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Google SEO & Instagram Updates 2016-17

Published on 05 September 16
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Search Engine Optimization is quite unpredictable with its ever-changing algorithms and trends. This year has been quite eventful in SEO and Google has brought on some major changes to improve the user experience but there are certainly more that are going to be announced and implemented over the next few months, especially with local Google+ listings.
Google SEO & Instagram Updates 2016-17 - Image 1
If you have been following the SEO news, you might have heard of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) that was announced towards the end of 2015 and started going live early this year. The purpose of these pages was to improve the loading speed for users searching on mobile devices (which comprise of over 60% of the total number of searches on Google) by having a condensed version of the page called AMP on your website. Although Google claimed that there would be no penalties for websites that will not have AMP, they did not state that the websites that DO have AMP will be more likely be featured at the top of the SERPs for certain keywords, especially related to News and current events.

The latter half of this year also has certain updates in the books. If you operate or manage a business, it is best to prepare for some of these now so you do not get taken by surprise later!

Presented by the R&D efforts of A.P. Web Solutions, a Melbourne-based digital agency specializing in Search Engine Optimisation, with References linked herein.
Update #1: Google Local Maps
The map pack (often referred to as the 3-pack in the SEO industry) is a set of 3 listings that are seen at the top of the search results when you do a search in Google. In 2015, these results used to display 7 listings but Google changed it to 3 and the 7-pack became a 3-pack. Not every keyword search has this map pack, but most local searches do. Now, there might be another upcoming change. Let's have a look at what the 3-pack could potentially look like in the months to come.

Google SEO & Instagram Updates 2016-17 - Image 2
Notice anything different?

The listing at the top has been replaced by an Ad. This means that one of the businesses that is currently ranked in the 3 pack might be losing its spot to an Advertised spot. More than likely, it will be the listing at the 3rd spot that will lose its ranking.

This is currently being tested in the U.S. and has already been confirmed by Google. Therefore, Australia is bound to get the same sooner or later. If you or anyone you know is currently at the #3 spot for their main keyword, now is the time to work on it!
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Update #2: Instagram Business: Not For Everyone
Google SEO & Instagram Updates 2016-17 - Image 3
If you have been following the News in the social media space, then you have most likely heard about Instagram's announcement about introducing Business accounts for their Users. This comes with additional features such as analytics, stats, and demographics. You will also be able to Boost posts, similar to Facebook Business Pages.

Our testing shows that by switching your account to a Business profile, Instagram's algorithm slows down significantly, making your posts visible to a relatively lower percentage of your followers than a regular account. The same holds true for Facebook pages vs Facebook personal profiles. Quite possibly to make people want to use the Ads feature to get more engagement. So it may or may not be for you, depending on the kind of following you have and how valuable the new features are to you.

If you have a large following and would benefit from knowing more statistics about your demographic, then use this guide to convert your personal profile to a Business profile.

If you have any questions, please comment below!
This blog is listed under Development & Implementations and E-Commerce Community

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  1. 06 September 16
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    Useful and interesting topic... looking forward to know more about SEO updates

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