Marketers are already feeling the pressure even as the online marketing field grows, refining itself with continuous changes. The coming year will see numerous developments come up. These are some of the expected trends for 2016.
- Links Will Remain Significant
Brands are more likely to continue with the shift from backlinks for the sake of it to earning backlinks from reputable websites which will translate to a more positive impact on the brand. To build a high quality and valuable backlink profile like an SEO expert:
- Provide high-value content always
- Create an easy-to-navigate, well-designed website
- Promote content using social media where it can be accessed by influencers and reputable websites
- Seek guest posts on other quality sites
- Structured Data to Be in the Spotlight
A.I technology is currently being used to understand people’s intentions when searching. Google is using it as its third most significant ranking signal in the company’s algorithm. It is therefore more likely to play a prominent role in the coming years.
To prepare for this development, brands have to concentrate on structured data. Websites such as schema.org help other sites to communicate better with search engines. The advantage being that search engines are able to more accurately display websites.
Incorrect structured data markup has for long passed by unnoticed or with minimal impact on a brand’s performance. With more intelligent search engines, this data will be depended on and if inaccurate or incorrect could affect a site’s success.
- Search will focus on Presence over rank
The other most likely trend to be expected is maturation in how online marketing is done and evaluated. Success will be less about ranking and more about overall content and consequent presence of a brand. Integration with online platforms and especially social media will be crucial to a website’s online presence.
Facebook itself is likely to increase its sophistication with better search experience. Optimization will therefore require a focus on creation of posts and how profiles are completed. In summary, think of website development and social media marketing as parts of the same entity; important to a brand’s overall web presence.
