SEO is concerned with ranking highly on all of the major search engines: Google, Yahoo & Bing. Therefore, when search engines adapt and evolve, the practice of SEO must adapt and evolve too. We spoke about the impact that Google RankBrain had on SEO earlier on in the year and since then there’s been a whole host of significant changes within the industry. SEO is a highly advanced and forward-thinking practice so it’s no surprise that there are frequent developments. As a professional SEO agency in Manchester, it’s our job to keep on top of such developments, so based on expert predictions, we’ve compiled a list of 5 SEO trends to look out for next year.
1. Optimisation Based On Predicting User Intentions
Today, the ingenuity of search engines is remarkable as they are becoming more adept at predicting what users are going to search for. This is best exemplified by Google who is able to make informed judgements about what users intended to type when they make mistakes as well as suggest alternative search queries. Next year, businesses should optimise their content based on what they think users will search for rather than general keywords. This can be done successfully through research on what search queries are driving traffic to your website, making the necessary changes to your optimisation and continually evaluate your analytics to keep on top of what’s successful and what isn’t.
2. Cross-Channel Marketing Will Become More Popular
Most businesses use multi-channel marketing to market their business which is a form of marketing that utilises more than one method. Cross-channel marketing is different in that it uses several methods of marketing a business but in an integrated, collaborative way. Cross-channel marketing focuses on creating and maintaining a consistent brand image so that users can move between multiple platforms or devices to make an online purchase. It's only successful when businesses know their target audience's habits but as the world becomes more and more connected, cross-channel marketing will become more popular and in demand next year.
3. Voice Search Will Continue To Rise In Popularity
As we move towards more contactless ways of processing things, voice search is expected to grow in appeal next year. Experts predict that next year voice search will become more than just voice recognition and will evolve into voice understanding based on accent, frequently used apps, keyword research based on spoken queries and previous searches. SEO practitioners need to monitor
4. The Popularity Of Mobile Devices Will Continue To Grow
The rise of mobile devices has transformed SEO in the past year. With mobile devices surpassing desktops in terms of popularity and usage, designing websites for mobile screens is now a matter of necessity. As a result, traffic distribution has also moved away from desktops and towards mobile devices as more and more websites are getting most of their traffic from mobiles. Because of these huge shifts in device usage and web browsing habits, Google has recently announced that it will be running experiments to test mobile content indexing above desktop to ensure a better experience for the majority of its users. Therefore, mobile optimisation will prove to be a requirement in 2017.
5. Using Rich Answers
Google is a wellspring of knowledge so it's no surprise that we go there when we're looking for answers. Google has upped the game when it comes to search results as not only do they provide the most relevant webpages, they also include rich snippets. For example, if you searched for 'how to make falafel', Google would list content rich snippets that include some of the relevant information like cooking time, calorie intake or some of the ingredients.
Having these enhanced forms of listings is great because users love having quick access to useful information. In 2017, more websites need to have schema mark-ups so that they can provide more of these rich answers.
There’s a lot to take in and cover when it comes to SEO. As SEO practitioners, we know how complicated it is to execute and how hard it is to keep up with changes to the industry which is why we’re here to support you. Get in touch with us if you want to keep on top of these top SEO trends for next year, we’ll make sure you’re not left behind in 2017 or on page three.