As is traditional at this time of year we see out the old and look ahead to the new as 2016 passes into 2017. This year has been a fast paced and changing year for the world as a whole. In terms of digital marketing and SEO changes, updates and adaptations continue to happen at a rapid pace. This is both in line with what we expected to happen and with what has happened in previous years. Now as we look towards the year of 2017, we take a peek at some of the possible upcoming trends and what is likely to be big in another jam packed year.
1) Changes in content.
We are familiar with seeing articles which talk about how to write good content, how to avoid duplicate content etc. The parameters around what makes good content tends to change and it is likely that in 2017 we will see an increase for preference of what is being coined as ‘dense’ content. This is essentially lots of substantive information condensed into a shorter space (rather than in the past the tendency has been for longer articles.)
2) Growth of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP’s.)
This is a concept which has taken off during 2016 and the only way is for this to carry on in 2017. If you are unsure what AMP’s are essentially they allow pages of websites to be loaded very quickly on mobile devices. The result is that these differences can allow mobile website to load a lot faster using much less data to do so. Google has already started to recognise and favour these AMP’s (noticed the little lightning bolt that appears on search? 2017 is likely to see more people converting to do this because of the benefits it brings.
3) More Algorithms.
After much algorithmic change in 2016, it is very highly likely that 2017 will not be any different. We predict more emphasis on ‘automated thinking’ into some of these updates too. Following previous RankBrain and Hummingbird updates these have paved the way for this generation of artificial intelligence to be factored into its programmes and searches. Automated is not human and we can foresee problems and conflicts occurring so keep an eye out for revisions to these process aswell.
4) The use of intelligent personal assistants will rise and will become integrated with search.
Of course we are talking about the likes of Siri and Cortana here.
These tools continue to grow in popularity and make life easier, quicker and less complicated for a lot of people. Next year we will continue to see use and further positive enhancements of these mediums. We also predict that this will affect searching also as ‘voice searching’ will open up a whole new world of generating questions, quires, answers and the formulated process behind this.
5) Site optimisation will continue to be ever more important.
We already know this fact and it is no surprise. Google favour sites which open fast, have user friendly interfaces etc. With the increase in AMP’s (and mobile searching generally) as mentioned above, it is already obvious that Google is looking to further target this area so it gets the best possible experience for users and searchers. Before being mobile friendly was just enough, now ‘serious’ optimisation is required – probably on the same scale or more so than with a desktop site?
We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog posts this year and we would like to wish all our clients, followers and readers a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year for 2017.
Why not view our case studies over the Christmas holiday then contact us in the New Year to initiate work on your project?