Top 10 SEO Trends that will Dominate 2016

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is dynamic in nature hence there are new trends that come up every year. Consequently, as 2015 draws to a close, marketers as well as SEO agencies are keen on reviewing strategies they employed in the year while also looking at the trends that will dominate 2016. Here are some of the top 10 SEO trends that are likely to dominate 2016:

Video Content will overtake written content in ROI for B2C industries and brands

Although written content is known to be the standard there is bound to be new technologies in 2016 that will shift the attention from written content to more engaging technologies with a shift to video content being anticipated. In fact, video content is expected to outpace the written content in terms of engagement, reach, effectiveness as well as overall ROI. Video apps such as Periscope, Vine and Snap Chat among others have contributed to setting the expectations of users towards visual content. Even then, with the introduction of video ads within search results, Google is likely to be the real herald.

Mobile optimization will become more important than deskto9
The desktop has been seen as a standard platform for search but not anymore. The number of mobile device users continues to rise hence an increase in mobile searches. This can be backed by the fact that at the beginning of 2015, mobile searches surpassed desktop searches putting it at an almost equal footing with desktop searches. This shift is expected to continue into 2016 and beyond leading to the obscurity of desktop searches by 2020. Interestingly, Google has already made claims to the effect that desktop specific sites are no longer necessary hence their commitment to a better mobile experience across different devices

Digital Assistants will change the way we think about search queries
Many queries on modern search engines come from digital assistants (Google Now, Cortana and Siri) that add a new layer to the complexity of search. Spoken language queries differ from typed questions hence incorporation of new long tailed keywords especially those mimicking spoken dialogue shall emerge. This trend will particularly reward those pages containing colloquial conversational content.

Aggregated content will diminish the power of news and event coverage
Twitter is running experiments on its yet to be unveiled feature called ‘Moments’ that will aggravate images, posts as well as videos  from live events and unfolding news stories in a single channel. That is, the feature will let all users be content creators while others can watch and follow the event live. This is not only associated with Twitter as advanced algorithms are capable of compiling unfolding events from existing events.

Social Content will be more readily indexed
Google has already gotten into deals with sites like Twitter where tweets are now visible in mobile search results. It is expected that more social content will be indexed in 2016. Thus, social posts will carry value and consideration similar to an independent page. Ultimately the separation of social media and  other sites will blur.

Deep Links in Apps will become more important
Google has already begun indexing apps as part of the shift on mobile users. This is because it is anticipated that the future will have apps taking over traditional websites in functionality and popularity. Search marketers can tap into this by anticipating change too.

Local search targeting
With more businesses striving to be more vocal in what they are doing, local search is getting more targeted. Today, Google Places only shows three results instead of seven ; however, a click through shows about 20 results. Local businesses with local depots should make schema tagging and local listing a top priority to be able to capture the local market.

Page Tagging
2016 is expected to herald an increase in heading tags that will be rolled out at a greater rate. This will offer structure to mobile user results for different pages to load differently. Having a uniform structure down to H5 tags will aid this.

Penalties for Machine-Written/Spun Content
Scrapped and spun content will continue to see a decline in its effectiveness. Such content will be difficult to rank and will attract penalties for people using it.

Real-time panda updates
This coming year will see the coming of Real Time Panda Algorithm updates into its fullness. The algorithm is expected to be rolled out by the end of 2015.