The world of search engines and SEO strategy is ever-changing. The trends that governed a successful online strategy five years ago could be obsolete now. Yes, there are overacting principles that are constant — like putting the customer first — but the rest changes as the needs and wants of the market and the technology available to provide them change.
SEO Strategy and Search Engine Marketing Trends in 2017
To have a better insight into the search engine marketing trends that took over this year, here are some of the most significant search engine updates that took place in 2017.
Voice Search
Voice Search allows users to use search engines via voice command on their mobile device or computer. With the dominance of mobile searches, voice search became a contender in 2017 when it came to search engine results. More users than ever before started relying on voice search to communicate data to search engines.
This affected strategy when it came to search engine marketing in various ways, most specifically by putting a priority on “snippets”. A snippet is an immediate answer to a question that comes up when you search. As a site designer or blogger, answering a specific question as quickly as possible makes you more likely to obtain that status and therefore become a top result when it comes to voice searches.
AMP Pages
An Accelerated Mobile Page is based on a project from Google and Twitter. The idea is to create high-speed mobile pages. By using a simplified structure and format, mobile loading speeds become accelerated. Because of the success of this project, search engines like Google started to reward the sites that used this method and in 2017, AMPs started to dominate top results.
Mobile First Index
This is in line with the majority of the population using their phones to access the internet — some of them exclusively using their phones. Enter mobile first, a design process that focuses on the mobile site before the computer accessible design is built from that version. In 2017, Google introduced the concept of the mobile-first index, which will likely roll out in 2018. What this system does is enable Google to rank search listings based on the site’s mobile version. This had companies and designers changing the way they design websites in preparation for the big change.
Think of these improvements as a means to encourage you to constantly update your site, apps and other means to deliver your services constantly. Keep up with the trends and make sure that the message you worked so hard on will reach your audience. If that means getting to know AMP and improving your mobile first and voice search results, then that’s an investment you have to make. What do you remember about search engine marketing developments in 2017? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources:
Steve Scott is the CEO & Director of Training at the Tampa SEO Training Academy. He has taught SEO skills to people from around the world and currently offers his hands-on search engine optimization training workshops in Tampa to individuals and businesses of all sizes. Corporate SEO training classes and consulting are also available.
