The digital marketing and SEO landscapes are ones that constantly fluctuate, and it is for this reason that marketers and SEOs must keep up-to-date on the current trends and changes within the industry. As SEO has continued to evolve over the past few years, we’ve seen the algorithms move toward “white hat” methods and reward sites that do good work – work that is relevant for the search queries and that can provide the most pertinent and appropriate content to the person searching.
We have seen SEO move toward more content-driven strategies, focused upon providing the client or the customer with interactive and on-topic information. SEO has begun to rely much more on social signals, and social media has become a key part of any strong search-based strategy. Looking forward to the new year, what will 2016 bring for search engine optimization? Read on for a few predictions of what may come into play in 2016:
- Content-driven, rather than keyword-driven strategy: It’s not all about keywords anymore when it comes to SEO. Content is still king, and users are most interested in blog content, video content, and infographic content that provides valuable information for them. We no longer have to focus solely on keywords to drive the most relevant traffic. As search algorithms have developed, relevant traffic will hit the site if the content is there and optimization is ideal.
- User experience is key: Along with providing valuable and engaging content, we want to ensure that the experience is strong. Information should be share-worthy and quickly digested by the reader. Google and other search engines want to ensure that the person searching gets the right results within the first few pages. Providing relevant content will get your user the experience they are looking for.
- Mobile and tablet optimization: Mobile and tablet-based search has been growing exponentially over the past few years. Ensuring your site is optimized for mobile is critical. Mobile traffic surpassed desktop traffic in 2015, indicating that mobile will be central to 2016’s optimal SEO strategy. Desktop-focused SEO will need to make some room for mobile-focused SEO.
- Social media: While social media has begun helping SEO efforts and plays an indirect role, social signals will likely play a much larger part in 2016. Search engine algorithms are working to begin integrating social into the equation; for this reason, a strong social media presence will be more necessary than ever in the new year. Social media also provides consumers with information that affects how they make decisions.
- Local SEO: For local businesses, local SEO will likely become an even bigger deal than it was in 2015. We expect to see more changes to local SEO – as we’ve already seen with the local pack at the top of Google searches and the consumers’ shift toward local purchasing.
- Voice search: While this has not yet played a huge part in SEO strategy, the rise of voice search may begin to really shake up the best practices of search engine optimization. Voice search is usually based on the questions of “who, what, how, when, and where,” which may need to be taken into account as a part of SEO strategy if voice continues to grow.
What do you think of these predictions? Are there any trends that you are excited about?
