Three ways to keep up with SEO trends

If you’re struggling to keep up with search algorithm updates, you’re not alone. As a small business owner, you’re often tasked with more pressing matters. Luckily for you, keeping up with the latest trends in SEO isn’t that difficult if you can set a few minutes aside each week.

SEO, or search engine optimization, includes a wide variety of methods aimed at increasing your website’s traffic. Many people associate keyword strategy with SEO but there's more to it than that. SEO is often a strategy within a larger inbound marketing campaign, which draws customers to your business organically, or without paid advertisements. Unfortunately, if you’re not a SEO expert, the terminology behind the science can be confusing.

Here are three ways to keep up with the latest SEO trends:

SEO Blogs

It doesn’t get much more meta than this: blogs about blogging. SEO blogs are usually a great place to start when you’re looking to digest information about a new search algorithm. Not only that, many SEO blogs keep an updated section on the website strictly for current best practices.

A few of the big SEO blogs you should be keeping up with include Google’s blog, Search Engine Land, and Moz.

While taking time out each week to check in with each of these sites can be pretty boring, find a way to passively include them with your other daily news routines. If you use Flipboard, add them to the sites your follow. If you use an RSS reader, include them there as well.

Social Media

This goes along with the suggestion above to follow SEO news passively. If you’re following influencers in the SEO space on Facebook and Twitter, you’re less likely to miss out on big SEO news.

If you’re struggling to manage the amount of information coming through your Twitter timeline, try creating a list strictly for the SEO users. Twitter lists are extremely helpful for organizing who you follow. Additionally, if you don’t want anyone on Twitter to know you’re following these guys, you can add them to the list without following and make the list private.

Webmaster Tools

Webmaster tools is your go-to spot for all things SEO. Google provides tools and information about the latest trends and best practices for SEO here. This is where Google will explain to you how things work on its site when it crawls through your site. Not only that, Webmaster Tools is where you want to go to see if your company’s website is optimized correctly.