Posted on December 15, 2017 by admin
SEO Highlights of 2017: Year in Review
Like every year, amidst algorithm updates, changing Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), establishing a trend of local search, and rising trend of voice search, 2017 has been a roller coaster ride for SEO industry. Change is the only constant this year as well with periodic updates and regular tweaking of search engine pages. From unconfirmed updates in early 2017 to Google’s experimenting with mobile first indexing, a lot of things have changed. Webmasters and SEO experts have been trying to keep up with these changes through finding effective SEO strategies and tools that work.
However, a lot of things have carried on from the past years as well such as the dominance of mobile searches, relevance, and quality of content, and an emphasis on user experience.
As the end of the year draws near, team ESP Interactive Solutions have compiled a list of search marketing highlights for 2017. Let’s see where we have been in this year to understand what we can expect from 2018.
Interstitial and Pop-Up Penalty-January 10, 2017
Back in 2016, Google issued a rare warning (quite unlike Google) about the penalty to websites having obtrusive interstitials or pop-ups that blocked content or affected the mobile experience. Within two weeks in 2017, Google rolled out the update penalizing website with interstitials. Even though the update had only a minor impact on the websites that should have been effective, there was enough buzz in SEO circles.
Interstitials websites block content or hinder reading with interstitials that required user’s action to be dismissed or may require the user to scroll up and down in an unnatural way. It is another milestone in Google’s commitment to mobile experience.
Series of Unnamed Updates- February 1- February 6, 2017
The first week of February saw some serious changed in Google’s algorithm. The changes that were rolled out continued or continued to affect for a whole week, increasing near February 6. As these updates remained unconfirmed from Google, there was so much chatter and speculation in webmasters’ community. Some of the webmasters believed them to be two distinct events happening on Feb 1 and Feb 6 while others argued that it was a series of updates. There were also rumors that these updates targeted private blog networks and links.
Unconfirmed (Fred) Update- March 8, 2017
In March, there were rumors in SEO community about a major update in Google’s algorithm targeting Black hat SEO techniques, suspicious backlinks, and quality of the content. A global SERP volatility was noted, and there was a major impact on the ranking of the websites. Many webmasters complained about sudden dropping in ranking, while ranking for some others was slightly improved.
The update remained unconfirmed. Google’s Gary Illyes jokingly tweeted to call all unconfirmed updates ‘Fred’. The name was popular, but Illyes cleared out that it is not official.
Unconfirmed Update- June 25, 2017
Continuing its tradition, Google launched another major update on June 25 which was intended for the quality of the content. The major spikes in volatility shown by SERP trackers and buzz in SEO community indicated that update has some bases to it. From the look of the chatter, it appears to be a significantly impactful update and changes in ranking were visible.
So, these were some of the major updates of 2017. As visible from the timeline, these major updates were in the first two quarters of the year. Nonetheless, there were regular algorithmic updates and tweaking of search engine result pages.
Along with these updates, there are also some other major highlights with significant impact on search marketing which will continue to affect it in the coming year as well. Here are the top SEO trends of 2017.
Mobile Search Dominance Continued
The mobile traffic continued to grow in 2017 as well, reaching to almost 53% of all search traffic in last quarter of 2017, indicating a significant increase in mobile users. Mobile traffic surpassed desktop and laptop traffic, and mobile users now dominate search engines.
This trend emphasized the need for mobile-friendly websites and responsive websites that scale according to the screen sizes. Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages technology in 2016 to bridge the gap and help webmasters build faster mobile web pages.
It is expected that mobile search will be on the rise in 2018 and will continue to dominate search queries.
Getting Closer to Mobile First Indexing
Google’s Garry Illyas has not yet confirmed the date when mobile first indexing will go live, but many pieces of evidence suggest that Google is already experimenting with it in some regions. In February, series of tweets from Webmasters and Google’s official said that they are working to make algorithms right the first time and it will take few more months to roll out mobile first indexing. So, it can be said that the year 2017 brought us closer to Mobile first perspective of Google.
In mobile first indexing, the crawler bots will index mobile version of the website instead of desktop version. While Google will continue to index desktop versions for desktop websites, it will give a ranking boost to mobile websites and responsive websites.
Advances in Voice Search
One of the trends that stand out in 2017 is the growing interest and higher volume of voice search. The statistics indicate that webmasters should closely watch this trend and must start tweaking their websites accordingly early on. It is expected that voice search will dominate search traffic in coming years and with voice search, quality of the content will become even more important.
Conclusion
These were some of the search highlights of this year. With Google’s artificial intelligence and natural comprehension of language, along with the focus on content quality and user experience, it is important for webmasters to tweak their website and search strategy for voice search users and mobile devices.