5 Great SEO Tips for 2017 — and Why Now is the Time to Use Them!

by Paradigmmedia | Jun 9, 2017 | Search Engine Optimization

Unknowable, elusive and always changing, search engine optimization can feel like an uphill battle for small business owners. If you’re struggling to boost traffic with SEO, try out these five hot SEO tips for 2017.

Purchase an SSL certificate

Making the move from "http" to "https" is one of the easiest ways to boost your site’s rankings. Back in 2014, Google started using "https" as a ranking signal and as of January this year, Google Chrome now flags "http" sites as unsafe. With an SSL certificate, your connection to your website is encrypted and your data remains secure.

Reinvigorate your content

Every day Google’s algorithms are getting smarter and better equipped to "read" content like a human would. For that reason, your site needs to be as useful, informative, and rich in relevant key words as possible.

Most importantly, you should be aware of latent semantic indexing (LSI), which creates associations between connected words and phrases; if your business sells sports equipment, Google would expect to see associated phrases like "golf clubs". The more of these associated terms it can identify, the more reliable and relevant your site appears.

Prioritize mobile

In 2016, mobile internet usage exceeded desktop for the first time. In response, Google started trialling its mobile-first index, which looks at the mobile version of your site before the desktop version for ranking signals. That’s why it’s more important than ever to optimize your site for smartphone use.

Start by taking a mobile-friendly test using a tool like WebSite Auditor and go from there.

Scope out (and steal) your competitors’ backlinks

It’s likely that your business has a competitor site that does everything just a little bit better – but instead of sulking about how good their rankings are, get proactive! Use a tool like Moz OpenSite Explorer to pull up a list of sites linking to your competitor. Once you’ve filtered out the spam, start targeting useful sites for links. In 2017, Google is coming down harder than ever on sites using spammy backlinks, so always go for quality over quantity.

Get on the voice search bandwagon

With the popularity of AI assistants like Siri and Alexa on the rise, it’s become increasingly important to hone your content for voice search. One of the best ways to do this is with featured snippets – brief, information-rich boxes that appear at the top of results pages.

To achieve a featured snippet, start with long-tail keyword research, then create content that directly engages with the particular search query. It’ll also need to be easy for Google – and human users – to find on your site. And remember: voice search isn’t going anywhere. At the last count, 41% of US adults were using it daily, so now is not the time to bury your head in the sand!

It’s not always easy to get to grips with SEO, so if you’re seeking assistance, why not take advantage of one of our summer packages? With your SEO Summer Savings Package we are offering one month for free, and a full year of maintenance support including backups and pungin updates - an $1800 value. At anytime during the course of the contract, you may opt out provided we receive a 30 day cancellation notice.

Product, Offer markup, and Merchant Center

In structured data, a Product describes what the item is. An Offer describes how to buy it: price, currency and availability.

Google's merchant listing guidance requires a name, an image, and an offer with a price and currency. It recommends availability, shipping details, return policy, identifiers and brand. Only pages where a shopper can buy the product are eligible. Google's product structured data page adds that enhancements appear at the discretion of each experience and may change.

Eligibility is not guaranteed display. Google says the same about Merchant Center. Its free listings page states that approval to show products does not guarantee they will be shown. Free listings cover surfaces including Search, Shopping and Gemini, and surface availability can change.

Merchant Center's Diagnostics section lists problems by severity. Fix the ones that stop products from serving first.

One warning for WooCommerce stores. Your theme, an SEO plugin and WooCommerce itself may each print Product markup on the same page. Conflicting blocks send mixed signals. Check how many appear, choose one source of truth, and switch the others off. If you use Google's official WooCommerce extension, it syncs from your product fields, so fix the fields first.

A six-step audit

Select five products. Pick top sellers, high-margin items, products with variations and products customers ask about most.
Reconcile fields and feeds. Fill in the worksheet below for each product.
Validate structured data. Run each product URL through Google's Rich Results Test. Count the Product blocks. Check price, currency and availability.
Check diagnostics. Open Merchant Center Diagnostics and note issues on your five products.
Test variants. Select every variation. Confirm that price, stock, image and SKU change on the page and in the markup.
Review checkout. Confirm that price, shipping cost, taxes and return wording match what the product page promised.

A reusable catalogue-quality worksheet

Copy one table per product. Mark any row where the four sources disagree.

Field	Visible page	WooCommerce field	Structured data	Feed	Match?
Product name
Price (CAD)
Sale price and dates
Availability
Variant options and SKUs
Brand
GTIN or MPN
Material
Dimensions and weight
Compatibility
Shipping cost and timing
Return terms

Prioritized correction

Issue	Customer impact	Where to fix	How to verify
Price or stock differs between page, markup and feed	Shopper sees one price and pays another. Listings may be disapproved.	Product fields, caching, SEO plugin settings, feed sync	Worksheet shows four matching values after the cache is cleared
Shipping and returns missing or vague	Shopper cannot judge cost or deadline.	WooCommerce shipping zones, Merchant Center shipping settings, returns page	Test checkout to two provinces. Wording matches the page.
Variants share one description or image	Shopper cannot tell which size or colour they get.	Variations tab	Select each variation and confirm the page and markup change
More than one Product markup block	Mixed signals about the same item.	Theme, SEO plugin, WooCommerce settings	Page source shows one Product block
Invalid or invented identifiers	Product disapproved.	Product fields, feed	Values match supplier packaging. Diagnostics clear.
Missing material, size or compatibility	Common questions stay unanswered.	Product description and attributes	A stranger can answer your opening question from the page alone

A two-week plan

Week 1. Days one and two: choose five products and fill in the worksheets. Days three and four: gather shipping and returns facts from your own policies, then correct identifiers and fields. Day five: remove duplicate markup.

Week 2. Days six and seven: fix variations. Days eight and nine: validate markup and clear the Diagnostics issues you can. Day ten: run a full test purchase on each product. Then set a calendar reminder to recheck after your first holiday sales week.

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Need help clarifying your shopping cart database to enhance your product pages and improve AI search?

Request a product catalogue and feed audit

Paradigmmedia builds and maintains WooCommerce stores for businesses in Toronto, Calgary and across Canada. No audit can promise placement or sales. A catalogue and feed audit gives you a ranked list of corrections your store can act on before the holidays. Our GEO guide for small businesses explains the wider search context.

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Frequently asked questions

Does every AI shopping tool require structured data?

No source says so. Tools gather product information in different ways. Google lists Product and Offer markup to become eligible for its merchant listing experiences. Accurate markup helps machines read your page and gives no guarantee of display.

What should I do if my product has no GTIN?

Leave the field blank and provide the brand and, where the maker (is this marker) or maker)assigns one, the MPN. Never create a number. Google's specification says incorrect GTINs lead to disapproval.

How long should a product description be?

As long as it takes to answer a buyer's questions. WooCommerce's guidance says to aim for completeness and not worry about word count.