SEO For 2017: The Top 10 Drivers of Success

The year is almost coming to an end – a time for taking stock of the success of SEO strategies employed over the year and planning for the New Year. While you can do very little to change your SEO fortunes for 2016, planning now for the coming year will ensure that you improve on your current performance.

To help out with your plans, we have put together a list of the top ten trends likely to drive SEO success in the coming year. Without further ado, let’s get to it:

Mobile optimisation. You might have been able to slip by with a website that wasn’t mobile optimised this year but this is bound to become quite difficult in 2017. Increasingly more people are stepping away from their desktops and instead using their smartphones to access the net which has seen Google and other search engines adjust their algorithms to suit sites that are mobile friendly.

Accelerated mobile pages. Compatibility does not always equal speed for mobile devices. AMPs will play an important role in SEO ranking as search engines try to improve the experience of mobile web users.

Site speed. Everything is about speed these days; no one wants to wait 20 seconds for your site to load. Moving into 2017, search engines will be increasing rewards for websites with faster server speeds and punishments for slower sites. Consider this when designing your site.

Voice search optimisation. With the increased uptake of the internet of things and personal digital assistants such as Siri and Google Assistant, voice search will play a more prominent role in 2017. You not only have to consider what people would type when searching, but also what they would say.

Quality links. Google and other search engines have been cracking down on fake links, and this will continue into 2017. Build quality organic backlinks for improved search engine rankings.

Content that answers questions. Google is now providing direct answers for queries in SERP. Creating content that answers questions will help you become an authority that Google can source this answers from. This would be a massive boost for your SEO.

Local Search. The internet is a big place especially if you are a small to medium sized business. Making your search radius smaller will help you rank better for people searching for your products in your area of operation. Make your content and backlinks more optimised for local searches to improve your SERP ranking in the coming year.

Meta data. You still need to include keywords in your meta tags, but also consider conversions. Appealing tags will play an important role in convincing people to visit your site.

Keywords and phrases. Be careful how you use these next year as the crackdown on keyword stuffing will only increase in coming days. Optimising your keyword phrases for voice search and natural language will also help your SEO efforts as voice-search uptake increases.

Schema Markup. These are poised to become one of the top SEO trends in 2017. They make it easy for web browsers to understand content on your website while giving Google the information it requires to use snippets of your content for rich answers.

As changes and shifts continue taking place in the digital marketing landscape, keeping these SEO trends in mind as you plan and strategise for the coming year will help you future-proof your online presence for improved SEO success.

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Ashley Bryan

Owner at Webstrategies Pty Ltd

Ashley is owner and GM of Webstrategies Pty Ltd, a website optimisation company based in Queensland Australia. As well as providing optimisation services for clients throughout Australia and New Zealand, Ashley writes business related articles and blog posts.