During 2015 the search and content marketing world has undergone some major shifts and the stage is again set for a shift- the shift away from producing the content's sake. Instead, a new trend has been shown and that is focused towards the use of social and search data to guide content creation. This development is fairly new but will play a critical part in boosting the engagement of brands and helping their content I attracting the desired audience. Though the content itself plays an important role in the conversion of customers still the importance of the technical side of search optimization should not be ignored. There have been times when the brands were forced to focus their efforts on behind the scene tasks in order to move their content forward and into the limelight in order to reach the customers.
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Below are the five SEO trends which one should pay close attention to as they move into the New Year.
In 2016 mobile apps will become an increasingly significant factor for search and brand exposure. The year 2015 has already seen mobile search taking over desktop search and mobile apps instead of traditional websites. These apps have become essential to the mobile environment and for mobile users.
Any doubt regarding the significance of apps can be put to rest by noting that 52 per cent of total time spent online on mobiles is consumed by the apps alone. Not only this, 42 per cent of the mobile sales were generated through the use of mobile apps where people bought the mobiles using e-commerce apps.
So, in order to keep customers engaged with the brands these apps need to be optimized. As a principle, a well-designed app should align with the brand and the message that they are promoting.
Remember that when people search for a new app in any app store, they only see the icon and the minimum information. Therefore, all the images used with the app and icons in particular need to be engaging and encouraging.
And as the app begins to find its users and users began to find this app make sure to keep taps and ratings and reviews and as soon as the customer starts complaining about particular errors and usage issues take the steps to correct the same with the least delay.
Tech giant Google 2015 announced the use of their new learning system, RankBrain. The A.I technology designed to better understand the intent of searches and queries thrown by the users. As per Google, it has been particularly helpful when the user throws a new query that the search engine has not seen before. This ranking factor become rapidly prominent as the search engine giant pointed out that it is the third most important signal in their ranking algorithm.
These developments and given that Google rules the search area A. I will become more significant in 2016 and in the years to come.
As Google and other search engines continue to incorporate machine learning better into their search algorithms, in time to come they will be able to develop intelligent algorithms for maximizing the user experience by showing the best possible sites.
The penguin update has promised to sort out the link struggle which has been plaguing the websites for years and this news is keeping many people on their toes as they wonder how the link building will work.
Brands will have to make sure that they are able to take the advantage of this update. Also, earning backlinks will be another important task for the brands and earning those links from reputed websites will enhance the backlink profile.
Linking to other websites is like earning a vote of confidence, therefore the focus should be on the:
providing the valuable content to the visitor
well-designed website that is easy to navigate
Success in online marketing will become more mature as success will be defined by the overall presence of the brand rather than the website’s rank. For this, the website will be required to have better integration with the social media platforms.
Facebook is working in this direction by working on a more sophisticated search experience for the users which means that brands have to be ready with their online presence optimized for social media and users are already using apps like Facebook and YouTube which means their content needs to be optimized for social feeds as well.
Overall lesson is that one needs to stop thinking of web site and social media as two separate components of the marketing strategy.
