Trends in SEO 2017

In the world of SEO it is all about staying ahead of your competition and one of the best ways to accomplish competitive dominance is to be constantly aware of how search engines are changing, and to adjust your content and SEO strategy accordingly before your competitors get a chance to catch up. The search engine optimization industry is always going though change, so it in necessary to be aware of these evolutions. Let us take a look at some of the trends that are predicted to dominate SEO 2017.

1. The Rise of AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages).

AMPs is an open-source protocol that lets webmasters to create pages capable of loading almost instantaneously on mobile devices. The idea is that a few simple structural changes can make your website load up to four times faster and use around eight times less data. Google is starting to favour websites that have switched over to AMPs, providing them with visibility in a carousel and a small lightning bolt icon which indicates their AMP status.

2. The Rise of “Dense” Content.

People are getting tired of reading the same fluff content over and over again. Early content marketing efforts were aimed at producing as much bite-sized content as possible, however for the past few years, we have seen a surge in long pieces that cover a topic comprehensively. Although as the market has been flooded with both these types of content, I feel a new trend might ignore length entirely and focus on providing as much information as possible in a contained space — dense content — in order to appeal to readers.

3. Machine Learning Will Change the Way the Algorithm Works.

Google RankBrain was released in 2015, and opened the door to the possibility of algorithmic machine learning. The Google Hummingbird extension functions as a way to slowly learn more about how users phrase conversational queries — and automatically update its algorithm accordingly. We haven not seen another update like it since, although I anticipate that we are overdue for one. Google will most likely start releasing more machine learning updates as the years go by, starting next year, and we might even see machine learning in other areas, like data interpretation or marketing automation.

4. Personal Branding Will Become an SEO 2017 Secret Weapon.

With a personal brand, you will have a far easier time building user trust, securing guest posts, and driving more traffic to your site. However, shockingly few brands have taken advantage of this in their SEO efforts. As social media sites like Facebook continue to refine their algorithms in order to favour individual posts over branded posts, we will probably see more companies and organizations taking advantage of personal branding. This will lead to more opportunities and more competition, so be careful and make sure that your strategy is in order.

5. UEO Will Start to Blur the Lines with SEO 2017.

User experience has always been significant to SEO — at least to some degree. Google favours websites that are mobile responsive, loads quickly, and lets their users enjoy the site’s experience (this is clear when users spend prolonged time on page, etc.). However in 2017, we could see an increased emphasis on user experience — particularly as it relates to mobile devices. AMP could be the first sign of this, but be sure to look for other ways that Google will favour pages that offer better user experiences overall.