Smart SEO Trends for Small Businesses – for 2016 and Beyond

The way SEO trends change from year to year, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with them. In order to increase the ranking of your website page and gain the right self-promotion for your business, you want to stay current with the upcoming SEO advances for the coming year. While some of the advances are minor, others are complex. If you fail to understand what’s important, you’ll never get ahead of the competition.

Checking Google Analytics for SEO impacts

Here are several SEO trends that you should be aware of.  Act on these to guide your small business to the right direction in 2016 and beyond.

SEO Basics Set to Stay the Same

A website is a valuable tool for a business as it can generate the right amount of growth, prospective clients and a steady revenue stream. When it comes to the latest SEO trends, the principles behind a well-planned marketing campaign have rarely changed over the decades. SEO basics such as the content that you share about your business and how your audience reacts to that information are crucial no matter what year.

You also want to ensure that users such as your clients and Google can easily share that content that you’re trying to display.

Translate Your Ideas

Alex Alexakis is the creative driver behind Pixel Chefs. He knows that unless you have a perfectly executed and well-designed marketing campaign, the designs of your website are meaningless. To ensure that your business has the best content and promotion, a web-savvy company, whether in SEO or in PR, or “Content Marketing”, should be able to transfer your ideas and mesh them with their intricate techniques to build rank and awareness.

According to Alex Alexakis of PixelChefs Web Design, “It is vital to keep your messaging the same across all channels. If people are reading about you on someone else’s website, whether through an advertisement or a guest post, the messaging should convey the same concepts as the design on the site.”

Greater Emphasis on the Mobile Market

Sites such as Google have known the importance of mobile compatibility in regards to ranking signal. However, in the coming years, there will be even more significance placed on the mobile market. In terms of functionality and speed, smartphones are doing their best to compete with their computer counterparts. It’s now far easier, faster and more accessible to surf the Internet via mobile-friendly apps and websites.

Customer using mobile phone accessing small business websites

If you’re looking for your business to gain an edge over the competition, your website should be easy to navigate no matter if you’re being searched through a regular PC or smartphone.

Social Media Posts and Search Results

More and more social media posts are becoming noticeable via search results in recent years. Google has secured deals with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where the search engine bigwig can index posts from the users.

If there are more social postings displayed, sites such as Google can use them as ranking signals. If you would like your target keywords ranked high, you need to have an active presence on the various social media sites.

Videos, Videos and More Videos

Video is going to play an even bigger role in the search rankings of a business website. While you don’t have to necessarily spend time shooting your own videos, you want to have them integrated into your website.

In addition to embedding relevant videos from YouTube onto your website, you could also outsource the job to a company who specializes in video production.

Less is More in Relation to Backlinks

Some webmasters can get lost in the mindset of backlinks and how it relates to a business’s search ranking. While this practice may have worked in previous years, algorithms have changed their focus from quantity to quality.

Instead of generating excessive backlinks, you want to concentrate on backlinks that are higher in quality and from relevant sources. SEO will index your company’s website based on its meaning instead of keyword rankings. You will also enjoy greater rewards if you continuously update your content and ensure that it’s fresh and user-friendly.