Check Your Crystal Ball for 2016 SEO Trends
Change is inevitable, especially in the SEO realm, so it may be impossible to predict what will happen in the coming year. That won’t stop us, though. We’ve consulted with the oracle and suggest these trends might show up in force in 2016.
Social Content Engines
There are plenty of online tools that will recommend content to users based on their interests and what they’ve read in the past. This could rise to the next level in 2016 as the engines link what you read to similar items that other people like you have read or saved for later. You can also get a list of all the links your friends have shared on various social media platforms, as well as links from friends of friends.
Ad Blockers
Many business owners will tell you of their frustration over investing plenty of dough on digital advertising only to have their efforts punched down by rampant ad blocking software. The battle over ad-blocking could end in legislation limiting its use in 2016, ending a steep rise in the number of online users who subscribe to these service.
New Search Engine
As privacy and online tracking becomes a bigger issue for Internet users, the newish search engine DuckDuckGo, which had year of huge growth in 2015, will continue to expand in both popularity and search reliability. No one is giving Google a run for its giant-market-share money anytime soon, but DuckDuckGo is a viable challenger that doesn’t track its users’ searches and deluge them with ads later.
Local Listings Growth
Businesses seem eager to get on board with companies such as Yext that will help them shine in local listings searches. With plenty of mobile users who want to know what companies are nearby, a stronger local search solution is desperately needed. Yext not only will continue to grow, it might even stage an IPO in 2016.
Twitter Will Figure it Out
The very nature of Twitter’s format means that it is prone to user plateaus. There hasn’t been much growth to be found in the company over the last few years, but new leadership is slowly getting the engine working again. The selling points of Twitter – fewer restrictions than Facebook and Instagram – are in direct conflict with its detractions, the most notable of which is its lowered efficacy as an advertising platform. Strong-minded executives coupled with innovative marketing usage could make Twitter relevant in a new way for 2016.
True Confessions From Google
In the past, Google has been notably mum on actual organic search results and the rate at which click-throughs result. The numbers have been squishy, but as technology improves and other services offer more reliable click-through tracking, Google could be prompted to offer more concrete numbers on organic searches and click-throughs. Even if the true number comes in under 70%, that’s still a decent rate compare with statistics from past years.
It’s always difficult to know what a coming year will be bring in the ever-changing world of online marketing and those who sell it. Maybe we’ll check back in a year to see if any of these trends came to pass in 2016.
