Future of Search Engine Optimisation

 Once upon a time, the Internet seemed like such a simple place. You’d launch your website and, hopefully, appear at the top of Google in no time. Of course, that never really worked, and so search engine optimisation became a cornerstone of the modern web – but Google has never made it easy.

So, in 2016, we’ve reached a situation where SEO exists at the intersection between art and science as experts like us bob and weave to stay ahead of Google’s latest algorithms. That means not just being reactive, but proactive also and casting an eye to the future of SEO. But what are the trends which are likely to define 2017 and beyond? Join us as we share three.

 1) Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) 

 Back in October 2015, Google introduced a novel new concept called Accelerated Mobile Pages to the world. The concept, and reasoning behind it, was simple. Slow loading websites lead to a significantly worse mobile experience and turn people away, so launch a framework which enables superfast mobile pages for everyone. The result is Accelerated Mobile Pages and in February 2016, Google began to feature pages with AMP enabled at the top of mobile search results. Today, they’re in organic results and have been adopted by everybody from Facebook to eBay, along with millions of publishers. Google are placing more and more emphasis on AMP enabled sites, so don’t get left behind.

 2) Local and Hyper-Local SEO 

 At its most basic, SEO is about getting your website found for the things you do. So, if you’re a plumber, you might optimise for “plumber”. The issue with that, however, is that there are millions of plumbers all over the world doing the same, and, well, if you’re based in Gloucestershire, you don’t want to fix a pipe in Nairobi, do you?

 Local and Hyper-Local SEO is about optimising your business to get found for your local area. So, instead of optimising for ‘SEO’, you’d optimise for ‘SEO Cambridgeshire’ or ‘SEO South West’. For smaller businesses, you can (and should) optimise down to the street level, helping local residents get in touch with good local businesses.

 3) The Knowledge Graph

 Perhaps without knowing it, you’ll have used the knowledge graph. It’s that little box which appears at the top of search results when you ask a question like ‘How old is X?’. Google now serve well over 100 million answers to questions, and it’s only going to become more important in the future. As a brand, the information Google serve up about you becomes crucial, so managing the Knowledge Graph becomes an essential SEO practice.