The law of conservation of energy says: “Energy never dies rather it changes its form.” Same is the case with SEO and SEO Trends. People, who were predicting since 2011 that SEO may die soon, were wrong. SEO is not dying rather stone aged SEO tricks have died now. No more spamming, link farming, keyword stuffing and no more regenerated content. SEO is not a game anymore rather it’s an SEO strategy which must be improved, which must be changed and which must be customised according to the product and as per the situation.
Though SEO is changing every day, every month and every year but still there are few things and SEO trends which still prevail or even getting stronger. The strength of these SEO trends can be judged from the fact that these are still in power even after 2 or 3 years in the most volatile SEO world. You must keep in mind these few trends and trick because these may help you in getting a significant chunk of organic traffic. So these powerful trends are:
A Lifetime SEO Trend: Local SEO
Local SEO or Geo based SEO started not long ago when Google started showing local listings of Google Map in search results. Since its birth, the local SEO trend is getting stronger. In the age of smartphones, this trend has become even stronger than ever before. Most of the mobile devices are using location-based services, and as they search something, they are shown the local results at the top. So, if your keyword is strong and you can’t beat the international market, try to be local. You will start getting something rather than waiting for users after wasting lots of time and efforts.
Get your business listed; use local tags and location in your content so Google may help the users of your area in finding you. The best thing about local SEO is that more than 60% searches result in actual action. So if you get success in local SEO, more are the chances that you will be getting real business. This trend is not yet exploited by most of the marketers. You can jump in as it’s the best time.
Don’t ignore Video Content as evergreen SEO Trend
You might have heard a classical proverb, “Content is the King.” Let’s add something to it. If the content is the king, then Video is the queen of the king. Being an online marketer, you must be aware of the power of videos in your content. It helps in you SEO in many ways. Videos are ranked higher in search results, and that’s a fact. Don’t ignore Video Content as evergreen SEO Trends. Lots of marketers are now utilising this technique to get higher ranks in search results and to get more traffic.
The second thing that makes it the queen of the content is the user engagement. If you have some video in your content, more are the chances that user will start at least to watch the video. It will improve the time spent by the user on your website and hence bounce rate will be lower. These are very strong factors, and the search engine will give your pages higher ranks in Search results.
Social Media Posts and Support
It’s the age of Social Media. Almost 80 to 90% of smartphone users are on Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram has become the mindsets and a part of everyone’s lifestyle. Most of the search engines including Google have recognised this fact and now it started to index the social content as well. The good news is that social content quickly gets higher rank most of the times. Google now shows Facebook posts and Tweets in a scrolling carousel. So, being Online Marketer, you can take real advantage of this trend of Search Engines which is still at the booming stage.
Social Media support gives your website and content some credibility. If people like your content, discussing your product and sharing your content on social media, then it is something credible. So, if you’re betting at social media, better are the chances that you will do better in SEO as well.
Responsive and Mobile Friendly Websites
When eighty percent of web users are on smartphones, then you should design your websites for smartphones users. Keeping in view this massive shift of users, Google and major search engines have updated their algorithm, and now they rank those websites which are responsive and mobile friendly. If your website is still old fashioned and nonresponsive, then consider yourself out of SEO game.
Apart from these important trends, there are a couple of other trends as well which were born in recent years but still getting stronger.
Voice Search as increasing SEO Trends
Every operating system whether it’s for smartphone or laptop has built-in voice search feature. In Windows you can see Cortana, in Apple devices, you have Siri, and on Android devices there’s Google Now feature which you helps search directly using your voice. So, make your content which can be searched easily using voice search.
Mobile Apps: SEO Trend of Mobile age
Like video content, mobile apps are also ranked higher in Search Result for some keyword. So, if you feel that you don’t have a chance to win the SEO game through your website or conventional blog, try the app idea. Your app may rank higher, and you will get more traffic hence more revenue.
That’s not all as there are still more factors and SEO trends which are either getting stronger or getting birth. Keep visiting as we will be discussing those factors in our next posts.
You’ve written a superb article on the ever-changing landscape of SEO & how we need to stay updated on our website’s performance at all times. Anyone reading this article would be keen to make sure their website is on top & are reaching their target audience.