2016 has arguably been a big year for SEO. So much has changed in the industry – again. And businesses are reaping the rewards if they keep up, and suffering if they don’t. The reason things are changing so fast in the space is that it’s new, innovative and has attracted some of the brightest minds on Earth.
This year, we’ve seen a whole slew of innovations. Here’s what’s going on.
Social Content Is Now King
In the past businesses used to use social media as just another outlet for their marketing. But it’s now being integrated into their SEO efforts as well. The reason is that social media pages tend to rank quite well. It’s all to do with the fact that search engines heavily weight activity on social media sites. And so they’re an excellent way to get your brand appearing high up on the search results.
Hyperlocal Search Optimisation Is A Priority
Local businesses want to be found by Google just as much as any other. But sometimes getting found is hard. For whatever reason, local search and Google Maps don’t always pick up local businesses. Intelligent companies are using SEO to find ways around this. One thing that they’re doing is adding descriptions to their business titles. But they’re also focusing on building up descriptors of their neighbourhood. And they’re linking these descriptors to their websites. Creating a holistic framework like this is a lot more friendly to search engines than doing the minimum. And it is helping businesses perform better.
We’ve Got SEO Comparison Sites
Until now, we’ve seen comparison sites for cars, insurance, even bank loans. But we’ve not seen a comparison site for SEO services. After all, it’s hard to compare so many different providers of a niche service. But now these services are available. And they’re allowing businesses to get the best deal on SEO consultations and products.
SEO Is Moving Beyond Web Search
We like to think of the internet as something that it nicely compartmentalised in the PC space. It’s a network that connects the world’s computers. But when you start thinking about it, that’s not what the internet is, even today. For instance, you probably connect to the web regularly through your smartphone.
But the internet is set to expand beyond even the smartphone, with knock-on effects on SEO. Now talented marketers are considering what it means when cars, like phones, are also connected to the internet. How will that affect how they do their SEO? What about when wearable devices are connected? Will that change how we interact with search engines? How about voice? Microsoft recently announced that it thought that voice, not search, was the future. And if voice-search does turn out to be the future, you can bet that it won’t be based on the same old keywords.
Strategic And Technical Integration Is Key
SEO is famous for the amount of data it generates. And right now, it’s generating a lot. That’s why we’re seeing a whole new class of people emerging with the technical skills the sector demands. These people are experts in marketing and their field. And they’re able to bridge the gap between the data and the firm’s strategic vision.