Search engine optimization is a game in which you have to stay one step ahead of your competitors. In order to accomplish this task and to maintain your competitive dominance, you have to understand how search engines are changing their algorithms. The SEO industry is evolving so you have to design your SEO strategies on the basis of these evolutions. The trend of local searches is growing at a rapid pace as people are using their mobile devices to search for local services.
Let’s see how 2017 is going to be an interesting year for SEO and the following trends will dominate the arena.
1. High Quality with More Content Density – A couple of years back marketing efforts were revolving around producing bite size content, then the trend changed to produce epic size content. In the present scenario trend is moving towards providing rich and dense content. You have to provide as much information as possible in the minimum space possible. Readers are fed up of reading the same content again and again. They want complete information on the subject within the smallest space. Stay away from being repetitive and provide a coherent and informative content.
2. Embrace the Power of Accelerated Mobile Pages – Webmasters can create pages which will download instantly on mobile devices. Accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) are an open source protocol. You have to make simple changes to load your website and the best part is it will use eight times less data and make your site four times faster. Google is already favoring those sites which have used AMPs and they mark it with a small icon showing the AMP status.
3. RankBrain backed by Machine Learning capabilities – In October 2015 Google confirmed the use of RankBrain, this opened the possibility of algorithmic machine learning. Google’s Hummingbird is also about learning the user’s conversational queries. We may see more machine learning updates in 2017.
4. Voice Search – The Fastest growing Search type – With the increase in smart phones and tablets, more and more people are using hands-free voice search. This is comparatively easier for a user to give a voice command and access a website. You don’t need to touch keyboard or screen tapping, you just have to speak and the search engine will give the precise results. Voice search is not an easy option to incorporate in mobile devices as compared to the keyboard searches or the screen tapping. When you make a voice command there are quotation marks, modifiers and auto complete. When asking a question, there are ample chances of confusion or irrelevant results. This is the time when search engine optimization comes in and if your website is optimized for voice search, then you will stay ahead of your business competitors.
5. Don’t ignore the Power of Social Media – Initially we focused on keyword search to get genuine traffic. Now the things have changed a little and social media has emerged as a powerful platform in the digital landscape. There are several examples which have shown that a Facebook page can be more powerful than a decade old website. In 2017 you will need to optimize your content to gain popularity in social media and search engines will have no other option except to rank you at top position.