SEO 2017
It was an interesting year looking back at 2016 when it
comes to search engine algorithms and SEO. The emphasis in 2017 will no doubt be web
developers and SEO professionals concentrating on mobile responsiveness, page speed,
quality content and backlinks from high DA sites. Each year, Google makes around 500 minor
search algorithm changes but occasionally rolls out major algorithm updates
like Penguin and Panda that affect SERP in major ways.
Since Google’s mobile friendly update called
“Mobilegeddon” rolled out April 21, 2105, a lot of websites that are not mobile friendly are taking a hit on mobile searches but remain the same on desktop
searches. So it is clear the mobile
friendly Google update has increased the difference between smartphone and
desktop rankings. There are more
smartphone than desktop searches world wide so mobile searches will be more
geared toward mobile friendly websites giving the user a better experience.
Google
AMP
Most SEO experts and web developers are aware in 2016
Google included AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) listings in mobile searches which
allows AMP generated pages to load much faster than conventional mobile
responsive websites. For more
information about the AMP project, visit the website. http://searchengineland.com/get-started-accelerated-mobile-pages-amp-240688
AMP is essentially a subset of HTML5 with some custom
tags, properties and restrictions such as third party Javascript and form
elements. This means you will not have
on page comments, lead forms and other elements you’re accustomed to on
standard mobile responsive designs.
SEO For Video Content
Congradulations to Youtube which is now the second
largest search engine. A lot of content
written by bloggers and SEO experts is mostly still word content while video
content is rapidly gaining popularity all over the internet. You may have noticed Youtube videos showing
up in SERPs while surfing. Mainly this
is because videos can show your products or services in action better than text
and images alone.
When putting a video on Youtube, don’t forget to put your
long tail keywords in the title, description and tag areas.
Can Social Signals Help SERP?
In
January 2014 Google’s Matt Cutts stated it’s algorithm does not take into
consideration how many likes or followers you have on social media sites. This confusted many SEO experts and marketers
since this statement conflicted with his previous statement that “social signals do play a role in organic SEO”.
Researching this more, I found that Cutt’s statements are not in
conflict with each other because social signals are a sign to Google your site
is getting plenty of increased referral traffic from the social shares which
correlates into more quality backlinks and better SERP.
In
order for social signals to be an effective SEO campaign and help your brand’s
visibility in search results, you need a strong clear plan for sustainable
traffic flow and lead management.
Quality Relevant Backlinks From Trusted DA Sites
Before
starting an off page SEO campaign you must have already implemented on page
SEO, strong site architecture with internal linking and valuable quality
content the user is looking for. A lot
of backlinks won’t help you if your site has thin content. Chances are your website will never get
penalized if you have 100% relevant tier one backlinks from trusted DA sites
which are not spammy.
Anchor
text links done incorrectly could possibly land you a penalty so keep the exact
match anchor text below 2%.
On
most SEO forums you can purchase backlinks on public networks but you run the
risk of Google penalizing every website using these networks. Google finds these PBN easily because there
is an excessive amount of outbound links on their home page which are
completely irrelevant to each other.
These posts have thin content which Panda’s algorithm does NOT like.
One
thing to remember is 302 redirects block authority flow to your site so use
Screaming Frog to find 302s and change them to 301s.
Backlinks
that are from trusted high DA sites will improve your site’s trust rank and
increase your chances of performing well in search engines.
Google Business Listing / Citations
Google
values business listings to the point they are a part of the local search
algorithm and should be utilized for any SEO campaign. The most important part about these profile listings
is that around 60% of them give you a DoFollow link. This is another way to build trust for your
site and backlinks from these don’t need to be relevant because Google trusts
these platforms and knows most businesses will be using them.
Schema Markup Structured Data Code
Schema markup is code that you put on your website that helps
search engines understand what your site content is about and search visibility
using rich snippets which can indirectly impact search rankings.
JSON-LD is a new schema markup data linking format which
makes it easy to embed structured data markup code in the head section of your
web page using a script tag. There is no
need to tweak HTML elements like Microdata and runs in the background creating
a much faster experience. JSON-LD is a
more simple and streamline way to implement schema markup code. It allows
search engines to crawl the code and understand more easily what the page
content is about.
For more information visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/
Conculsion
Undoubtedly the SEO trend for 2017 is about proving to Google
your website is an authority for your niche.
In other words, you will need more quality content, more quality
backlinks and better on page SEO than your competitors. Google likes new and updated old content so pull
up those old blog articles and add some new valuable content.
