The Most Successful SEO Trends This Year…And What’s To Come

SEO

As 2017 is in full swing, it’s time to check in on some of the most effective trends in SEO content marketing so far this year, how you can leverage these trends for greater conversions, and where the future of SEO is headed.


A Personalized User Experience  

From targeted email marketing to personalized landing pages, optimization of the user experience is the key to successfully increasing conversions.

What this means for SEO is that writing content to best integrate keywords is rapidly losing importance. Keyword stuffing is an archaic tactic, and even optimizing keyword usage is becoming an outdated practice. Instead, content for online publication should have the end goal of providing value to your specific target reader, and be presented in a way that is visually appealing and easy to scan.

Focus On Creating Mobile-First Content

Mobile content optimization rules the SEO content marketing world. Over the last year, more users access the internet solely from a mobile device than ever before, and that’s not changing any time soon.

What is new to SERP right now are rich cards. Launched by Google in 2016, these enhanced visual SERPs are available only on mobile and provide visual previews of content appearing in a search result. As of very recently, Google has expanded rich cards globally.

While rich cards will always be subject to tight limitations, rich snippets are currently offering indirect SEO benefits to businesses by helping funnel targeted users and improve quality traffic.  Both of these tools highlight how SEO content is moving heavily toward a primary focus on mobile optimization, and as a result, is becoming geared heavily toward visually appealing aesthetics. SEO content strategists should focus not only on providing relevant, valuable content, but presenting that content in a way that is visually appealing to mobile users.

SEO Trends Soon To Be On The Rise

While you can certainly be proven wrong, part of being a strong marketing professional is anticipating trends in the industry that will be successful in the coming months. This is especially important for SEO, as the only way to use SEO effectively is to continuously innovate and reinvigorate your tactics.

We don’t have a magic marketing crystal ball, but because we live and breathe marketing strategies, EmoryDay stays on the forefront of any changes coming in our industry. SEO is impacted strongly by technological changes. As we become connected in new ways, changes in SEO are going to follow suit.

With that in mind, developing content that lands at the top of results for voice powered digital assistance is certainly going to become a larger SEO consideration in the coming months and years. As Google Home and Amazon Dot systems start showing up in more homes and the digital assistance Siri, Alexa, and Google Now have continued to grow in use and sophistication, seeking out the “best answer” spot in a voice powered search will be key.

Imagine you ask Siri a question. The answer is, “According to _______________ …” There is significant authority given to the author of that answer.

In addition to seeking out the coveted “best answer” spot, it’s going to be increasingly important for SEO specialists to determine how to turn that into conversions. As we’ve found with Google Snippets, earning that “best answer” spot might not always translate to organic clicks.

The Key To Effective SEO Content Marketing

The takeaway? All of these changes are designed to improve user experience. This is why search engine algorithms are continuously being evolved and improved to find and punish pages that attempt to cheat the user out of an organic best answer. Your goal should be to continue to publish quality, relevant content that is of value to your target audience. Being aware of trends will allow your SEO tactics to adapt for best practices, but attempting to manipulate the newest trend is sure to hurt your CTR.

Forward-Facing SEO Content Marketing With EmoryDay

Let the full service digital marketing experts at EmoryDay handle your entire online marketing presence, including your SEO content marketing strategy. As a strategic planning and comprehensive marketing team, we stay on top of all marketing best practices. Contact us for more info on how a Strategic Marketing Plan with EmoryDay will grow your business.

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    Create a Free Account
  • 2.
    FREE Custom Marketing Plan
    (no obligation)
  • 3.
    Select only the services you want.