Well, 2017 is rapidly approaching, and as we search for those last minute holiday gifts, it’s time to look at “what” and “how” people will be doing their searching next year. As Search Engine Optimization continues to grow and transform at lightning speed, it’s time to get a head start on what we can expect from 2017. With the recent launch of Google’s Penguin update, many SEO-conscious marketers are trying to predict was this year will hold. Here are a few SEO trends for 2017.
4 SEO Trends For 2017
1. Mobile Matters
While mobile accessibility has been highly recommended this year, Google’s new emphasis on mobile search ensures that it should become a staple in your SEO gameplan this year. Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) project is encouraging companies to really pay attention to their accessibility of their mobile site. This is essentially a new standard that will be set for all mobile sites to create a faster and more appealing user experience.
Since its launch in February 2016, many SEO experts are treading cautiously. If AMP becomes yet another fad to come and go, companies might end up putting a lot of money into something that won’t produce many benefits. However, now that mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches, many believe that AMP is Google’s serious attempt at bringing SEO to the mobile market.
2. Their Voice Will Be Heard
Surprisingly, voice-search as begun to catch on within the last few years. With home assistants like the Amazon Echo hitting the market, many predict that the number of voice searches performed in 2017 will greatly increase.
Remember the phrase “featured snippet” because you’ll be hearing a lot about it in 2017. This snippet shows up at the top of the SERP whenever a question is answered. This is important because many companies will be looking to land their brand in the featured snippet. Anytime your brand ranks in the featured snippet area, Google is essentially saying that your brand has the most trusted information, which is a good thing, and will lead to hundreds, if not thousands, of clicks!
Google is always looking for richer snippets to provide to users, so you’ll want to be as specific as possible when marketing your brand. Given the fact that voice search keeps growing at supersonic speed (over half of US teens & 41% of US adults use voice search on a daily basis), this extra branding opportunity might play a vital role in your 2017 SEO marketing plan.
3. Embrace All Markets
Cross-channel marketing is one of the SEO trends for 2017 that will also be a key strategy to implement in 2017. We’ve talked about mobile and voice search which are both separate marketing channels. Now it’s time to figure out how to integrate your brand into a variety of channels. Organic search, social media, and email are just a few channels that you’ll have to juggle next year, and with the growing popularity of mobile search and voice search, this presents many opportunities to finish 2017 on top.
Unlike multichannel marketing, these SEO trends will focus primarily on the transition between other devices and platforms. If a user searches for your brand on their phone using a voice search, your marketing plan should seamlessly integrate into other channels like their social media platforms and email. While it’s tough to balance all of these channels, pinpointing the proper audience and best integration plan can make 2017 a success.
4. Don’t Stress The Redirects
Another big change this year is Google loosening the reigns on 3xx redirects. Previously, Google would penalize you for using certain redirects on your site, causing your PageRank to decrease. However, a few months ago Google announced that using redirects would no longer affect PageRank, allowing many SEO experts to breathe a sigh of relief.
While it’s still not a good idea to have a ton of redirects on your page, you shouldn’t stress about having a specific kind of redirect on your page. These SEO trends for 2017 will allow companies to focus less on redirects, and more on implementing an excellent marketing campaign for 2017.
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