The year is coming to an end, and that means it’s time for our competitors to write their 2018 prediction posts and talk about Trends They Expect To See in 2018. After our company holiday party however, we decided against adding to the rampant speculation and instead decided to attempt to remember focus on the top trends we observed in 2017. So without further ado, let’s get get into it.
Top 2017 SEO Trends We Watched
- SEO Died again. and Again. And Again and Again And then Again!
And then It died about 2,384 more times but we’re too lazy to link to them all. We’ve always been too lazy to link to them all though, which is why years ago we created our own permanent SEO is Dead post. - Google gave us straight, clear, easy to understand answers. Almost – that one time.
- Every major SEO blog released a ranking factor study that “proved” every metric that Google says they don’t use really is a ranking factor.
- Prominent SEOs re-ignited several year old arguments about directories vs sub domains, character lengths, social signals, bounce rates, keywords in URLs, TF-IDF, keyword density, and tons of other things they made it clear they don’t understand.
- A bunch of stuff happened at conferences. A bunch of stuff happened in Vegas too – but it stayed there.
- Google launched a new algorithm that affected 2% of queries. 98% of SEOs claimed it affected them and used it as the #1 reason why their sites rankings declined.
- Thousands of SEO experts magically became experts in Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Cryptocurrency – despite never having written a line of code in their lives.
- WTFSEO still didn’t win any industry awards (or make any money.)
So there you have it. 7 trends we observed in 2017 – and an 8th for good measure. What will 2018 hold? Most likely, the exact same trends we just listed – because we can’t stop arguing about the same things year after year in this industry. That’s ok with us though, it gives us plenty of topics to write about on WTFSEO. Have a great holiday season. Don’t forget to check back in with us in the new year.
