As we head into a brand new year, it seems inevitable that the rules of SEO will continue to change. We’re looking at the trends and strategies which will dominate the world of SEO in 2016. Here are some of the most prevalent trends which SEO specialists are predicting to be hot news over the next 12 months.
Providing a positive user experience
This will be the number one priority for SEO specialists in 2016. Original content will become more important than ever before, and site visitors want to read information that’s relevant to them and their interests rather than being confronted with keyword-stuffed pages of generic text. Images and videos are also great additions to your online content, adding interest and variety to your site. People love content that’s easily readable and shareable, but that also has substance.
Optimising sites for mobile devices
As more and more of us are using our smartphones to read articles, browse for products and generally browse online, it’s going to become even more crucial to ensure that your content can be viewed from mobile devices with no loss of legibility or function. This also means that voice searches and smart assistants will become more important, and less people will be physically typing in their search terms.
Keywords will be less crucial
As Google has become more sophisticated about interpreting content, it is no longer necessary to have multiple explicit keywords in text to make sure the page is found. Of course, content will still need to be relevant to the particular keyword or topic you want to be found for, but it is much more likely that search engines will pick up on it without you having to spell it out. Well written, relevant content should be authoritative enough to help send signals to search engines that your site is high quality and trustworthy enough to be found.
Page speed is vital for both SEO and user experience
Slow-loading pages are not only annoying and offputting for your site visitors, they can also have a negative impact on your SEO campaign. Google allocates a specific period of time for crawling your website, known as the crawl budget, and if your pages are slow to load this means they will be less likely to be indexed by Google and less likely to be found by people searching. The majority of site users will also simply leave your site if it takes too long to load, meaning you lose out on potential customers.
Social media will play more of a role
Content from sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can support your SEO campaign, and experts are predicting that in the coming year more and more social media content will be indexed on popular search engines like Google and Bing. If you type the name of a major company into any of these engines, the chances are that their Facebook page or Twitter feed will be among the first results, which demonstrates the importance social media now plays in SEO campaigns. Make sure to share quality content and keep your social profiles active and engaging for the biggest benefits to your SEO strategy.