Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique of driving traffic from paid or organic sources to a web property, to rank high on the SERPs (search engine result pages). Although rankings on search engine tend to change from time to time, as is common, you have to ensure that you use the latest SEO practices to keep your website or blog up to date with the dynamic SEO industry and drive quality traffic to the pages. Take a look at the SEO trends which are set to rule the year 2016 and become some of the major influencers in the World Wide Web for years to come.
Rise of Interactive and Visual Content
In the last decade there has been an increase in attention deficit in users. This makes it tougher for marketers to make brands score with users. Each and every day, users are coming across more information on the internet. In order to convey information to users in a more interesting way, content has to be made more active. With interactive and visual content, information can be made more effective, engaging, reachable and more attention grabbing, thus increasing the overall ROI.
Video apps like Periscope, Vine and Snapchat and interactive content like Infographics are becoming more and more popular. These are increasingly making users move more to visual content. This is why Google is also testing video ads.
Aggregated Content Set to Rule News Stories
News stories from different pieces of information existing beforehand are already being compiled by the advanced Google algorithms. By the time 2016 ends, evergreen and editorial content and opinions will get more important and non-auto sourced news articles will get weaker in searches. Live feeds are already being tested by various platforms, of which Moments from Twitter is the most noteworthy. The feed shows videos, images and posts gathered from various live events into just one channel.
More prominence of social content
Content from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and various other social media platforms will become more important on the search engine results pages in 2016 and beyond. 76% marketers already use these platforms to support and encourage SEO. Social media content is going to be indexed more and more on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Social media profiles already rule SERPs during queries on brand names.
Greater assimilation of content
85% of search results on Google are constituted of videos, images, news, social media, maps, local stuffs, wiki and Knowledge Graph. Users are increasingly trying to find all relevant details on a specific topic or subject in one spot. This is a real way to find, assimilate, collect, consolidate, present, share and display different types of content to appeal to the target audience.
More power to Local SEO
Local SEO will become more important in 2016, and the coming years will witness it becoming more powerful. It is essential to have your local pages along with your business name, address etc with Yahoo, Bing and of course, Google. Local SEO has become very important with Google releasing its Pigeon update. Make sure that your content consists of location specific keywords.
App Optimization will become more important
With even apps now being indexed by Google into mobile searches, the line between app and mobile web is now getting diminished. Apps can now rank higher in search engine results pages, if optimized well. In-app analytics will be measured in order to make sure they are successful not only in terms of download. With optimized apps, there will be greater amount of traffic.
Smart Assistants will lead the search
Google Now, Cortana, Siri and other digital assistants have already come into the market, and are changing the way search queries are being made. With a voice-based interface, marketers are getting a lucrative opportunity to make maximum use of mobile search and provide businesses with more reach. Given that spoken languages varies a lot from typed language, SEO experts now need to optimize all the content for answering questions specific to users rather than only general information.
Mobile web searches will increase
More and more businesses will try to exploit mobile apps to the maximum extent. The use of mobile phones for internet search is at an all-time high and the searches will be made just easier with apps. In only a few years, mobile websites and desktop will be taken over by mobile apps. You can prominently feature the name of your brand in the name of your app and ensure that there are proper links for better search rankings to apps. You should also make sure that app optimization is at the top of your SEO optimization efforts. A number of brands are deriving benefits from major visibility of their mobile apps in the organic search results of Google.
Rise of Voice based search queries
With more and more people getting accustomed to voice based search queries, this is going to be the preferred way of conducting searches in the future. The way of searching by voice differs a lot from searching through typing. Digital assistants such as Alexa, Google Now, Cortana and Siri which are integrated into new smartphones are changing how search queries are made online. Naturally, content with more conversational and colloquial long-tail keywords are being used more and these are going to be given more importance by the dynamic algorithms of Google.
Real-Time Penguin Algorithm Updates
When Google unleashed its Penguin Algorithm Updates in 2012 to put an end to black-hat SEO strategies, they wiped off a major chunk of websites and blogs. The algorithm was criticized for being too slow and there were huge time gaps between updates. Seems like Google has pulled its socks up about 4 years later, and is on its way to make the updates real time. Naturally, if your web page is penalized by the Penguin algorithm, you will not have to wait for a long time to see a resolution.
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