As best SEO practices are changing constantly, only the nimble among website publishers are maintaining success getting and staying on page one of the SERPs. As the adoption of the Internet continues to grow, so does the competition of every industry niche. This makes SEO an even higher profile tool for the promotion of your brand and website. Those of us in the SEO world are constantly grappling with changes in Google’s search algorithm in order to get our clients the best search results possible. As we plan for 2016, we are already preparing for Google’s updates that revolve around website user experience. Are you ready?
To prepare your business in 2016, website owners must take a holistic view of SEO as part of their marketing plan. To do this, you need to develop a measured strategy that will position your site higher than your competitors. As all eyes are now on Google’s 2016 updates, here are 5 noteworthy trends that may further change the SEO landscape this year. How prepared are you to stay ahead of the trend?
- Mobile Marketing and Optimization: Mobile web penetration is growing at a staggering rate. In Qatar, companies are seeing 75-85% of their web traffic comeing from the mobile web. As Google announced in its Mobilegeddon update that mobile and desktop traffic were relatively equal in 2015, we are certain that 2016 will be the year that mobile eclipses desktop traffic, making mobile marketing even more important. Therefore, your website needs to be mobile-responsive (giving an attractive user experience across all screen sizes). If your site is not mobile ready, it will be difficult for you to reach page one of Google’s SERPs for the majority of your desired keywords.
- Video Content Marketing:
Everyone loves watching videos, making it ripe as a marketing vehicle for your company. If the visuals in your video are strategically paired with written content (using SEO-targeted keyword), it becomes a catalyst to the ranking of that content. Even though most search engines give preference to written content and consider it the prevailing factor for a site’s ranking, change is in the air. In 2016, videos and infographics will become a more integral piece when your website is being ranked. - Social Media Content Indexation: Facebook and Twitter content is already appearing in Google results, and because of the freshness of the content, the rankings of this content is rising rapidly. In 2016, Google will continue finding ways to promote more social media content to its real time results. Therefore, 2016 is the year where Social Media Marketing will make the highest impact in the Google SERPs. To take advantage of this trend, be sure to include your most important SEO keywords in your social media marketing strategy.
- Internal Page Backlinking: Internal page backlink refers to the deep backlinks that you see on a site while you are reading through the page content (think…Wikipedia.com). Internal page backlinks should not only direct users to your homepage, but to specific pages with relevant content. In 2016, Google is likely to improve its search results by ranking pages higher that have internal page backlinking. The text you use for the hyperlink (called anchor text) should be relevant and will ideally match your targeted SEO keywords. Internal page backlinks will help improve the page authority of your site in 2016, especially if the links target your focus keywords.
- Rich Content will be the key: Rich Content has always been an important factor in achieving good search engine results. What is rich? Rich content is fresh, well organized, rich in a specific set of keywords, and provides good depth into the topic at hand. Rich also includes the use of videos and images, all tagged using your most important (relevant) keywords. Remember, there is no substitute to good content.
Apart from these tips for 2016, we recommend you live on the ethos of doing what is right for your website visitors. In year past, marketer tended to promote whatever they wanted, however they wanted. Success in SEO is about anticipating what web searchers are going to look for and providing a good depth of information for that topic. This spells SEO success in 2016. Are you ready to improve your search rankings? Try SilverFox Digital, where we have SEO packages that fit any budget or need. Not exactly sure what your digital priorities need to be in 2016? We can offer a 100% free, no-obligation digital audit for your company to put you on the track to success.
ABOUT SILVERFOX DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
SilverFox Digital Communications, is a Dubai-based Digital & Social Media Agency with an array of clients around the Middle East and Asia. Its executives bring digital experience from mega brands like: Southwest Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, UBS, Orbitz.com, and more. Its origins date back to 1997 in Dallas, Texas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Preeti Rawat is part of the SilverFox Digital SEO team as an Analyst and is responsible for our English SEO practice.
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