to user expectations, which is something they measure on a tremendous scale.”

If you’re focusing on the value proposition of your blog, you won’t disappoint customers or search engines.

Voice Search

The SEO landscape will naturally evolve with the changes in technology. The use of voice search is growing prolifically, and search engines are changing to accommodate.

“Voice search will change how we create content,” Loren Baker of Foundation Digital told Forbes. “Valuable content will have a more conversational tone that answers questions directly. The idea of creating content around a specific keyword bucket will no longer exist. It’s about creating content for searcher intent. Search engines can interpret context so that content that answers a question and contains information about a topic will win.”

Link Building

A key aspect of SEO today is link building. It yields company mentions on many publications for the benefit of SEO algorithms and readers seeking guidance.

Building your own links into published posts is important, but more important is creating content worthy of being linked to. The higher quality the content, the more attention it will get from both readers and bots.

“In 2018, engagement will play an even larger role in achieving SEO success overall. Creating link-worthy, user-driven content that answers relevant questions and provides useful information to prospects is pivotal,” Bryan Shetsky of Lamark Media also told Forbes.

Never underestimate the basics of SEO for marketing your business. Keep your strategy simple, and focus on the end results.