SEO Trends for 2016

2015 was a big and exciting year for Search.

We saw the Mobilegeddon update ‐ a long awaited algorithm change targeting all those sites which continued to lag behind. We also saw a significant overhaul of local rankings and plenty of other minor updates which Google enjoys throwing in to keep us on our toes.

As we continue to review the sizable impacts of this year’s updates on the performance of our own and our clients rankings, we must look forward to 2016 for more landmark shifts in SEO, and how they’re going to further change the landscape of search.

Here are Five SEO trends for 2016:

1. Video Content

Social video has exploded in popularity in the past year and we don’t see it slowing down in 2016. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the company’s third-quarter earnings call that Facebook is generating 8 billion video views per day ‐ and that’s not the half of it. The number of video posts per person has increased 75 percent globally and 94 percent in the U.S, and more than 50% of people who visit Facebook in the U.S. every day, watch at least one video. The type of content people will want to consume in 2016 looks a lot different than the content we saw in 2015, and the rise of Video is only set to continue exponentially

2. Page Tagging

For the first time in history, we saw mobile overtake desktop for online searches in 2015. We will continue to see this trend rise further in 2016 and as a result see heading tags being rolled out at a far greater rate, and potentially more frequently, than we do now. Cellular data networks are much slower than WIFI so it’s important to maintain consistency in the structure down to H5 tags in order to make it easy for different devices and browsers to load pages effectively.

3. App Store Optimisation (ASO)

With the rise in mobile we also saw a rise in the creation of apps. Therefore in 2016 we will see an increase in demand for App Store Optimisation (ASO) in order for these apps to compete against each other. Also needed are more technical deep-linking aspects of app management, whereby app pages will show in search results.

4. The Evolution of Micro-Moments

This is one of the most interesting trends for 2016 that was recently introduced by Google. Micro-Moments are quickly becoming a game changer in the marketing world and will challenge the traditional thinking of marketing professionals. When talking about Micro-Moments we’re referring to capturing people’s attention and driving interactions in ways that are intentional, in real-time, and momentary.

5. Aggregated Content

In 2016 we will see a rise in aggregate posts, images, and videos from live events and unfolding news stories into a single channel for people to see. Users will ultimately become the content creators and users will see live events unfolding first-hand.

2016 will be another major year for SEO. We are seeing new and exciting technologies evolve daily and with this comes a whole new landscape for the online world. I’m sure Google will have their own hat tricks ready to play and we’re looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.