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If you use SEO for your business, then go ahead and update yourself about the major modifications that Google has been making to their search algorithm. It will help you in creating suitable content. Here are a few shifts that you are bound to see in search engine optimization. Read ahead so that you can prepare yourself so that you are not caught by surprise. In any case if you have taken professional help like hiring SEO expert, then you will already be aware of these.
Here are the SEO trends that you cannot ignore for the upcoming year:
1. Section on in-depth articles
There is a new section on the Google search results page which features in-depth articles. These write-ups are generally a minimum of 2,000 words. Usually, some of them are a lot more, going above 5,000 words too. These articles are generally sourced from established publishers. However, Google has clarified that they will also feature lesser known publishers.
This has been done to encourage detailed, thoughtful and well written content for the web. Currently, the displayed articles are for broader topics. This section will clearly get a more prominent position in search results over time.
2. Rising importance of micro-data
When creating content, you use certain tags (microdata) to help Google understand the content, who wrote it and so on. This micro-data is also used in products, reviews, companies, events, art, etc. The importance of this is slowly becoming essential.
These are the upcoming trends that you can expect to see:
· In the near future, micro-data will be optimized to rank higher in search results pages.
· Also, more and more tools will be created so that the required micro-data can be added.
· There will be evolution in search results such that every entry will come with attached micro-data. This means that there will be more markers like images, length of content, etc. Thus there will be lesser importance on the top positions in search results.
If you put the right kind of micro-data, your content will rank higher. If you ask your SEO expert, they can give you more details about micro-data and its applications.
3. The launch of author rank
Finally, through Google Authorship, content is being linked to the author, even if you have written for other sites. If you set it up properly, whatever content that you write for your website or for another one, it will show in the search results along with your picture.
What implication does this have? It means that if you have a highly ranked author writing for your website, then that article will rank highly itself just because of the author. This means, an author who is already well established can start a website and achieve high rankings very quickly just because they are already ranked.
4. Distributed search
Even social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter have their own search outlets. For example, Facebook has Knowledge Graph through which you can find out information on the network. For example, you could use Facebook Graph to find out which of your friends has cycling as a hobby.
To put it in a nutshell, SEO is no longer about simple link building and writing average articles. That is not a long-term sustainable solution because searches are becoming more specific, personalized and in-depth. Thus, make sure that the SEO experts that you are hiring are still not stuck in link building campaigns and poorly written articles stuffed with keywords.
About the author
George Davis is a SEO expert working with a firm specializing in small-sized businesses. He has worked with SEO Expert to create dynamic SEO strategies for his clients. George is an outdoors person and loves playing football on weekends with his friends.