With more than a quarter of 2016 flying away. It is time to review some of your 2016 New Year resolutions. Whether it is financial stability or health improvement, regularly evaluating your resolutions is a great way for you to keep track of your progress. Moreover, to improvise your search engine optimization strategies.
If you are a business, we bet that some of your New Year resolutions have a lot to do with productivity, revenue generation, and market expansion. It is normal to want to have a thriving business. However, as a local search engine optimization company, we have found that most of our clients are being held back by their limited knowledge of online marketing.
We Have Done Our Homework for You
No matter what industry you may fall under, we’ve identified the top 7 search engine optimization trends. Popular SEO company trends that will help you to stay hot and on top of the game in 2016!
Mobile Search Engine Optimization Will Rule
Having a mobile-friendly website is no longer an option in 2016. When Google rolled out the mobile-friendly update back in April 21, 2015, they communicated that the update is in response to the increasing mobile traffic. Today, more people are using their phones to conduct online searches, with mobile optimization becoming a ranking factor in search results. Businesses need to implement a mobile-first strategy. Then begin to tailor their design and content around mobile phones, not desktops.
Content Length Matters
Once upon a time, a 300-word page or blog post was sufficient. Not so anymore. The length of your content is becoming more critical than ever. Searchers are sick of mediocre blog posts. And so are search engines. As a result, longer posts are getting more attention from search engines. In other words, they tend to contain higher quality links, more credible resources, and better content, content that has been carefully researched, expounded, and supported.
Search Engine Optimization User Experience
Suppose you have been following Google updates. You surely have noticed that the updates all support the mission of improving user experience. To stay ahead of the competition, Google needs to ensure that the search results it delivers are reliable, relevant, and meet user’s expectations. Web design and content need to be planned around user experience.
Besides mobile responsiveness, you need to ensure that your layout is neat and organized. The colors should also complement the content without creating any glaring contrast. Finally, every web owner should work hard to optimize their web load time so their users can get to their answers without waiting for more than 3 seconds.
Readability is Important for Search Engine Optimization
This is one trend that you might have heard little about. When you write your content, the readability score you get determines its ease of understanding to your readers. The higher the SEO score, the easier it is for an average searcher. In general, readability of 70 or higher is enough to give your visitors a pleasant reading experience.
While you should not bleed over the number, it is essential to remember that you are not trying to “impress people” with your writing and use of complex vocabulary. Web pages and blog posts are educational pieces, not academic papers. So, unless you are writing a science report to a committee or academic institution. Keep your writing style informative, engaging, and enjoyable.
Keyword Planning
Keywords are an old friend of website owners. However, as more businesses of the same niche go viral, the competition for ranking grows fiercer. Instead of looking to rank for a particular keyword. Business owners are encouraged to focus on relevant keyword phrases. As the American Marketing Association explains, keywords are no longer the “be-all and end-all”. Although keywords were a critical search engine optimization factor in the past, Martin Laetsch, director of online marketing in Act-On Software Inc., said that focusing on a single keyword is no longer useful.
Instead, writers should have a primary keyword and a few secondary keywords to complement the primary keyword. “Seventy-five percent of search queries are between three and five words long,” added Laetsch, “So you should write headlines accordingly” and not be all caught up with using the exact primary keyword you planned for in the first place.
Content Diversification is King
Website owners tend to associate “content” with “words.” While most content has words in it, not all content needs to be word-oriented. Videos, infographics, images, and sound recordings are all great content to include in your search engine optimization strategy. Organize your videos into a YouTube playlist like this video about Spring TX SEO Marketing.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, videos are a great way to tell your brand’s story, capture visitor’s attention, and connect with your customers. Videos are versatile and a joy to watch. Therefore, they do not need to be read word-by-word. Also, they often come with entertaining animation/designs to engage the readers.
Another content web owner should consider infographics. Infographics represent data visually and innovatively. Infographics are great at enriching “boring” or “sophisticated” findings with a touch of creative art. The visuals, images, and graphs on an infographic can also help readers to visualize a complicated process, concept, or study without falling asleep or losing interest.
Search Engine Optimization Social Content
Social media will continue to be an expedient content distribution channel in 2016. People use social media all the time, and many will gladly share your content with their friends if your content proves to be valuable, relevant, and informative.
As Inbound Boulder.com shares, over 75% of the adults use social media on a regular basis. Therefore, that number is promised to increase as our society becomes more and more digitized. Therefore, going social is the way to improve your search engine optimization. To get started, we recommend you research about the top social media marketing platforms. Such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Figure out how each works. Then slowly learn to be a professional social butterfly even if you are an introvert.