seo predictions 2017 · 2017. 1. 30. · seo, social media, pr, paid media, conversion rate...

© 2017 Ignite Visibility. All Rights Reserved..

SEO Predictions 2017

Ignite Visibility

01/30/2017

January 30, 2017 © 2017 Ignite Visibility. All Rights Reserved..

Who Is Speaking Today?

John Lincoln• Co-Founder and CEO• Expert digital marketing

consultant• Teacher for UCSD• Writer for Inc., Entrepreneur,

Search Engine Land• Author of Digital Influencer

Alan Bush• Director of Strategy• Teacher for UCSD• Podcast host • Expert SEO consultant • Veteran digital marketing

agency pro


What we are covering today…

AMPBacklinksArtificial IntelligenceHome DevicesFresh ContentSocial FactorsSchemaHTTPSAmazonFacebookVoice Search

Brand SearchPenaltiesTypes of ContentJavascript and AjaxMobile International SEOLonger ContentImage OptimizationCTRMultimediaUX and Design


Who We Are

A Full Service Digital Marketing AgencySEO, Social Media, PR, Paid Media, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing and More• With over 35 employees and 100 clients, Ignite Visibility delivers custom digital

strategies that get results.• Named #1 SEO consulting company in the United States in 2016• Awarded top 5 firms in social media, local SEO and Paid Media in the nation• Experts in digital marketing strategy and implementation at the highest level• We are a premium Google Certified Partner• Integrated SEO, social media, CRO, Content Marketing, Paid Media, Email and PR• Awarded fastest growing private companies in San Diego in 2016• We teach two digital marketing courses at UC San Diego• Company was started to overdeliver for clients and get ROI


AMP Will Become More Important

ACTION ITEM: If you are a large content curator, AMP is definitely worth looking into. https://ignitevisibility.com/amp-project-seo/https://www.ampproject.org/learn/about-amp/

• Accelerated Mobile Project

• Introduced late 2015–early 2016, this recent Google project is designed to serve up content pages to mobile devices faster. “AMP” HTML takes content and delivers in faster, more digestible formats for smartphones, tablets, phablets, etc.

• Included in Google Search Console

• Ignite saw 30% lift in traffic with AMP

https://ignitevisibility.com/amp-project-seo/

https://www.ampproject.org/learn/about-amp/


Backlinks Will Lose Strength

• Google will focus more on relevance and semantic language of the websites that are linking to you.

• Machine learning will increase in importance and backlinks will diminish

• http://www.searchmetrics.com/knowledge-base/ranking-factors/

• https://ignitevisibility.com/backlinks-losing-strength/

ACTION ITEM: Shift your backlink strategy focus from quantity to quality and relevance.

https://ignitevisibility.com/backlinks-losing-strength/

https://ignitevisibility.com/backlinks-losing-strength/


Rise of Artificial Intelligence

• Google releases RankBrain

• Machine learning system

• Matches content to searches

• 3rd biggest ranking factor

ACTION ITEM: Semantics will play a role so ensure your content reads well and keep it updated! http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440

http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440


Rise of Voice Search and Personal Assistants

• Google reported 20% of mobile searches are voice (higher now)

• As we’ve seen, Amazon Echo and Google Home will make it easy for people to search from their homes and without a keyboard.

• Get used to the idea of voice-recognition systems interpreting questions and performing searches online.

• Less results, more personalized results.

ACTION ITEM: Get in front of your customer on their device at least once. That will allow your result to be served more often due to personalization. • Craft copy that answers questions.• Markup copy with schema.• Create hubs for content.


Searches Will Be Delivered For Home Devices

• Amazon Echo and Google Home

• Over 5 million Amazon echo sold

• Google climbing quickly

• Voice Search!

ACTION ITEM: Smart homes are happening now! Ensure your products are optimized and include descriptions and content that answer customer pain points. Be a part of Google shopping and Amazon.


Fresh Content Will Continue Importance

• Fresh content will be more important than backlinks

• Produce original content

• Content is not just copy—images, graphics, video, audio, and slideshows are also effective!

ACTION ITEM: Keep building new fresh content and repurpose old content!https://ignitevisibility.com/92-ways-to-repurpose-old-content/

https://ignitevisibility.com/92-ways-to-repurpose-old-content/


Create Content Hubs: They Rank!

• Make a page that is the authority on a topic

• Thousands of works of content, great design, answers all the questions on the topic

• Add video, images, links to important articles

ACTION ITEM: Determine your content hubs and add to them over time. Build links to them.


Social Factors Will Have More Weight

• Helps for fast indexing and quick rankings

• Popularity of content within and from social networks

• Relevance of great content shared thousands of times cannot be ignored

• Very important for Bing, expected to be more important for Google.

ACTION ITEM: Increase social activity on channels that work best for your business. Develop content that leads to social sharing.http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors

http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors


Schema Will Increase Importance

• Markup language makes it easier for search engines to extract key information on content

• Serves information as rich snippets on SERPS, which can increase click-through rates (CTR)

• There is more you can do with schema than you realize

• Logo schema, product schema, local schema, review schema, article schema, breadcrumb schema, industry specific schema, search box schema, event schema…

ACTION ITEM: Get proper schema on relevant pages.https://ignitevisibility.com/need-know-schema-org/

https://ignitevisibility.com/need-know-schema-org/


HTTPS Will Increase Importance

• HTTPs will help you rank

better in Google

• You will get a warning

now in Chrome if forms

are not secure

• There is a strong correlation

with domains in the first 3

positions being on HTTPS

ACTION ITEM: Switch your website to https, you will rank better!https://ignitevisibility.com/guide-to-switching-from-http-to-https-for-seo/

https://ignitevisibility.com/guide-to-switching-from-http-to-https-for-seo/


Amazon Will Be the Top Product-Based Search Engine

• People view Amazon as the Google of virtual malls. Whether they want to buy a basketball, a pair of boots, or a flat-screen TV, you can expect consumers to start their search at Amazon.

• They’ll also use Amazon to compare prices and check reviews.

ACTION ITEM: Optimize your product listings for terms, have great images, bundle products, generate reviews, run ads and other promotions to generate sales, work on increasing conversion rates, get on prime!


More People Will Search In Facebook

ACTION ITEM: Make sure all your content is listed in Facebook. Use opengraph tags to markup your pages, consider Facebook instant articles, run community building ads, run content promotion ads, run micro and macro conversion ads, create a micro video strategy, use Facebook remarketing, Facebook lookalike ads

• Facebook is a search engine! Plenty of people use FB to find items online.

• Marketing products and services in FB is lucrative – users volunteer their personal interests, likes, and a myriad of information


Brand Search Will Help Keyword Searches

• When people search for your brand online, that is a ranking factor.

• Google sees the interest and in-turn ranks you higher.

• TV, radio, creative online campaigns—generate a buzz!

ACTION ITEM: To do well in search, you need to also have a strong brand. Google sees the branded traffic and accounts for that.


Penguin Penalties Lighten Up (But Still Focus on Quality)

• Many websites were under penalty from Penguin for the last 2 years

• Penguin is now gone• Right now, bad links are not as much of an

issue, however we do not know the future here.

ACTION ITEM: Keep healthy white-hat link earning tactics! Stay out of their radar with spammy backlinks and/or content.


Google Will Serve More Content Than Category or Product Pages

• Google knows that users are often craving information. That’s why you can expect to see search results populated with more content and fewer category or product pages.

ACTION ITEM: Develop content that addresses pain points that users may have. This leads to increased visibility which then leads to your products or services as the solution. Make sure to fully take advantage of every visit! Remarketing, email captures, etc.


Google Will Get Better Rendering Javascript & AJAX

• In the coming year, expect to see Google do a better job at processing programmatic output.

• No more escape fragment optimization.• pushState is still an option.

ACTION ITEM: When disallowing folders in your robots.txt file, be sure to allow the AJAX folder to be crawled over. Make sure you have a HTML base framework that is conducive to ranking.


Google’s New Mobile-First Index. This Year!

• Google is going to rank websites based on mobile first

• Responsive design is best option• You can have a read more link• You must make sure your mobile site is well

optimized• Transfer over titles, copy, etc.

ACTION ITEM: Responsive design! Compress images! The mobile-first indexing is upon us. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/285444

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/285444


International and Multi-Lingual SEO Will Be Very Profitable

• This is an easy win• Example client, increase in leads over 700%

ACTION ITEM: Translate pages to new languages to increase user base and traffic to the site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIMr2_1v3MI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIMr2_1v3MI


Longer Content Will Still Reign in Rankings

• It’s been said that content is king. In 2017, it’s likely that longform content will be king.

• If you’re in the habit of writing 350-400 word articles for content marketing purposes, consider hiring a professional writer and booting your average word count up to over 1,500. You’ll likely see a nice pop in rank.

ACTION ITEM: Flesh out content that you need a boost on by adding a few more paragraphs of useful information.

http://searchengineland.com/seo-user-science-behind-long-form-content-230721


Optimized Images Increase On-Page Ranking Factor

• When adding images to your content, it’s way too easy to disregard the image file name, caption and alt text fields. Resist the temptation to ignore it in the coming year and you’ll see a pop in traffic. Make sure you optimize your images for SEO.

ACTION ITEM: Name your images with keyword rich descriptions and use the ALT attribute!

http://ignitevisibility.com/image-seo/


Increased Search for Video and Multimedia

• You can expect to see an uptick in people searching for non-traditional content in 2017. Specifically, more folks will use search engines to look for video and multimedia content.

• If you’re not already producing alternative content to boost your brand online, consider doing so in the coming year.

ACTION ITEM: Content is not just copy! Be sure to weave video, graphics, images, audio into your new content plan.

http://ignitevisibility.com/marketing-video-content/


Local SEO Still Very Important

• Have an HTML page for each location• Google My Business and Bing• Moz Local or Yext• Birdeye.com • Fresh content on each page• Schema.org markup• Embed maps

ACTION ITEM: Make sure you have a local strategy for citations, reviews, fresh copy, etc.

457.49% Increase in New Users and 756.4% Increase in Contact Us Page Goal Completions


Titles and Meta Descriptions: Higher Click-Through Rates Will Rank Better

• Google will reward publishers who’ve gone the extra mile to create click-bait headlines in 2017. You can expect to see articles that attract more clicks to move up in the SERPs while links with drab, unremarkable titles are pushed down lower.

ACTION ITEM: Jazz up your TITLE and META description tags with more descriptive and exciting language. Review CTR in search console.


Better User Design and UX Will Increase Rankings –Understand Intent

• Google loves websites that offer users a positive experience. If you expect to rank well in the coming year, make sure your site is as user-friendly (and mobile-friendly) as possible.

• Beyond that, though, Google’s AI will gauge user intent. If the AI determines that your overall web design supports what the user is searching for, your site is likely to rank high in the SERPs.

ACTION ITEM: Improve your site architecture and design! Analyze your user behavior in analytics and create a focus group to help with suggestions and improvements on the site. Install heat maps and watch user journey in Google Analytics.


Bonus Items

• Make sure you have an email capture strategy• Exit pop-ups• Scroll down pop-ups• White paper downloads, eCourse downloads• Look into email automation, email marketing by product purchase

and timed email marketing campaigns based on customer lifecycle • Invest in video: Short clips that reinforce your brand and can go

viral• Run at least one creative social media campaign a quarter • Take the time to integrate your content marketing, SEO, social,

email, paid media and offline advertising into one annual or 6 month marketing campaign


Questions?

Want to work with us?

Email: [email protected]

Follow Us

• @johnelincoln

• @alanhbush

• @ignitev

• Ignitevisibility.com/blog

seo predictions 2017 · 2017. 1. 30. · seo, social media, pr, paid media, conversion rate...

Documents