There are new trends and imperatives for SEO coming in a few weeks. The search gods have demanded certain adjustments and those looking to stay ahead of their rivals will do well to put them in place. The challenges will continue as the ever changing nature of SEO will not let up in the new year. If you don’t already have a dedicated, and experienced, team running your SEO efforts, you had best investigate how you can get one.
The first imperative that will soon change the face of SEO are new requirements for content. Apparently, the search gods, and maybe everyone else, has grown weary of seeing the same old content everywhere with just slight tweeks to the presentation. For 2017, search engines will begin to rank content on originality as well as what they are now terming, “density”. The density part seems aimed at some manner of happy medium between a rehashed 350 words and a 3,500 word Russian novel that few will even bother to read.
Carving down 3,000 words into 350 words will be the key. Providing the same value in a “denser” presentation. It is aimed, it seems, at trying to overcome the modern human attention span that seems relatively equal to that of a rock. Added value in a shorter and more informational form.
Branding, for many, will begin to focus less on corporate branding and more on personal branding. It will be an attempt to continue the awareness of the individual as the brand itself. This has been a rather highly effective SEO strategy that has been working well for the YouTube superstars and others. Personal branding has proven extremely successful with regard to establishing trust and driving traffic as well as increasing conversions.
User experience will, now, become a critical factor in ranking and you will need to adjust accordingly. Keeping in line with the zero attention span observation, users and visitors are now expecting blazing speeds and site navigation that a toddler would understand. Already Google is favoring those sites with proven speed, low bounce rates and higher average times that visitors are spending on a particular page. If you want to stay on top of your SEO next year, as well as on top of your rivals, you will need to make a major investment in all of these new imperatives especially with regard to user experience.
– Written by Kevin Sawyer
