The new year has begun and with it comes significant shifts in the way SEO influences search engine rankings. As an online business, you must adapt your SEO strategy to better accommodate these changes. Fail to do so and you will be placing the success of your entire company on the line.
So which SEO trends can online businesses expect to see during the course of 2016?
1. Internal links
2016 is the year to optimise your link structure and page information to make things easier for users to navigate your content. The use of internal links, particularly on high-ranking webpages, has increased significantly over recent years. Your online business should make the most out of this trend if you want to see a steady climb in conversions.
2. Mobile-Friendly
A responsive design is crucial, especially if you intend to reach mobile users on the go. Sites that are optimised for mobile rank higher on search engines than those who have yet to jump on the mobile bandwagon. To benefit from this ‘digital movement’, your site should be responsive in terms of design and interaction. Having an app in place is also extremely awarding, especially where SEO is concerned.
3. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Where would ecommerce be if it weren’t for CRO?
Whilst the basic SEO tactics reel in the traffic, conversion rate optimisation is needed to convert these visitors into paying customers. 2016 is set to use CRO in a more sophisticated and fine-tuned manner.
Web tracking in Google Analytics will also become a necessary and common procedure to help web managers better understand their customers and learn which CRO tactics are most effective.
4. Speedy Loading Times
A slow website will be abandoned by impatient users. Nobody is going to sit around and wait for a site to load when they can simply click on a faster option instead. Not only should your pages load fast on desktops, they should also load quickly on mobile devices. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to learn more about how your loading times compare to others. 2016 is all about speed!
5. Keyword Research
Businesses must perform keyword analysis in order to find out what are the best words and phrases that are currently being used by internet users who are actively seeking their specific products or services.
In 2016 the easiest way to carry out such research is to use tools like Google’s Keyword planner that will reveal the most relevant keywords (those most likely to generate traffic). It is also wise to structure your website content around these keywords to help gain further interest in your business. Avoid overloading your content with keywords however and instead slip them into the body of the text as naturally as possible.
6. Optimal Content Structure
Providing your users with a good user experience is very important. For this reason, it is advised to ensure that your website’s content is logically structured. Trends in this area include content that has been broken up into more manageable sections by using bullet points, for example. Interactive elements will also play a huge factor towards achieving those top ranking positions in 2016.
7. Tidy Mobile Ads
When it comes to ads on mobile-optimized content, less is more. Mobile pages show fewer ads for obvious reasons and it seems to be that sites with few ads rank higher than those overflowing with too many. Keep your ads to a minimum!
8. Guest Blogging
Blogging is an effective content strategy for reaching your target audience and improving brand credibility etc. Content marketing is of course extremely important. Content in 2016 will be most successful when it is published in a comprehensive format that provides value and relevant information for its users. It is also worth gaining a proper distribution strategy for your content to achieve additional traffic, links and social shares etc.
So there you have it, the most ‘trendiest’ 2016 SEO movements that will have a huge impact on your online business over the next 12 months. Our multi-award winning marketeers and developers are also waiting to help with any digital marketing, adwords, social media, SEO Belfast or Magento ecommerce web design questions you may have. We also provide training for third party SEO software tools such as MOZ to ensure you can clearly monitor progress and ensure your campaign is of the highest quality.
So what are you waiting for? Give us a call today on: 028 3026 1861
