Influence of SEO Trends to Watch Out for in 2017

by Gangadhar Kulkarni Internet Marketing Professional

Over the past 10 months, there are been some significant developments in the field of search engine optimization. Google’s algorithms keep updating constantly and keep digital marketers on their toes. In the year 2017 however, here are the marketing trends to look out for:

User Intent

Keywords remain to be the most important elements for search engine optimization. Customers of today know exactly what to search and search engines are getting better at identifying user intent too. Many times, users enter full queries or complete phrases and search engines are able to provide them with better and more accurate results. Optimizing content based on ‘user intent’ kind of searches will be one trend to look out for in 2017. It is hence important to research what users are searching for and what brings them to your page. Alter your content according to the search results. More importantly, keep up with analytics and see what’s working on your website and what’s not. Make adjustments accordingly.

Rich Answers and Snippets

Once a user enters a query into the search engine, Google returns ‘answers’ based on the keywords detected in the query. Google also displays important information about each site directly on the results pages. This information includes relevant content, videos, event information, reviews etc. In order to achieve these enhanced listings, structured data markup can be used to help search engines understand the website content. This greatly improves the user experience with your business even before the user has clicked on your website. Users absolutely love this kind of information so that they can click on the links that are most relevant to their searches. As for your business, this will greatly improve conversions as only those customers who are interested in your products will click on the link to your website.

Cross-Channel Marketing

Cross-channel marketing essentially means that you use several channels to market your brand in an integrated way. For example, if a user browsed your product via your mobile app, but did not end up buying, you can continue to send targeted ads based on their browsing history and searches via social media. The primary goal is to get a consistent presence across multiple channels. Customers today are more connected than ever and cross-channel marketing is one trend to look out for in 2017.

Increased Mobile Growth

Mobiles have revolutionized the SEO scenario over the past few years and the traffic distribution has shifted from desktops to mobile devices rapidly over the past year. The majority of the traffic these days comes from mobiles. Mobile SEO strategies are hence mandatory in 2017.

Other than that 2017 will see a significant increase in voice searches too. As users find a number of means to connect with and to interact with your business, 2017 will be a year where businesses need to broaden their horizons and look at the bigger picture for SEO success.