We live in an ever-changing and progressive society; constantly searching and reaching for the next big thing. And it’s no different when it comes to SEO. Search Engine Optimisation is driven by the public’s constantly developing wants and needs, as it continuously evolves to reflect the trends, technology and fads of the day. So if you want your business to come out on top of those all important google rankings, it’s crucial to keep up to date with the latest SEO trends. But don’t panic, as here at Ricemedia we have compiled a list of the most popular SEO trends of 2017 to help keep your business hot and fresh this summer.
Google Quick Answer Box
These days we have the world literally at our fingertips. Smartphones, tablets, interactive watches – everything we want and everything we need is a touch or a swipe away. But Google took this one step further with the invention of the Google answer box. Thanks to this latest tool, you no longer even have to click on a website link to get the information you need, as Google sorts through the relevant information and pulls out the material it believes is most significant to your search query. Now, you might be wondering how that could benefit your company, and the answer is visibility. Featuring in Google answers immediately takes your site to the top of Google – giving your site optimum positioning and discoverability for that all important traffic. How to keep on top of your SEO game? The answer is in the answer box. Check out our blog post for more tips and advice on how you can get featured in the coveted Google Answer Box.
AMP
More and more people are reverting to their phones as their go to devices, with over half the world’s population owning a smartphone, and half the world’s web traffic being filtered through them. With stats like this, it’s no wonder that Google is placing more and more weight on mobile site optimisation. So if you want to rank highly on Google, make sure to get your site optimised to be mobile friendly, or risk missing out on this mobile madness.
Loading Speed
We’ve all been there, waiting impatiently for a site to load and then coming off it because the blank page is infuriating. The drumming of the fingers, the glances at the clock…you can’t believe the site is taking an entire 7 seconds to loads – it’s an outrage! These days, patience is most definitely not a virtue. If your site is taking too long to load, you risk the wrath of the unforgiving public. Remember the 5-second rule at primary school? If you were unfortunate enough to drop your tuck shop snack on the playground, you had 5 seconds to pick up your snack or were resigned to throwing it in the playground bin. Well in the world of SEO, your website loading time is the equivalent of that tuck shop cookie, and if your site takes over 5 seconds to load, then you risk the ever impatient internet user abandoning your site altogether. And if that wasn’t alarming enough, Google has also started to take note of this too. If your site is overrun with images that are too big, videos that are too long, and a whole host of unnecessary ads, chances are your site will be taking longer than 5 seconds to load. Google may well penalise you for this, as the leading search engine has started to place slow loading sites further down the Google rankings. If you want your website to remain on top, pick up the pace and make sure your site is quick off the mark.
Voice Search
These days Siri, Cortana and Alexa are so fully fledged and personable than it can be difficult to remember that they’re nothing but computer software. As they’re completely integrated into our lives, we talk to our phones as if they were people, asking them for the weather forecast, directions to the nearest cocktail bar, and for the latest goss on Lady Gaga.
With voice search software playing such an integral role in our day to day lives, it’s no wonder that it’s becoming such a key component of search engine optimisation. If you want to stay on top of the SEO game, make sure to keep your website voice search friendly with relaxed chatty content while targeting more informal keywords. If Siri and Cortana weren’t your virtual best friends before, they definitely will be now.
Content
And finally, as always, it really all comes back to this one very important statement: ‘Content is King’. We know we’ve harped on about this a multitude of times before, but there’s a very good reason for this. Content is without a doubt one of the most crucial components of any site because, without unique quality content, your site will never reach those all important Google top spots. Blog posts, images, videos, articles, polls, online quizzes…the possibilities for content are seemingly endless. With so many options available to you, there’s no end of creative and engaging ways for you to communicate your content with. So get inventive and fill your site with fresh and engaging content that’s sure to make your site website jump straight off the screen, and right to the top of Google.
If you’d like some advice or help with your business’s SEO strategy then do not hesitate to get in touch! We’re more than happy to help.
