Every year, there’s one or two new SEO trends that pop up here and there. You should not expect the SEO strategy you came up with your brand two or three years ago to still work seamlessly. Google annually upgrades its algorithm. That coupled with advances in new technology requires companies to review SEO strategies annually. Even if you think you have mastered your brand’s SEO plan, it might not work this year. Here are several important tips to make your SEP strategy work in 2017:
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Optimize All Sites and Content for Mobile Devices
Digital marketers have crowed about the importance of optimizing websites and content for mobile browsing for years. Last year, that actually came true. In October of last year, mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) officially overtook desktop computers as the choice device for web browsing. More than 51 percent of all web traffic now comes from handheld devices. So your brand cannot actually afford to live in the desktop ages anymore. All web content, plus sites and social media posts, must now be optimized for mobile viewing. Don’t forget content in pay per click ads either. That means images that load easily and interactive content that can be accessed on a mobile device. You can hire a digital marketing consultant to bring your SEO strategy to the mobile age.
Try High-Quality Link Building
Link building is retuning with force in 2017. During the early days of SEO, some sites went on link building rampages to drive traffic. This results in many websites linking to spam content that could possibly contain malware. While Google put a stop to all that, link building is still relevant. Link building is no longer used to promote bad or low-quality content. Rather, you can use high-quality links to add credence to good content. For example, if your brand is promoting an article about the importance of getting enough sleep at night, the article will be better with a link or to authoritative sites like the Ministry of Health website. Good links will give your high-quality content an upper hand when competing with similar content published by rivals.
Don’t Forget Voice Search
More and more people are now using voice search on their devices to access Google. People now use smartphones and smart household devices with voice-powered AI assistants to access content via search engines like Google. Voice search is rising in popularity. Considering the trend, your sites and content should be optimized for voice search on programs like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortage, and Google Now. Voice search will only increase in the future. Therefore, trying it now is the best option.
Plus, Google is getting more online queries in the question format. Also, when you do certain Google searches now, you will notice that Google automatically displays common questions associated with the search phrase. The answers are taken from websites with links to the content. This is an incredible opportunity to drive traffic to your site. Find out what questions that can be answered on your site. If Google gets similar questions in search queries, your site will be included in the answer section. In addition, rich answers are a trend in the search world. More people want literal answers to search queries, like what shoes are trending this year or how do I change my computer battery. Do your research and come up with rich answer content.
