Three Search Engine Optimization Trends to Keep an Eye On

Most business owners with a website know that optimizing it for the search engines, particularly Google, is vital if the site is going to attract targeted online visitors. But search engine optimization (SEO) takes many forms, and the rules are always in flux.  What works one year or month might not work the next.  This is why it is so important to stay on top of SEO changes and trends.   Here are three important ones to keep an eye on this year:

Voice Search

The rise of smartphones and digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa that understand natural language voice commands means that more internet searches will occur via voice command.  According to Search Engine Land, 20% of Google searches are now done with voice, and according to Comscore, 50% will be via voice by 2020.  This means that website SEO strategies will have to employ more longtail keywords and incorporate more natural language for websites to compete.

Image Search

With the rise of popular social media sites like Pinterest and Instagram, image search will be more important than ever.  According to Moz, nearly 27% of Google searches are image searches, more than the number of searches on Facebook, Amazon and YouTube combined.  This number is sure to rise, meaning that SEO strategies will have to focus on image optimization as much as website optimization.

Google Answer Box

More Google searches are returning a quick answer at the top of the results. Wondering what time the football game starts?  Or what the capital of Wisconsin is?  Type in the question, and Google’s Answer Box provides an immediate answer.  Going forward, websites that are properly structured and optimized to answer these kinds of “how” or “what” questions will rank higher in the search engine results. 

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