In the Search Engine Optimization industry, we know there are some very common principles that will make for a more visibile site like technical markup, content marketing and link building, according to experts – but what is shaking things up this year?
1. AMP and Other Accelerated Content Platforms
AMP is the one that's getting the most interest from the search visibility minded marketers because by making your site friendly for the 'Accelerated Mobile Platform' you are likely to receive preferential treatment from Google's new mobile content feature carousel.
Beyond the carousel - no-one knows how much preferential treatment Google is giving AMP friendly content, but with over 70% of search traffic coming through Google they could push more and more people to use it.
It means your content can get into the hands of your customers more quickly, but it means you need to integrate the story of your business into the content and not rely on flashy animation or other multi-media production to get help visitors understand.
2. Google's RankBrain
Google's RankBrain simply put is another piece of technology, or another phase in the development of Google's algorithm that is purported to make search results more relevant for searchers.
The general consensus about what RankBrain does is that it determines contextual clues to serve up results that may not have included exact terms from the searcher.
It means that it's more important than ever, and becomes increasingly important to focus on topics people are interested in and provide relevant content rather than getting too focused on keywords or over-optimizing your content in some out-dated effort to 'optimize content for search engines.'
3. Voice Search and Bing Being the Default Search Engine for Many Devices
Voice Searches are at 20% of all searches. For Search Engine Optimization professionals and those just needing to make sure they stay as visible as possible in search (i.e. most businesses)? It means focusing your content on commonly asked questions, and catering to opportunities like schema markup to make it very clear the questions you're answering - being succinct in your answers, and doing everything in your power to optimize for local search.
It means creating content that answers direct queries with succint information dense answers could get your content featured more often, and being optimized for local searches is more important than ever.
Courtesy of Business
