Digital Marketing Predictions for 2017 - Part 2

Part 2 of this series takes us into the realms of SEO and Social Media, so let's dive straight in!

SEO Mobile-First

Mobile is the future; the human race is becoming more and more addicted to our mobile phones and instant access to the internet. It started back in 2015 when mobile overtook desktop search, when the not-so-“mobilegeddon” Google mobile-friendly algorithm update hit, and when Google first introduced accelerated mobile pages (AMP) – which, for those that don’t know is an open source HTML framework for businesses to make their mobile pages faster and more user friendly.

Mobile-first indexing seems to be the inevitable consequence of Google’s forcing a change of mindset from desktop to mobile, and whilst currently still in the testing phase, it is sure to be rolled out sometime in 2017. This whole push is due to the rapid rise of users on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets. The rise is especially significant in places such as Asia where internet on-the-go is significantly cheaper and more accessible.

This means that by now you need to have a fully responsive website before this update hits. For those that have no plans to redevelop, expect a drop in traffic and be aware that it could be better for you to have a desktop-only site! Whilst desktops is still important, especially in e-commerce mobile devices will continue to gain rapid purchase share over the next 12 Months.

Local Links > Domain Authority

Google’s personalisation in search results is getting more and more sophisticated, local SEO and link building is so valuable for businesses that rely on their locality, any search for "... near me" is a great keyword to target. Links from a website that has relevance with your local area and has servers based locally will be worth more than a site with higher DA. Building local citations is likely to have less value without an associated link.

To take advantage of this, investigate where your competitors are linking from for new ideas. Network locally with businesses with an online presence, and try to get links from any sponsors or connections your business has already while avoiding as much as possible in reciprocal link exchanges.

Voice Search and Featured Snippets

Voice search is making plays to become a much bigger search platform in 2017. In 2016, over 50% of teens in the US and 41% of adults used the tool at least once a day. Through testing it has been found that voice searches have a higher likelihood of rich snippets/cards giving the right answer to the user, and Google is getting better at returning that one perfect result for the user.

Rich answers can be a great way of generating traffic if you aren’t ranking #1 – in fact, it puts you at position zero. You can increase your likelihood of reaching this spot by researching for the long tail and writing content that answers those more verbose questions. If you expand and add structured data to the page, your snippets will be even more likely to be used as a rich snippet.

Social Sharing Becoming Social Selling

Social media is entering a new period of development and it is here to stay! The core social aspects of the platforms are now being leveraged towards adverts and marketers have quickly realised the potential. Growth in spend on social platforms is astronomical and it's been widely forecasted that social media spend will rise above print news by 2019 – to over ￡50bn in advertising spend! 

Right now social selling, particularly through Facebook, is one of the cheapest and most effective way to reach new customers online. The targeting is unbelievable and allows practically any seller can their perfect customer through the ad's manager.

The best thing about it is how simple picking your target customers is, we tend to start with a wide audience at first and then target down or adjust depending on results – all social platforms provide estimated audience sizes based on your targeting criteria.

Whilst social brings incredible reach at relatively low cost, the downside to selling via the platforms is that users are becoming more and more immune to advertising, especially on Twitter. If you’re going to use the “Shop Now” button as your call to action, make sure you have engaging images, video and ad copy to catch the eye and add value to your offer.

Testing for the Right Platform

There will be ongoing refinement in marketing channels and how each brand chooses the platform for them. As companies become accustomed to using social media for business, they will find out which type of content works for their sector and audience, and from that what platform promotes them best. Whilst it may be important to test which platform suits your brand offer, don’t spread your budget too thinly in 2017 – find out which channel is the most efficient for your business and concentrate on expanding that market.

Snapchat is one platform that has seen exponential growth in 2016 and is expected to carry that through into 2017. It has forced the likes of Instagram create similar features to Snapchat Stories, fueling around 10 billion views each day!

This popularity for ‘in the moment’ content extends past just pictures. Live video and 360 images are also becoming increasingly visible and successful for social networks, challenging TV’s monopoly over live content.

The third and final part of this series will be live early next week and will look at search trends and paid search in particular.

I cant wait to share it.

Tim