One of the most asked questions asked to professionals in the field of Search Engine Optimization must be if there are any fresh and imposing changes that people should be looking out for.
Those of us in the field of search engine optimization know that there are a few extremely common principles that can be applied to achieve a more visible site.
They include content marketing, technical markup and link building according to the experts but what new and exciting factors can we expect this year?In 2016 Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages and Facebook’s instant articles enable its users to build simpler versions of their content that can be presented to people fast, RankBrain by Google now claims that it considers a whole lot more context when a search is conducted.
Voice search is quickly becoming the go-to search engine for fresh devices. All these things are happening but not so fast that we all need to scramble to completely revamp our websites immediately.
#1. Amp and Other Platforms of Accelerated Content
Apple News, Google and Facebook are doing all in their power to make content as easy and quick to be accessed as it can possibly be and they are equipping bloggers and publishers so they can integrate with the new systems seamlessly as well as take advantage of the much quicker download speeds.
AMP is receiving exponentially more attention from marketers that constantly keeps search visibility at the forefront due to the fact that the Accelerated Mobile Platform gives you the advantage of receiving preferential treatment from the latest mobile content feature carousel Google implemented.
More than the carousel – To what extent Google will be giving preferential treatment for the use of AMP friendly content is anyone’s guess but with Google dealing with more than 70% of all search traffic, loads of people will be pushed into using it. At present it isn’t a direct ranking signal.
There are current technologies that allows the users thereof to become AMP-friendly real fast on those platforms that are considered popular. WordPress and CMS cannot really be seen as user friendly and they often leave website’s lacking. New York Times and the Washington Post are just two publishers who have their sites AMP ready and they are looking quite stylish. Sites that use AMP have to be JavaScript free and most sites uses it to create more dynamic components which means that the carousels and menus that was highly featured will be mostly omitted in the AMP version.
What Effect Will AMP Have On Your Business?
You can now get your content to your customer much faster which is good but one negative lays in the fact that you will have to rely more on words to tell your story instead of using ostentatious animations and other productions that makes use of multimedia to get your visitors to really get it. If you are thinking of taking advantage of the preferential treatment you will receive from Google on mobile devices, you have to implement AMP support within the next three to six months.
#2. RankBrain By Google
RankBrain is another part of Google’s algorithm, another phase in its development and a great piece of technology that helps to make the results of a person’s search more relevant. Google puts it among the top three among the factors considered the most important for search ranking but how exactly RankBrain achieves better results with the use of its 200 components that determines the whats and hows than previous systems isn’t known.
It is greatly assumed that it determines which contextual clues can be utilized in order to display results that may differ from the search term entered but that are still closely related to the search. This interactive technology receives batches of historic searches and then it can deduce from that which results may be a match to a specific search. Afterward the team goes on to improve what RankBrain came up with and updates RankBrain accordingly.
This means that this system is tested and re-launched on a continuous basis to ensure impeccable performance and better results. This is referred to as machine learning but we need not fear an imminent robot attack as yet.
What Effect Will RankBrain Have On Your Business?
You will need to focus on topics of value and interest to your audience now more than ever and stop being super fixated on keywords and over optimization of your content in your outdated attempts to optimize your content for search engines. You should rather create content that is based on what the world, particularly the media, is talking about and keep in mind previous success from search engine traffic and general interest. Put topics of interest and value above redundant keyword targeting.
#3. Default Search Engines for Loads of Devices Becoming Bing and Voice Search
Using products that respond to a human voice is said to be the next big thing since the release of the smart phone. Wearable devices created a huge buzz and items like Apple watches, tablets and phablets was hot for a while but they have all but fizzled out after a short time but if you had been lucky enough to be able to tinker with a product that was Amazon Alexa enabled you are more likely to understand how the acts of asking it to play your music of choice, give you scores of a sporting event and deliver news may very possibly be way bigger that all of these put together.
The guys who work in Search Engine Optimization need to beware. This trend isn’t quite mature yet and already sales of these products are on a steady increase and it is being used daily by more users.
Voice searches make up 20% of searches in total. What can this possibly mean for professionals in the field of SEO and almost all other businesses on the web who seek to be as visible as they can in searches?
You should focus your content more on questions that people usually ask and you also need to cater to schema markup opportunities and the like in order to make the questions you answer very clear. You have to offer explanatory answers your questions and do all that is humanly possible in terms of local search optimization.
Alexa is fast becoming a tech powerhouse but Google is ready to take up the challenge with its new creation, Google Home.
It is said that Google Home is very likely to be much superior to Alexa in a few obvious ways due to the focus on search but the question remains if it will be launched in time to get a share of the market and to make people aware of its benefits.
If 70% to 80% percent of people looking to use devices like these are already familiar and in love with their Alexa device, chances are they won’t want to change to the Google product.
What Effect Will Voice Search Have On Your Business?
You will now have to create content that will serve as an answer to direct questions. With explicit answers that contain a lot of information your content will be featured more regularly.
It has never been more important to be optimized for local searches. You should consider formulating Q & A posts of authority that may be of use to those individuals in your vicinity.Make very sure that your business’ key info is kept up to date and they are the same across all online directories to enable search engines to share your info through voice search without doubting the correctness of it.
2016 is widely known as the year of mobile and 2017 is well set to become the year of connectivity, speed and ease of access and if you do not keep up with the developments of the times you are sure to see your search rankings go into a downward spiral but fortunately there is still some time to get ready as these changes happen gradually.