Search engine optimization has always been considered more of an art than a science, and the SEO landscape is constantly changing as Google changes its algorithms. That is why it is always a good idea for most businesses and website owners to have an SEO expert available to guide them in their SEO campaigns.
For those who do not employ an SEO expert, keeping up with changes in current SEO best practices can be difficult, but at least the best basic SEO strategies can be identified. If you rely on a website for business and income, here are some of the top SEO strategies to consider in 2017.
Improve user experience
Even if you get your website to rank high in Google, if your site visitors leave as quickly as they came, it won’t hold that position for long. Making sure a website is easy to navigate and attractive is just as important as the content and backlinks. High bounce rates and low click rates will get your site downgraded by Goole.
Optimize your site for mobile
Mobile optimization has been important for a long time, but now it’s essential. Towards the end of 2016, mobile views surpassed desktop views for the first time, and now Google has switched to using mobile versions of websites as its primary index source.
Keyword research is still important
Optimizing your site for keywords is still important for SEO, but Google is getting smarter at recognizing synonyms and related keywords. It is no longer enough to fill your content with a few keywords, now you need to use long-tail keywords and related phrases that will increase the relevance of the content for the main keywords.
Link building is still important
Links to your site are still important and Google has confirmed that backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors, so a link building strategy is still relevant for SEO in 2017. However, backlinks By themselves they won’t guarantee a high ranking for a site and they won’t make up for poor quality content or a poorly designed site.
Optimize for voice search
As speech recognition accuracy improves, voice search usage will also increase, so now is the time to add speech recognition optimization to your search engine optimization to-do list. Think about how people will pronounce their search, rather than type it, and then start including those long, spoken search terms in your content.
Check your site speed
With the increasing importance of mobile devices, the speed of a site will become even more important in SEO. It has been estimated that if a site visited on a mobile does not load within three seconds, more than half of users will abandon and search for another site.
Think about user intent
Search engine optimization isn’t just about getting people to visit a website, it’s about getting the right people to visit a website. Think about which long-tail keywords will attract people who are more likely to convert, rather than casual browsers who are great for stats but don’t actually buy anything.
