Most Important SEO Trends
Finally, we are in 2017! New Year, new hopes, new resolutions, but the same old passion! 2016 was a passionate year, predominantly when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) trends and Google in particular. With each New Year, search engine portals develop new algorithms and rules with a view to fighting spamming links and people trying to play the system.
The SEO industry is always poignant, so it rewards to be aware of these evolutions.
An exciting year for SEO, with the following trends heightening the limelight:
1. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) will rise
Over the past few years, easy access to mobile has restructured SEO. Mobile search is growing at a rapid pace. In addition, there is not any sign of its getting slow down in the near future. There is a significant shift in website traffic. Searchers are moving away from desktop towards mobile devices. There are many websites which attract major traffic from mobile devices. Google has experienced that mobile searches surpassed desktop searches.
The same was reported in May 2015. Since then, many steps taken by Google have indicated that mobile should be measured as the default user experience. In fact, Google has initiated measures to make its index mobile-first. Google favours the websites which have switched over to AMPs. AMP is an open source initiative that aims to provide mobile-optimized content. It provides the capability of loading sites instantly on mobile devices four times faster along with eight times lesser data usage.
15 of the 24 hours in a given day, more mobile search is performed on mobile than on Desktops or tablets. searchenginejournal.
Mobile optimization is already extremely important in SEO strategies. However, it will prove to be mandatory in 2017. Experts have anticipated seeing more preference for AMPs in search results. More and more brands are anticipated to take advantage of this option.
2. Intense content will mount
Don’t optimize for keywords. Optimize your content. Readers are tired of surfing the messed up content again and again. Initially, content marketing efforts were focused on producing as much crisp content as possible. However, over the past few years, the focus has also been laid towards comprehensive content.
Interestingly, the current market is flooded with both sorts of content. The trend in 2017 will have much focus on optimized and intense content. The users will receive maximum possible information in the minimum possible space. Epic content is surely going to appeal to the readers.
3. Video Content will enhance revenue
Approximately 64% of the consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. Video content is at its peak and it is not going anywhere soon.
According to Syndacast,74 per cent of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video.
In fact, the Facebook higher authority also stated that video will become the main type of content by 2020. Along with the development and increased usage of advanced technologies including, Snapchat, Vine, Periscope, and even Instagram, video content is going to last its impression in 2017 as well.
At present, marketers who use video grow their revenue 49% faster as compared to non-video users. Google is experimenting with video ads in the search results.
There are multiple types of video content including advertisements, webinars, tutorials, question answers, quizzes, and others. Marketers can implement such types of videos in their search marketing strategy.
4. Structured Data and Schema will have an influential role
Search engine crawlers need to understand the web content to provide the best search results. With a view to providing such information to the user, Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo! collaborated to form Schema.org. The inclusion of Schema markup in a user’s HTML improves the way his page displays in SERPs by improving the rich snippets that are displayed below the page title. Schema.org provides particular set shared vocabularies that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines.Look for structured data and Schema are expected to have an influential role in SEO in 2017 and ahead.
5. Voice Search will mark a footprint
Voice search is definitely not a new thing; however, till recent past, it had no significant role to play in the industry of search engine marketing. Conversely, with the increasing usage of mobiles and other advancements in technology, voice search is gradually gaining drive.
The study, based on results obtained by 1,400 US residents, showed that 55 percent of teens use some kind of hands-free search on their smartphones every day, such as Google’s own solution, along with Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana. While voice search use is growing among older smartphone owners, 45 percent of adults in the survey claimed to fee “like a geek” when they talked to their smartphone.
Obviously, to search for anything rather than typing out the word or phrase, it is a lot more convenient to just speak. Searching through voice is going to grow more in 2017.
However, to optimize search engine marketing strategy, you need to ensure that you comprehend the searchers intent. Voice searches will usually be in the interrogative form and would be including question words like who, what, when, how, where, and others. The best way out to optimize if rephrasing headlines and make it look like a question rather than a statement. For example, “Tips for social media marketing” can be better rephrased as “What are the best tips for social media marketing?”
6. Influence of artificial intelligence on algorithm working
Finally, late last year, Google search algorithms got a boost on the release of Google RankBrain. Google RankBrain is a machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) system which assists in processing search results. It is anticipated to make search smarter and more pertinent to the user. To get along with the flow, use taglines, compose compact articles and reduce the amount of the information you post.
Industry experts are expecting more machine learning updates similar to Google hummingbird in this year as well. Machine learning updates may get released in the areas of data interpretation or marketing automation. Though these are anticipations, they are unquestionably an important portion SEO trends for 2017.
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7. Optimization for user intent
Sites which lay emphasis on enhanced user experience are always favoured by Google and other search engines. To some extent, user experience matters when it comes to SEO. It is straightforward that users will spend more time on the site if they find it user-friendly. Even though keywords and phrases are vital; in 2017, brands are also required to place significance on optimizing their digital content on the basis of user intent. In your SEO strategy for 2017, three musts are:
8. Personal branding – an undisclosed SEO strategy
A social media platform like Facebook has refined its algorithms to favour individual posts over branded posts. In addition, it is continuing doing so. This indirectly places an emphasis on personal branding. Personal branding strategy is very similar to the strategy of corporate branding.
According to Forbes, with the help of a personal brand, you’ll have an easier time securing guest posts, building user trust, and driving more traffic to your website.
Surprisingly, quite a low number of brands have actual cash on it in their SEO activities. However, it would not be incorrect to anticipate that more and more businesses will attempt to cash on personal branding. At the same time, personal branding will bring in more opportunities and more competition.
CONCLUSION
Of course, it is not an easy job to predict what exact changes Google and other search engines are going to announce this year. However, it is not that tough to anticipate that the aforesaid trends will probably widen in some consequential way. As an SEO marketer, you need not to immediately refurbish your digital marketing strategy but need to factor the upcoming trends with a prolonged vision.
The year 2017 will be an influential year in many ways. Get yourself well ready for future challenges and future opportunities.
