While 2015 has proven to be a very interesting year in SEO as evidenced in the penalization of sites that have failed to be mobile-friendly and in the introduction of the local snack pack and other algorithm updates, you can look forward to even more exciting trends in 2016. The experts are foreseeing several major shifts in search, so it’s best to be prepared. What are these predicted movements?
The path to effective SEO
1. Mobile SEO will overtake desktop SEO. The mobile device is going to get priority. While mobile searches have already surpassed desktop searches in early 2015, Google insists that mobile and desktop traffic are still pretty much on equal footing. The shift from desktop to mobile will continue, however, and, soon, mobile will gain even more importance while desktop, in turn, will eventually fade into obscurity. As a matter of fact, Google has averred that the change to the local three-pack or snack pack is a reflection on their commitment to a “mobile experience” across all kinds of devices.
2. Video content will make a more worthwhile investment for B2C industries and brands than written content. Video is set to overtake written content, which is the current standard, since SEO experts see 2016 as the year video outpaces written content in reach, engagement, and, hence, effectiveness. For this, you can blame or thank video apps such as Vine, Snapchat, and Periscope. Internet users are becoming conditioned to expect visual content. Google certainly seems to expect the shift to transpire soon, considering its experimentation with video ads in search results. This is something that businesses should take note of. B2C brands should definitely factor in this point in crafting their marketing strategies.
3. The use of smart assistants and voice searches will increase, changing the way we perceive search queries. Since mobile Internet use has become prevalent, search engines are getting more and more searches from digital assistants. Understandably, typed queries are different from spoken ones, so this brings a whole other dimension to SEO. They say that Google’s desired end is to come up with something like the Star Trek computer. You can instruct it and converse with it as you would a normal person. With these upcoming trends, that certainly seems to be the direction we’re heading.
4. Social content will regularly show up in search results. Posts on Facebook and Twitter will be more readily indexed. As it is, Google already has an agreement with Facebook and Twitter, so you can probably spot Tweets or Facebook posts when you search for news items. Social posts will continue to carry weight, and soon the line separating the rest of the Web from social media will fade.
5. Local search will intensify. Instead of referring to city or state, searches will actually allude to your neighborhood, perhaps even your very own street corner. This is made possible by the onset of wearable devices such as the Apple Watch combined with the increasingly sophisticated indexing powers of Google.
Something that you should keep in mind as well, although search engines claim we actually haven’t gotten quite to the point yet, is the influence of user behavior on rankings. If user signals still don’t figure at the moment, logic will tell you that they will at some point in the not-so-distant future, so it’s wise to be ready for that as well.
