2017 is upon us and it’s time for some SEO conjectures for the year ahead. Before that, let’s throw some light on a year that is fast slipping away into posterity. To start with, this year has so far been exciting for the industry with trends emerging almost on the expected lines. The year saw some rules ‘toughening up’ for sites deviating from mobile compliance and quality of content together with some renewed focus to local rankings.
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The year ahead looks equally promising with mobile traffic set to occupy greater hold onto the traffic market. As the number of smartphone users is inclined to break the ceiling, this calls for some measure from both pioneers and laggards to sense the nuances else run the risk of losing out on a massive chunk. The strategy should be to know those changes and take to visitors search benefits.
In addition, your business should not jeopardize its chances by coming in the way of set of trends forecast in previous years. If your business is not following the ethical route, it’s sure to face bumpy rides ahead as Google has zero tolerance for SEO delinquency. You will be digging your own grave if not following those standard practices and updates and not hiring a top-rated SEO company like Mind Digital Group.
Let’s have a look at SEO trends that may dominate the landscape in 2017:
Penguin updates may reach you short
Brace yourself up for the likely arrival of Penguin updates, that too in real-time. With that happening anytime soon, your sites’ value is set for a scrutiny and analysis resulting in heightened chances of penalties. Make sure your site is on the right side of the quality guidelines from Google. If not, be ready to not only lose some SEO points but rankings also. To escape the wrath, you however could resort to White Hat SEO tactics, and don’t forget to elevate the quality of content.
Video content to outpace the written on
Videos are everywhere and users are loving sharing them. They are exploding in popularity with more brands understanding its reach and potential. Still some way off, video content is sure to catch up and then outpace written one, thanks to changes in technologies coupled with Google’s proposed plan to fetch video ads in search results. A juicy scenario awaits marketers for sure where the quantity of your video feed will bring that edge.
Interactive content to leave behind its cousins
It’s the content that will both a loser and winner, depending on which side of the fence you sit on. If your content fails to engage interactivity among users, it’s sure to sit on the wrong side. If however it’s stirring users into action and greater activity, it’s surely going to fetch better SEO results. Search engines will look to index more those content that come with prospects of enhancing more engagement and interactivity for users.
Mobile searches to outshine the desktop ones
Yes, it’s happening! Desktop searches are fast losing their hegemony and who else than mobile ones to give a fight! 2015 is already witnessing a neck-to-neck fight and 2016 is going be the landmark year. No one is surprised though given the furious growth rate of smartphone while de-growth of desktop users. As more people are going to have, and be mobile, in the days to come, desktops are surely not going to catch up.
Content Algorithm Update is coming from Google
Any attempt to compromise with quality of content is going to be fraught with some ranking risks and penalties for your website. With Google already decided to roll out its content algorithm next year, you got to tread with caution, for sure. Scraper sites are already under its lens and any similar attempt from your side to copy and paste content from other sites, is sure to dent your rankings. Don’t try to deviate away from fresh and unique content, keep doing that.
Search results fetching a tweet or two is nothing new as we’re witnessing this happening this year itself. The frequency however is low and restricted to twitter and Facebook feeds alone. Expect 2016 to be the year where more social sites and social contents are getting indexed and appearing in your search results. In a way, social feeds are set to get a recognition as a web page, thus adding a new dimension to SEO searches and results.
Deep links in apps set to match the prominence of those in web pages
In the days to come, apps are widely expected to surpass websites in reach, impact and popularity. Keeping this in mind, deep links of apps are set to seize from web pages indexing benefits together with greater significance. With that, businesses will have an opportunity to leverage to gain some advantage. It’s therefore key to either prop up listing on apps or create one for your business to benefit from this shift of trend.
SEO is going to be categorized
Yes, you heard it right! SEO is all set to get a major thrust next year when it’s going to be categorized accordingly to match visitors’ buying patterns. It means, different set of keywords are going to be used based on buyers’ actual stage of buying process. That way, strategies and techniques are set to differ to seek alignment with buyer’s journey. In doing so, the attribute of users’ behavior is going to play a key role.
Conclusion:
It’s clearly visible that some excitingly notable and innovative SEO trends are going to unfold in 2016. Businesses need to be in the loop to understand the implications of those changes. Any failure to adapt to changing realities of any industry, including SEO, may cause irreparable damage to businesses and brands in more than one way. The best strategy therefore is to pay heeds to earlier updates and changes asked by Google. In case your business is still ignoring trends and updates conveyed before, it may find itself in deep waters once the new ones hit the market and take it completely off guard.
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