Top 2017 SEO trends for business search engine ranking

The search engines ranking algorithm keeps changing with time. In order, to keep up with the changes new techniques of SEO need to be developed. For example, 2016 saw more mobile searches than desktop ones.

Hence, making websites mobile-friendly became more important than ever before. Voice searches and local searches are also gaining more prominence. Looking at the ongoing trends in the way people search the internet, here are some of the SEO techniques that are gaining relevance over the past few years.

Mobile Optimisation

More and more people are using their mobiles for internet searches. If the website page does not fit according to the mobile device then people would lose interest in reading that page.

Designing the website so that it would fit any device like mobiles or tablet, would not only enhance the user's experience, it would result in more clicks and better ranking in popular search engines like Google or Bing.

Voice search

The next most prominent trend is voice searches. Google has reported seven times to increase in voice searches. People prefer voice searches over text searches as it gives them the flexibility to perform a search while they are busy driving or doing some other work.

With the voice searches becoming more and more accurate, it is predicted that once they reach 99% accuracy more and more people will start using them.

New SEO techniques can be used to take advantage of voice-based queries. Voice searches being more descriptive and local, you need to take advantage and optimise your website for such queries to generate more traffic.

Using Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords help target niche customers. Though it might not help to a direct large amount of traffic to your site, it would direct quality traffic.

People use long words in their searches when they are near their purchase. By optimising your site to use these words, you can get new customers directed to your site which could lead to a potential sale.

Voice searches also include descriptive keywords, hence optimising the site for long keywords help it to optimise for voice searches too.

Social media marketing

Having a strong and positive presence on social sites; like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube can help in increasing the website’s rankings.

The more your content is shared across social media platforms and the more likes and shares your content gets; the more it would be recognised by search engines. Such shares provide credibility to the content and help with the ranking. Take a look at some of DCP's social media channels for examples on how you can make engaging posts:

• DCP eLearning YouTube Channel
• DCP Facebook Business Page

Switching to https certification

Google has already declared that chrome would start marking non-https sites as unsafe.

This has been done to safeguard the interests of the user. Getting an https certification for your site would not only make users feel secure in browsing it, but it would also help in protecting the site from malware. This will all contribute towards increasing your site’s rank.

Remember to speak to your web developer and setup appropriate 301 re-directs when migrating your website to https prefix.

Enhance user experience

Websites should be designed in such a way that the user finds it easier to navigate them. The loading time of the website should also be quick otherwise the user would switch to another website.

Do not post duplicate or low-quality content. This would hurt your site’s image in the long term. The content should be of high quality, relevant and answer user’s needs.

The backlinks should be quality links. It would not help to get a backlink from a shoe selling website if your website sells books.

Incorporating techniques while keeping in mind the changing trends would help your site achieve better rankings.

Take a look at the infographic by Branex for some more great SEO tips.

(Click to enlarge infographic)

Article created by: DCP Web Designers in London