SEO

SEO Trends 2017

SEO-trends-you-should-watch-this-yearFrom the middle of 2016, we had many predictions about the future of SEO in 2017. Now we are standing in 2017 and it’s time to consider which trends will push SEO towards which direction. So far, we have listed five current trends, which were predicted as the future of SEO in 2017. Here is the discussion on SEO current trends that will change your SEO concept:

Mobile-First Indexing will change SEO upside down in 2017

Until now, SEOs only had to consider desktop-first ranking. But the explosion of mobile usage in worldwide has recently changed the equation. According to Google, more than 60% organic search is now generating from mobiles. Therefore, ranking a website based on their desktop website is not “accurate” anymore. From 2016, Google is testing the mobile-first desk on a large scale and the report is quite satisfying. Although the mobile-first index is still at the experiment level, it can be assumed that in this year Google is going to launch mobile-first index in a number of countries. This news means that the SEOs now going to have higher responsibilities in 2016.

Optimization for featured snippet will be unavoidable

Featured snippet is a sum up answer to the user’s query that generally appeared at the top of the page. Now, Google does not offer featured snippets for all types of queries. This feature is also at its experiment level. Currently, Google is offering featured snippets for few “what” and “how to” questions along with the queries for “popular places” and “popular people” because of less availability of the appropriate articles. It means you have good opportunity to create content with an appropriate answer for Google and rank in featured snippet. The featured snippet is also known as #0 ranking as it appears before the top 10 search results. According to the webmasters, ranking for #0 position is easier than fighting for #1 position on Google SERP. It is found from the research that websites, which are ranking in #0 position, are in fact gaining higher CTR. So, if you want more CTR in the upcoming years, try to run for the featured snippet from now. You can reach #0 position with minimum effort.

Do you want to learn more about featured snippet? Check this latest blog post about the importance of featured snippet to increase organic traffic.

AMP and PWA will be two driven forces of SEO

You can consider AMP as the latest version of a mobile-friendly design. With AMP, websites load four times faster in mobiles. Most of the people are now using mobiles as the primary device to search and interact with the websites. Hence, if your site is loading 4 times faster in mobiles, it will increase user experience. Google prioritize user experiences, so they are offering carousel of AMP pages for every keyword at the top of the result list. With the implementation of AMP, SEOs need to change their strategies in upcoming years.

Keeping AMP aside, PWA (Progressive web App) is a new software development methodology. Basically, it works as a bridge between the static web pages and a mobile application. Google Webmaster is promoting PWA like anything. PWA is ideal for the e-commerce sites and it only works with HTTPS. Therefore, you can see PWA makes a good balance of user experience and security, which is why Google shall prioritize PWA in near future.

Voice Search is becoming significant

SundarPichai (CEO of Google) has already announced that 20% of all queries on android and iOS devices are voice searches. With supportive virtual assistants like Microsoft’s “Cortana” and Apple’s “Siri”, more users are adopting voice search rapidly. If voice search stick with this growth rate, within 2020 it is expected that more than 50% of the searches would be, voice search or image search. This news may not be good for the SEOs as they have to start adopting different keyword strategy that supports voice search.

Rich media content will become “must have” feature

People, especially the younger generations are getting sick of long and fluffy contents. Although the skyscraper technique is now booming, younger people are searching for a better alternative. A dense content with rich media could be a good alternative. Even Google is opting for contents, which have more diagram and short videos. Content with appropriate diagrams, infographics, GIFs, and short explaining videos is more appealing to the users than a long content.

The sum up

It is hard to predict exactly what surprises are waiting for SEOs in upcoming years. One year ago features like mobile-first indexing, AMP/PWA, featured snippet were not popular and now, the surprises from Google and other search engines are in fact forcing us to consider these factors. Although there are several doubts and dilemmas, we can assure you about the five trends that are discussed in this blog are significant for 2017 SEO and in the Next year.

If you have any questions, please ask below!