Why is SEO Content Important? Here are 7 Reasons:
SEO Content is important to achieve greater visibility for your business website. In today’s time, having an online presence has become a necessity for the survival and success of any business. According to a study, “93% of online research begins with search engines, and 68 percent of potential customers research businesses using social media before making a purchasing decision.” (searchenginewatch.com). Further, it has also been found that 93% of B2B companies use content marketing to create demand and build a brand. Also, those B2B companies that are involved in regular blogging generate more leads by about 67%.
The world of Search engine optimization changes every day! Customer expectations and usage along with algorithm updates of Google require that marketers make adjustments continuously. Complacency can easily destroy one’s rankings, which can prove to be dangerous for a business that wants to survive in the world of modern marketing. Hence, search engine optimized or SEO content has immense importance for all thriving businesses in the year 2017.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is like a game where everyone is competing with one another to stay a step ahead.
The best way to survive this competition is to keep oneself aware of the changing nature of search engines. This involves adjusting one’s SEO content and strategy before his/her competitors can catch up. The SEO industry is constantly on the move, so one should always be cautious of such evolutions.
Dominating Trends in Search Engine Optimization
Recently, the American business magazine Forbes stated, “It looks like 2017 will be an interesting year for SEO.” Thus, the importance of SEO content will further increase, but in an interesting way, this year. Let us discuss some of the dominating trends that will make search engine optimized content more important
1. The rise of AMPs
AMPs or Accelerated Mobile Pages are an “open-source protocol”; they help webmasters in creating pages that can be loaded instantly on mobile devices. This is one of the simple structural changes that can load up a site 4 times faster by using much less data. Google has started favoring sites that use AMPs; they get more visibility and there is a small icon that determines the AMP status. In 2017, more brands will make use of this option, as search results will favor AMPs more.
2. Rise of content that is “dense” in nature
Boredom has noticeably crept in among the people reading the same content repeatedly, but with different usage of words. Earlier, efforts were made in creating bite-sized content, but in these last few years, a trend of writing longer pieces has emerged; there has been a flow of what is known as “epic” content. The market has been flooded with both kinds of content for a long time. Thus, speculations are made that in the coming year, a new trend will begin in SEO content writing that will shift the focus from the length, entirely. Instead, it will focus on providing more and more information in the smallest space (that can be called “dense content”) to make it appealing to the readers.
3. Changing Algorithm
Google’s RankBrain (a machine learning technology) has made algorithmic machine learning a possibility. The extensive functions of Google Hummingbird will help businesses learn more about how conversational queries can be phrased by the users and will update the algorithm accordingly. It is anticipated that Google might release more updates on machine learning in the coming years. Soon, machine learning can be seen in other areas as well, such as marketing automation and data interpretation.
4. Personal Branding
Personal branding can emerge as a secret weapon of SEO. In the last few years, personal branding has been rated by many market analysts as a core strategy for search engine optimization. A personal brand will ensure user trust, more traffic to one’s website, and secure guest posts easily. However, very few brands have taken advantage of this weapon till now. Facebook and other social media platforms continue to refine their algorithms to support individual posts instead of branded posts. This will lead more organizations and companies to opt for personal branding. The result will be more competition and more opportunities, so businesses have to be careful about their SEO strategies.
5. UEO (User Experience Optimization)
UEO can make the lines unclear with SEO. Search engine optimization has often taken the user experience as an important determinant. Google mainly favors those sites that are highly mobile friendly and load quickly and are enjoyed by the users. (Spending prolonged time on a page etc.). However, it is predicted that in 2017, the emphasis on the user experience can increase – especially because it involves mobile devices. AMPs could be one of them. However, there will also be other ways of offering better experiences for users that would be favored by Google.
6. Apps will receive more love!
In the last couple of years, mobile apps have seen an increase in the SEO options available for themselves. These include app indexing, deep link with the content of the apps, and app streaming. This allows users to “stream” the app content without having to download the app. Although we have seen Google catering to the app users without isolating the main functions of the search engine, the year 2017 can see a change in its app favoritism. It is not possible to witness a situation where apps will replace traditional websites in the coming year. However, there can be a step in this direction, sooner than later!
Digital Assistants to the Fore!
Personal digital assistants will change the way search queries are performed by most of us. We have readily started accepting personal digital assistants in our lives because they have become so common. Tools like Alexa, Cortana, and Siri have simplified our lives and have increased the conversational and verbal queries of the users. In 2017, there will be both sophistication and diversification of these features. This will open avenues for new search and advanced levels of conversational queries. This, in turn, means newer ranking opportunities will emerge in both these areas.
Thus, in the year 2017, with newer trends emerging in the SEO domain, the importance of SEO content will rise manifold. So, keep up with the trend if you want to stay up front!