The Top SEO Trends You Need to Follow

Are you keeping up-to-date with the most popular SEO trends? Increase your relevancy throughout the second half of 2017 by using the trends below as the framework for your digital marketing campaign: 

1.   Optimizing for User Intention

Considering how often people use search engines to find results for specific queries, the value of keywords won’t be degrading anytime soon. Still, moving forward, digital marketers must develop strategies that focus more on user intent and less on just keywords.

You need to create content that satisfies the queries that your buyer persona is searching. So, once you’re finished keyword research, make a commitment to educate your customers. And don’t forget to keep a close eye on analytics; it’s crucial to know how your content is affecting your targeted audience. 

2.   Accuracy of Snippets in SERPs

Featured snippets are a great way for Google to provide quick answers to many of our questions. Google generally displays results along with searches for things like movies, videos and reviews. As we get closer to 2018, you can expect the accuracy of these responses to increase significantly.

The snippet search result is produced by the schema markup or structured data markup. Based on a study by Stone Temple Consulting, the number of search results featuring rich snippets has nearly doubled over the last two years.

As it stands now, this trend will only continue to gain momentum in the future. Keep in mind that structured data markup improves the likelihood that your website will rank in “Position 0” in SERPs.

3.   Cross-Channel Experiences  

Using several channels to market a product has been a leading objective for most digital marketing campaigns in 2017. By spreading brand awareness across different platforms, cross-channel marketing is designed to increase the possibility that a customer makes a purchase. 

Studies indicate that cross-channel marketing is still in an early stage of development, which is why experts say it will continue to climb towards the end of the year.

4.   Optimizing for Mobile with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) 

Over the last few years, mobile search has been restructuring the SEO landscape. Research shows that mobile devices are already responsible for more than 50% of all internet traffic (StatCounter). That’s why Google now gives priority to indexing websites designed with mobile in mind.

Just like anything else in SEO, it’s always best to play by Google’s rules. Having said that, you should place even more value on delivering content fast and providing a satisfying user experience for mobile users. Mobile optimization is already an essential requirement of SEO practices—and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes mandatory.  

5.   Preparing for Voice Search

Google voice search is the fastest growing and most interesting search trend of 2017. Not only is it faster and more convenient, but it also appears to fit perfectly into the next stage of search. 

With its growing popularity, Google’s experts have been refining their tools to reduce the error rate and increase the accuracy of their search algorithm. In fact, Google has already been able to reduce the speech recognition error rate from 25 to 8 percent.

6.   HTTPS and Distorted Referral Data

A few years ago, Google introduced “https” as another ranking factor in its algorithm. As soon as this happened, many companies were determined to shift from HTTP to HTTPS.

However, the issue is that HTTPS has been eating up a lot of referral data. That’s why you have to restore referral data to your HTTP website coming from HTTPS websites.

In addition, you’ll need to check that your HTTPS website relays referral data from HTTP sites. Without making these changes, you risk losing relevancy as 2017 closes out.    

7.   The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Google has been determined to improve both the capabilities of its artificial intelligence and the accuracy of its search results for a long time now. As they continue to fine-tune its ability to process and retrieve information, you can expect powerful advancements in Google’s algorithm.

This means that digital marketers will need to rethink their optimization strategies, including heading tags and alt texts. Since Google’s AI is designed to think like a real person, it’s best to focus more on user intent. In doing so, you can predict different ways users may search for your product and be proactive by putting your brand in front of them when they do. 

Want to learn more? Go to 1SEO.com today to gain more insight on the best SEO practices.