It’s that tie of the year again where you make amends to your SEO practices and adapt to the ever changing field in order to keep your website ranking at a respectable number. This compilation of SEO guide for 2017 is aimed at providing you a credible head start into planning and strategizing your digital marketing techniques for a successful year.
Keep mobile in mind
Google’s Accurate Mobile Pages project (AMP) is fast gaining traction thanks to the intense rise in the popularity of using mobile devices to access internet. Faster phones and cheaper internet plans have made it possible for everyone to be connected to the internet 24/7.
Pages built on AMP run on a simple, lighter version of HTM which makes for faster load times and a seamless browsing experience. This will greatly impact your ranking and CTR. Google is also expected to come out with a slew of tools and features for AMP later tis year or early next year, which makes it an exciting prospect.
Be weary of 301 redirects
Google recently announced that 30xx redirects will have no impact on your PageRank. However, 301 redirects might actually harm your SEO results significantly, since they act on how these pages pass their topical relevance via anchor texts. Thus, if you are planning on migrating your website to HTTPS using 301 redirects, you ought to be very careful and should brace yourself for an impact.
HTTPS and referral data
Google has always been keen on delivering quality, secure services to its users. This was one of the reasons why it started to aggressively promote HTTPS sites over HTTP sites last year. However, when your HTTPS site has a referral to a HTTP site, the referral data is eliminated, thus making the traffic look like it is direct. If your website relies heavily on revenue from referrals, then remember that switching to HTTPS will stop your website from sending accurate referral data to a HTTP site.
Changing face of backlinks
Traditional methods of building backlinks are no longer valid. Only focussing on high authority sites and disregarding lower quality websites is the norm in local SEO. However, if you are looking to improve your local SEO then investing in building back links from low quality sites that are highly relevant to your local region can actually be valuable. Research on your competitors backlinks and make us of those resources to gain some traction. You can also reach out to local influencers in order to build credible backlinks for your site.
Despite Google updating its algorithm throughout the year, chalking a suitable SEO guide for 2017 will help you chalk your plans for the year. This will result in better results which will translate into better revenue and exposure from your website.