The elements of SEO are always changing. Search engines alter their algorithms to improve the accuracy of their search results. Now that a new year has started, let’s discuss the SEO trends you need to consider for the next 12 months.
1. Cross-Channel Marketing
The term “cross-channel marketing” refers to the process of using two or more channels to promote your business. By integrating your efforts across various channels (e.g. websites, blogs, social networking sites, etc.), you can interact with more potential users.
The principles that you should remember are:
– Find the appropriate channels.
– Craft the right marketing messages.
– Identify the best time to share your message.
2. Voice Search
This exciting project has been ongoing for the past few years. The demand is understandable. It offers a futuristic, speedy, and hands-free approach to searching. The technological advancements from the past year have significantly reduced the errors of this tool, thus, expect a surge in the number of people who will use their voices to run online searches.
As an SEO marketer, consider non-text queries in formulating content for your online campaigns.
3. Focus on User Intent
Modern searchers know the information they need. They enter complete phrases or questions on their browsers, instead of relying on good old keywords and major search engines (e.g. Google) help these knowledgeable searchers find the right online content through intent-based search results.
4. More Searches from Mobile Devices
Many people all over the world use mobile devices to search online. This trend has existed for several years now but it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. In fact, online marketers expect more online searches from mobile devices. In 2017, optimizing your content for mobile devices is mandatory.
5. Faster Loading of Webpages
These days, the speed at which your webpages load has a huge effect on your site’s search engine rankings. That means you can boost your rankings by optimizing the page loading speed of your site.
6. Focused Results from Local Searches
GPS-compatible devices will make the results of local searches more local.
7. Indexing of Posts in Social Networking Sites
Google started to show Facebook and Twitter posts on its search results a few years back. This year, online marketers expect content from other major social networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn) to appear in the search results of Google.
8. Emphasis on Video Content
Search engines put more weight on video content than on text-based ones. The latter has been the standard medium for sharing information online. However, the former shows better potential. Online searchers prefer content based on dynamic visuals (e.g. animations).
9. Fewer Benefits from Organic Searches
Now, a good rank in organic searches is not enough to secure website traffic. If you want to get excellent overall traffic, create more videos and publish more posts on social networking sites.
10. Changes in Google’s Algorithms
Google, the world’s most popular search engine today, weeds out black hat sites through algorithm updates. These updates often come in batches. This year, however, there’s a great chance that Google will send out real-time updates to bolster its anti-black hat campaign. That means you need to keep yourself informed regarding Google’s latest algorithm updates.
Conclusion
This year, the SEO landscape will change in different ways but you can stay on top of the upcoming changes by considering the trends discussed in this article. Each trend discussed here can serve as a guideline for your next online marketing efforts.