When it comes to promoting a commercial website or an online brand these days, business owners must carefully balance their intentions between pleasing the Google search algorithm and serving the best interests of their visitors. You want to make sure that you have a site that is easy for your clients to navigate as well as google bots. The following tips are based on what search engine optimization (SEO) professionals are seeing as emerging trends that will shape internet marketing in 2017.
Mobile Search
In April 2015, Google took the unusual step of announcing a major search algorithm update before it went live. The Mobile Update sounded a bit ominous for online brands and businesses that had not optimized their sites for the benefit of smartphone and tablet searchers; however, the update was not as severe as initially thought. Nonetheless, Google’s Mobile and Pigeon Updates clearly point towards a future where local businesses stand to benefit from mobile searches the most. This means that brands and companies should strongly think about responsive design and mobile performance.
Blended Marketing Campaigns
Not every marketing effort has to be digital. Some of the most successful brands in the world do not focus their energy into a single marketing channel. To get the best return on investment (ROI) out of a marketing campaigns, brands must balance the traditional with the new. For example, direct marketing campaigns for businesses can be combined with quick response (QR) codes that consumers can comfortably scan with their smartphones or tablets when they are reviewing snail mail at home.
Video Versus Written Content
While written content still rules much of the internet in terms of SEO and online marketing, end users have voted with their mobile devices to declare their preference for video. Many mobile users are skipping Google altogether to directly check what is happening on YouTube, Vine, Periscope, and Snapchat. Google has apparently taken notice of this trend by suggesting that webmasters take the time to properly complete tags and alternative text fields for images, videos, podcasts, and multimedia presentations.
Spoken Searches and Virtual Assistants
Personal assistants such as Apple Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana will move beyond smartphones and into desktops, laptops, tablets, and smart wearable devices in 2017. What this means for online brands and companies is that they should optimize their websites so that they can be considered as proper results for spoken searches. This entails studying how users utilize personal assistants when they look for information.
In the end, the time has come for SEO practitioners to stop focusing on keywords and look towards the future of search, which will instead focus on users. By looking into things like this you can make sure that your overall site is as beneficial as possible.
Author: Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max. Kara recommends looking into direct marketing campaigns for businesses for more information on making your site as effective as possible.
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