Contributors:
Amol Ghemud Published: August 14, 2018
Summary
Share On:
In This Article
SEO appears smooth on the surface. As your learning and experiences open up doors for you, it starts getting difficult. It appears tricky.
SEO can be conquered, by creating a strong foundation and crystal clear understanding of how things work (sell). Yes, it is true. Leave your worries out of sight as we have created this guide for you.
Look at this fundamental checklist. 2017 will see bigger and better changes in the way search engines are optimized.
AMP
Accelerated mobile pages came into being in early 2016. The coming year will see it in demand and hence, the growth of AMP.
It is becoming a choice since it solves the basic and most common problem of speed. Less loading time of AMP gives it an edge over others. The content is cached and delivered from Google’s servers.
AMP becomes tricky with its validations. Google won’t support your page until it is validated. This will not cause a big problem, as the process isn’t really complicated.
Many plug-ins have already enabled AMP, so the WordPress and likes will only help you gain more. Google solved another problem a few months ago with redirects. Redirects will no longer cause ranking of your pages to suffer.
Content & Design
Content still holds its prestige of being the king, but its form has changed over the years. Long articles, lengthy blog posts were seen as great reads. Gradually, the trend is shifting.
An extensive use of mobile devices, continuous updates in technology and methods have created a buzz for ‘on the go’. Be it a news article or a blog about SEO, content is preferred ‘crisp’. Readers want more sense in few words.
Optimized content is what is going to be the trend to come. Fewer words, more essence, and more coverage becomes the mantra.
This doesn’t mean that long articles will die soon. Some topics can never be explained in a few words. It needs a whole story and instructions to convey a complicated topic or trend. Like they say, difficult doesn’t come easy.
With quantity comes quality that generates sales. ROI via content will also take a higher leap in 2017. So, if you have not begun, start investing today.
Visual content is growing so fast that it will only expand more avenues. According to the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Video is the mega trend.
Virtual reality is holding an up-gear in the recent past. Gaming and serious gaming are gaining a great importance. With the popularity of games like Pokemon Go, more attractive and compelling content requirements are increasing. Infographics are becoming a trend in visual communication. Strong design and content requirements are attracting people to get more involved.
‘Responsive’ is the new ball game. The ability of technology to adapt to the changing platforms and media is splendid and creates magic. Pages become speedy and future-friendly.
It is in the name. Optimizing the search engines to get the most accurate searches. How do businesses benefit? From schema to growing importance of SERPs, search options are changing and growing.
In layman’s language, schema is a code. Yes, you can use it well with your existing coding skills! Schema has to be put on your website and more informative searches are brought up by the search engines. You can call it your business card in the virtual form. You can view the details via SERP.
People will come again and again when you provide them with relevant keywords search. It becomes easier for them to study the topic of importance and interest along with becoming a jack of some related trades.
Do you want to optimize your website, drive more traffic and deliver higher conversions? This is a checklist that we follow, and can get your site to rank consistently on top of search engines. Download this ultimate SEO Checklist which includes On-Page SEO as well as Off-Page SEO techniques that will help you rank well on the search engines.
Voice search is becoming more popular. Easier to use and less time consuming than typing out a whole sentence, it has become a trend. Its expansion into getting personal is growing tremendously. A classic example of this type is the inclusion of Harry Potter spells. No one can win it like Google!
User Experience Optimization Google holds a great deal of value towards UEO. The user is the most important asset and the rest follows, believes Google.
User experience can be optimized by creating sensible and useful results, speeding up the loading time, providing options for similar searches, and so on.
Along with this, solutions need to be cost effective and making use of the extensively available tools.
Concluding lines
These fundamentals of SEO will rule in 2017. Knowing them well in advance and starting to work on their effective implementation will give your SEO a big boost. Optimising resources and solutions remain the keywords for the success of SEO.
Watch: The Fundamental Guide to Mastering SEO
For Curious Minds
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a framework designed to solve the common problem of slow mobile page loading speed, which has become a significant factor in user experience and search rankings. Since emerging in early 2016, AMP has grown in importance because it delivers content from Google’s cached servers, resulting in nearly instant loading times. This gives AMP-enabled pages a distinct advantage. For your content to be supported by Google, it must be validated, though the process is straightforward and many plugins, especially for platforms like WordPress, have already enabled AMP functionality. By prioritizing speed and user experience on mobile devices, implementing AMP correctly can significantly boost your visibility and performance in mobile search results. To learn more about other critical mobile optimization techniques, explore the full analysis.
Schema markup is a code you place on your website to help search engines return more informative results for users, effectively acting as your virtual business card in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Its primary benefit is creating enhanced descriptions, known as rich snippets, that appear in search results. Instead of a simple link, your listing can display details like ratings, prices, or event dates directly in the SERP. This makes your entry more visually appealing and informative, which can significantly increase click-through rates. By providing this structured data, you help search engines understand your content's context, leading to better and more relevant indexing. This guide offers further details on how to integrate such technical SEO elements for greater impact.
The decision between short and long content formats depends entirely on your topic's complexity and your audience's intent. The trend is shifting towards 'crisp' content that delivers more sense in fewer words, catering to mobile users who consume information 'on the go'. This format is ideal for quick updates, news, and straightforward topics. However, long-form articles remain essential for subjects that cannot be explained in a few words. Complex topics or in-depth guides require a full story and detailed instructions to be valuable. The key is to align the format with the content's purpose; both can drive a high ROI when executed well. Understanding how to balance these content types is crucial for a successful strategy.
The rapid growth of visual content consumption confirms that it is an essential part of modern SEO. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg identified video as a 'mega trend,' reflecting a broader shift in user behavior towards more engaging and easily digestible formats. The popularity of visually-driven games like Pokemon Go highlights an increasing demand for compelling and interactive content. Furthermore, the rise of infographics as a tool for visual communication demonstrates how strong design and content can attract user involvement. Integrating visuals is no longer optional; it's a core requirement for capturing audience attention and communicating information effectively. For more insights on leveraging visual trends, explore the complete guide.
The growing popularity of voice search is fundamentally changing how users interact with search engines, which directly impacts keyword strategy. Voice search is preferred because it is easier and less time-consuming than typing, leading to more natural, conversational queries. Instead of short, fragmented keywords, users are speaking in full sentences and questions. The inclusion of playful features like the Harry Potter spells by Google shows how search engines are adapting to this conversational and personal trend. This means your keyword strategy must evolve to target long-tail, question-based phrases that mirror how people actually speak. Anticipating this shift is key to staying relevant in an increasingly voice-driven search landscape.
Improving User Experience Optimization (UEO) is crucial, as Google believes the user is the most important asset. A clear, stepwise plan to enhance UEO includes several key actions that directly address user needs and search engine guidelines.
First, prioritize page speed and reduce loading times, as this is a foundational element of a positive user experience. Second, focus on creating sensible and useful results that directly answer the user's query with high-quality, relevant content. Finally, enhance navigation by providing options for similar searches or related topics, helping users explore your site more deeply. By implementing these steps, you align your website with Google’s user-centric philosophy and build a stronger foundation for higher rankings. Find more optimization techniques in the complete checklist.
The primary problem that Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) solves is slow mobile website speed, a major point of friction for users. AMP addresses this by creating a streamlined, lightweight version of a webpage that loads almost instantly. Google's infrastructure is central to this solution, as the content from AMP-validated pages is cached and delivered directly from Google's high-speed servers. This means that when a user clicks an AMP link from a search result, the content is served from a location optimized for speed rather than from the original website's server. This process significantly reduces latency and improves the overall user experience, which is why AMP is becoming a critical ranking factor for mobile search. Deeper insights into technical SEO fundamentals await in the full article.
The shift towards 'crisp,' optimized content reflects a fundamental change in how information is consumed, especially on mobile devices. This trend indicates that future digital marketing success will depend on the ability to deliver powerful messages concisely. For long-term strategic adjustments, content creators must focus on distilling complex ideas into their most essential elements without losing value. This involves mastering short-form video, infographics, and tightly written articles. It also requires a deeper understanding of user intent to provide immediate answers. While long-form content will retain its place for in-depth topics, the default approach should lean towards brevity and clarity. Learning to adapt to this 'on the go' consumption pattern is explored further within the complete guide.
Responsive design is the technological foundation that ensures visual content is effective, regardless of the device a user is on. Its core function is to allow a website's layout to dynamically adapt to changing platforms and screen sizes, from desktops to smartphones. For visual content like videos and infographics, this is especially critical. A responsive framework ensures that a complex infographic is readable on a small screen or that a video player resizes correctly without breaking the page layout. Without responsive design, the impact of your visual assets is severely limited, as they may appear distorted or be unusable on many devices. This adaptability makes pages 'future-friendly' and is essential for maintaining a positive user experience. This guide explains more about creating a seamless experience across platforms.
Redirects were often a source of anxiety for SEO professionals due to the potential for ranking loss when moving content. A few months ago, Google solved this problem by changing how its systems handle redirects. Now, redirects will no longer cause your page rankings to suffer as they might have in the past. This update provides more flexibility for website managers to update URLs, migrate sites, or consolidate pages without the fear of a negative SEO impact. This change reflects Google's effort to better understand the intent behind redirects, recognizing them as a normal part of a website's lifecycle rather than a signal of manipulation. The full article offers more details on technical SEO updates that can help you maintain and improve your rankings.
A common but critical mistake is failing to properly validate Accelerated Mobile Pages. The direct consequence is that Google will not support or serve your AMP page from its cache, completely negating the speed and visibility benefits the framework is designed to provide. An unvalidated page will not receive the AMP lightning bolt icon in search results and will not load from Google's servers. Fortunately, avoiding this issue is not complicated. Numerous plugins and tools, especially for content management systems like WordPress, automate much of the validation process. Google also provides its own validation tools that report errors clearly, allowing you to fix them quickly. Properly implementing and validating AMP is a crucial step detailed further in the complete guide.
A business can implement schema markup without advanced coding skills by using accessible tools and plugins that simplify the process. This code acts as a 'virtual business card' in search results, providing a significant competitive edge through richer, more informative listings.
Here’s a simple plan to get started:
Use Google's Structured Data Markup Helper to visually tag data points on your webpage, such as business name, address, and reviews.
Once tagged, the tool generates the necessary schema code for you to copy and paste into your site's HTML.
For platforms like WordPress, use plugins that automatically add schema for different content types.
This structured data helps search engines understand your content better, leading to enhanced visibility in the SERP. Discover more practical SEO tactics in the full checklist.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
