In the world of SEO, it’s always beneficial to look forward and determine the trends that are likely to dominate the coming year. For 2016, digital marketing will continue to evolve as advertisers and site owners compete for consumer mindshare. Some of the most important trends for 2016 will not be new channels, but will instead be refinements of some of the channels that are already popular with marketers today.
Let’s take a look at five trends that will dominate the year ahead.
Video will Become an Essential Content Distribution Platform
The growth and success of YouTube is impossible to ignore. Moving forward, digital marketers will need to make use of video distribution platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and others, to expand audience reach and drive engagement. Video will be important because it is able to engage audiences in a short time, while making a relatively big impact. This makes it an important content marketing platform for engaging the increasing number of mobile consumers who are using devices like smartphones and tablets.
SEO Will Still Be Important, But it is Changing
It could be said that Search Engine Optimization used to be about fooling the likes of Google and Yahoo. Today, old SEO practices are getting sites penalized, while better content is helping sites to gain in search ranking. The new trend will see a shift towards SEO that is focused on content marketing. Marketers will need to develop high quality and compelling content that provides value to the end user, rather than average content that only exists to contain the keywords within it.
All New Pages Should be Responsive Pages
The responsiveness of a website can now affect how pages are ranked, so it is expected that new pages will be responsive out of the gate, and webmasters will invest in optimizing their pages to be responsive for different platforms. Being responsive is not just important for search ranking, but it improves the user experience. Audiences should be able to receive a unified experience, no matter which device they are using to access pages and content.
Big Data will be a Big Deal
More marketing firms and individual professionals will turn to data collection and in depth analytics to plot marketing campaigns and new engagement tactics. The ability to collect data from every interaction, means that there is no lack of data available, but the challenge will be in making sense of that data and putting it to good use.
Mobile Usage Will Continue to Grow
Mobile users can no longer be ignored, with sources revealing that up to 51% of all users will browse content using a mobile device. Content, display advertising, and all other forms of marketing will need to be created with mobile users in mind. In many cases, this will require a dramatic shift in how marketers approach their content, and could require new market research.
Marketers that best adapt to the latest digital trends will be able to take advantage of emerging technologies and shifting consumer behaviors. The above trends may be some of the biggest for the year, but marketers should also keep in mind that their own niche will have unique needs, and any marketing decision should be based on research and accurate data.