5 SEO Basics you Need to Know for 2017

5 SEO Basics for 2017 You Need to Know

Search engine optimization has steadily evolved over the years. Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing, spammy links, and poorly worded content pages aimed at just gaining rankings. Today’s SEO is focused on the user experience that can improve the bottom line more than yesteryear SEO techniques.

It is also more important than ever to have a great mobile experience for website visitors. Mobile search increased so much in the past few years, Google just announced it is conducting mobile-first indexing experiments. Mobile indexing will change the way website pages rank in the search engines in the near future. To stay in front of the ever-changing rules, here are the top 5 SEO basics you need to know for 2017:

1. Mobile Websites are Too Important to Ignore

For the past few years, Google and Bing have emphasized the importance of having an easily viewable website on mobile phones in addition to the standard desktop. The emergence of responsive design websites easily provided a desktop and a mobile combination website that fluidly changed the website depending on the size of the visitors’ screen. If your website is stuck in the early 2000s without a mobile version, it is now time to upgrade so that your business is ready as mobile-first indexing is rolled out.

2. Contextual Ranking is Key

With the advent of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana, natural language copy on your website is more important than ever. Voice search occurs everywhere, including desktops with Siri on MacOS Sierra and Cortana on Windows 10. Google is staking a future in voice search with the release of Google Home. Currently, 20 percent of mobile queries use a voice search, and it is projected that rate will grow to 50 percent in 2020.

Implementing structure data into your website will help present your content through voice search. Voice search results can be personalized to each user from their past search results. As such, if a potential customer who has previously visited your website and uses voice search they may be directed to your site again.

3. Add Content to your Website at Regular Intervals

The phrase “content is king” has floated around the Internet atmosphere for decades, but it is more important now than it has ever been. Google increased the SEO rankings of newly published pages on blogging platforms such as WordPress over older static platforms because of the appearance of new and relevant content for their searchers. Now, Google has Rich Cards for content available to media publishers that can instantly get their news articles to the top of Google.

New content brings Google and Bing bots back to your website much quicker than stagnant websites. Fresh content can gain long-tail website rankings and therefore more relevant visitors to your website too. It may sound difficult to keep up with, but content management systems this has become a lot easier.Publishing tools, such as websites with content management systems or third party tools such as Hubspot, have made it easier than ever to regularly add fresh content to your website. With the right tool, content can be uploaded and scheduled for release at regular intervals.

4. SEO is Important for Your Social Media Efforts, Too

It is important to be everywhere your customers regularly visit. This includes social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more. These sites are not just for B2C marketing. B2B customers spend time on these platforms as well making them an important tool in your sales funnel.

Interacting with users via posts, hashtags, and videos can touch potential customers in a way that your website cannot. Social media can even help retain your current customers through fun and insightful posts. In fact, 73% of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes. Subsequently, having a cohesive organic and paid social media strategy should be an important piece of your marketing plan.

5. Some Classic SEO Techniques Still Work

Classic SEO techniques such as keyword rich titles, meta descriptions, H1, H2, and content are still important. Google and Bing still use tags to learn the subject of pages and to help rank them accordingly. Applying anchor text links to connect to inner web pages are essential to your overall backlinking profile. Gaining links through helpful articles on your website is still the best way to naturally build links. But the days of keyword stuffing are gone and are not returning anytime soon.

Summary

SEO is more important than ever in 2017. As ways to reach your potential customers evolve, so do SEO techniques. The rules are still dictated by the search engines, but when the platforms change, the techniques have to follow. Social media marketing and voice search for B2B companies will only grow in the years to come.

Now is the perfect time to plan for your dominance in these spaces. If you would like to learn more about SEO, contact DemandZEN today.