Search engine optimization is a practice used to help your website rank higher in the search results fields of major search engines. Optimizing your website and knowing the algorithm changes expected in 2017 can help improve your page rank and business.
Check out the following tips to help ensure you are using the best SEO practices for 2017.
1. Replace Keyword Research with Audience Targeting for Best Results.
It is recommended that websites stop concentrating on keywords and begin targeting their unique audience, suggests Jaimyn Chang of Boomin Agency. According to him, “this practice was first developed back in 2014 and is still being used successfully today. Although keywords are important, it is more important to understand what your audience is searching for and how they are using these searches.”
Take time to learn who your audience is and what they are looking for. This will help you better serve your audience by giving them the information that they are looking for.
You will need to determine if they are searching using a mobile phone, a tablet or a personal computer. You will also need to determine how to better engage your visitors. Finally, is your audience looking to find out information about a product or buy a product? This will help you determine the support that they need and the information that should be included on your site.
Answering all these things and developing good SEO practices based on this information will automatically help you develop the proper keywords to optimize your site almost effortlessly.
2. Artificial Intelligence Plays a Huge Role in Page Ranks.
Google developed RankBrain. This artificial intelligence software should be learned about. Spend some time reading up on the latest updates and how they can affect your page rank. TechCrunch recently published a great article that helps you understand the process and where the industry is moving, which will help you stay ahead of the pack in terms of the latest SEO practices to get your page ranked.
If you have had a site on the Internet for any amount of time, you have probably been hearing about these engines and the technology that helps rank pages properly. We here at FourFront have been using IBM’s Watson and other technologies to help us predict the best SEO trends based on Google’s machine learning technologies. We use the information that we harvest to provide you with content strategy techniques. These prediction software technologies have been amazingly accurate in predicting the latest SEO practices.
In the past, search engines only utilized one algorithm. Now, search engines use hundreds of algorithms and machine learning like RankBrain to determine the best results for any Internet search query. Because of these changes, you should stop trying to figure out the latest algorithms and instead begin providing content that will satisfy your users. Google continues to get faster and faster on determining what Internet users are searching for and you should too.
Google is also using their technological advances to help with Search Engine Optimization on the back end. Google Analytics uses AI to process natural language, which will help you find the information that you are looking for quickly.
3. Link Building Is a Thing of the Past.
Research has shown that the expense of building links is a bad business decision as the return on this type of work no longer produces the results that it once did. When Google Page Rank was developed, it was developed to help determine the authority and trust of the site based on the number and quality of links pointing to the site. It was assumed that these links would be earned naturally; however, it has not happened this way. Many companies spend hours and hours building links that are not really valuable to their users’ experiences. However, when done correctly, these links occur naturally and can provide your users with useful information.
Google has stopped updating their toolbar PR extensions, which is believed as a sign that Google no longer wants webmasters to focus on link building. Instead, you should spend your time and money doing in-depth market analysis on what your visitors are actually looking for, what your competitors are doing, creating amazing content and posting on social media networks. Your audience wants a company that will have a conversation with them. This is why it is essential to produce amazing content and use social media to answer all of your audience’s questions.
Google filed a patent in 2012 on an algorithm that would take into an account an implied link. This means although a site may not link directly to your site, they may just mention your product in a post. This type of mention offers authority similar like a citation from a local search. Although there has not been a lot on this algorithm, it does suggest that links are less important now.
4. PPC is Essential.
Google made a number of changes to their AdWords in 2016 and are planning more changes this year. The ads on the right-hand side of Google’s search results have been removed, text ads are now longer, fewer organic results are being shown in many SERPs and mobile and desktop ads are handled separately.
PPC can help you determine the exact keywords that your users are entering when doing an Internet query. Additionally, thanks to voice search on mobile devices, we can now use this information to help use learn about brand awareness and search conversions. Finally, PPC can provide you with data that can be used effectively on organic SEO practices.
The information above can help improve your search engine ranking. Begin utilizing these tips to take your website to the next level. The most important thing when optimizing your website is to concentrate on your audience. This means writing content that provides your audience with the information you are looking for and utilizing social media to connect with your audience. By doing this, you can ensure that you can convert your audience into paying customers.
