7 Simple SEO Tricks To Improve Your 2016 SEO

2016 is around the corner. The countdown has begun. But wait, are you prepared to welcome 2016? We all know that the New Year will bring to the fore a whole new set of changes in the way businesses market their products and services, marketers try to improve their ranking with search engine optimization (SEO), the way people surf the web and a lot more.

According to hubspot.com, in the U.S. alone, an average of 12 billion web searches are conducted each month. SEO will gain importance more than anything else as it helps you drive quality traffic, get visibility, boost your brand and lend your business the credibility it needs to succeed. After all, what is the point of creating so much content and graphics if it is not visible to the audience when they run search query.

In 2015 also, marketers realized the value of SEO, aligning their content for customers’ needs and mobile optimization for better results. After all, 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in the hope of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase, according to searchenginewatch.com.

Searchengineland.com suggests SEO is the process of driving traffic from the ‘organic’, and ‘paid’ sources to win the rat race of ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs).  Though search engine rankings keep on changing from time to time (it’s normal), make sure that you have built your site in the right way and regularly posting quality content to drive a steady stream of traffic to your pages.  An article in Quicksprout.com states that the average content length for a web page that ranks in the top 10 results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words.

Wondering what SEO trends which SEO trends will turn out to be the major hits of 2016? Don’t worry. Here, we bring to you an exclusive exposé on the hottest SEO trends and developments that are set to rock the world in the year ahead. Have a look!

Table of Contents [hide]

• 1 1. Social Content Will Gain Prominence
• 2 2. Videos Will Still Rule
• 3 3. Mobile Optimization Will Become Crucial
• 4 4. Voice Search Function a Must
• 5 5. Content Aggregation will get Bigger & Better
• 6 6. The Craze of Mobile Apps Will Grow
• 7 7. Local SEO to Become Even More Important

1. Social Content Will Gain Prominence

In the coming times, content from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will gain more importance on the SERPs. Already, 76% marketers use Social Media to support and boost SEO, cites an article published at Impactbnd.com. In 2016, marketers will do everything possible to make their Facebook posts or tweets rank higher on the SERPs.

Blog.kissmetrics.com states that links to content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other social networks help the search engine crawlers understand what websites are credible and should be ranked for what keyword phrases.

2. Videos Will Still Rule

We all know that videos are a great way of keeping audience engaged and entertained. But do you know that by using enough videos, you can improve the ranking of your page on the SERPs. A report by Marketing Land states that videos make for 62% of all Google searchesuniversally. Moreover, Google has started giving attention to blended results/searches. So, why not grab this opportunity to appear on the first page of search results by including an engaging video in your content? According to Quicksprout.com, videos get 50 times betterorganic page ranks in Google as against plain, static text results. Also, video searches garner 41% higher click-through rate as compared to plain, static text content, according to Relesoo.com.

Many marketers chose to drive their modern marketing engine with the fuel of Video SEO in 2015. And we predict that more marketers and businesses will embrace the trend of videos in the coming year too. Take a glance at what a blended search result looks like for the search query “777 built in 4 minutes”.

Now, the only way to appear in the search engine pages like this is by uploading your videos on You Tube or through video SEO. It is important that Google is able to find your video content, successfully index it and display your video content when specific keywords are entered as search terms.

3. Mobile Optimization Will Become Crucial

Is your business website mobile-friendly? Your audience is no longer in one place. People use all sorts of devices such as tablets, smartphones, laptops, phone watches to browse web. Keeping this in mind, plenty of brands went mobile-friendly in 2015. And we anticipate that more brands will take up this trend in the upcoming year. Mobile optimization will become the norm, rather than exception. So, it’s high time you changed the way you conceptualize and create SEO strategies for mobile searches.

Neilpatel.com states that the total number of searches on mobile devices has seen a 43% increase year-over-year. Also, Google’s algorithm update this year ensured that mobile-friendly websites get a search ranking boost on mobile searches. As more and more people use mobile to surf the Internet, Google decided to make it easier to find relevant, mobile-optimized websites. So, it now uses mobile-friendliness as a factor in ranking search results. If you’re still not convinced, here are just 5 stats that will make you go mobile-friendly in 2016.

• 4 out of 5 consumers use smartphones to shop. (Source: Convinceandconvert.com)
• 70% of mobile searches lead to online action within an hour. (Source: Socialmediatoday.com)
• Over 1.2 billion people access the web from their mobile devices. (Source: Mobify.com)
• Global mobile traffic now accounts for 15% of all Internet traffic. (Source: Newtarget.com)
• 95% smartphone users have searched for local info. (Source: Adwords.blogspot.com )

Therefore, make sure that mobile optimization finds a prominent place in your SEO strategies for the upcoming year to stay ahead of your competitors. Make sure that everything on your site, from colors to fonts and from content to logo design, is mobile optimized.

4. Voice Search Function a Must

These days, people who are on the go use voice search simply because it is more convenient and safer, especially when someone is driving or multi-tasking. It is becoming a huge part of mobile usage as it has taken away the pain of typing keywords to run a search query. Almost all mobile devices have a voice search functions. The popularity of voice searches has been spurred by Microsoft, Google, and Apple launching their own versions of advanced voice-responsive assistants – Cortana, Google Now and Siri.

Even ‘Domino’s Pizza’ has a ‘voice-ordering feature. However, make sure that your content is easily searchable through voice searches by using long-tail keywords, which are more likely to be spoken than conventional keywords.  Google Study finds voice search mostly used to ask for directions. For teens, doing a voice search while watching TV (59%) and while with friends (57%) are the highest use cases, according to marketingland.com. Whereas for adults, voice searching is done the most while watching TV (36%), followed by when with friends (24%) and while cooking (23%).

5. Content Aggregation will get Bigger & Better

According to Digitalcurrent.com, Knowledge Graph, wiki, local, maps, social media, news, images and videos make for 85% of Google search results. These stats indicates that now people look for sources that provide all relevant information for a particular subject or topic that at one place.

A blog published at imediaconnection.com explains that content aggregation is a practical way of finding, collating, amassing, consolidating, presenting, sharing, and displaying content around pre-specified set of criteria to appeal target audience. If you too are planning to do so, make sure that you collect and curate content from different, high-authority sources and display it at one place for your users to see to build your authority.

A great example of content curation is using the humble newsletter, Next Draft by Dave Pell, who has amassed over 160,000 subscribers to his daily email which shares the most interesting stories in business, culture, and tech, an article in Jeff Bullas explained. Another example is Inbound.org which was built by Moz and Hubspot to increase their reach even further.

6. The Craze of Mobile Apps Will Grow

According to Tech Crunch, mobile apps account for 52% of all time spent on online digital media. Another report available on the Internet reveals that users spend 89% mobile time using apps. This is the reason for more and more businesses planning to explore the advantage of mobile apps.

As discussed above, use of mobile for web search is on an all-time rise and apps just make the work easier. Just few more years and mobile apps are sure to overpower desktop and mobile websites. An article in searchenginejournal.com states that 85% of people prefer native mobile apps to websites. Feature your brand prominently in the app name and make sure you have proper links to apps for better search rankings Also, you must ensure that app optimization tops your list of SEO optimization. There are several brands that are benefiting from prominent mobile app visibility in Google’s organic search results. Have a look at what happens when you search eBay in Google. The app page URL presents a powerful opportunity to “occupy” the first page of Google SERPs.

7. Local SEO to Become Even More Important

This trend is only going stronger over the years. According to Entrepreneur.com, local SEO is likely to gain solid grounds in the coming days. As a marketer, you have to let Google know where you are located and what you are offering so that your chances of showing up on pages, especially in front of the relevant audience, increase. It is must to have your local pages which will include the name of your business, address etc. with Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Since Google came out with its “Pigeon” update, local SEO has gained significant prominence forcing businesses and marketers to focus on a local tangent.  So, ensure of having location specific keywords and personalize content basis your target audiences’ location to stay ahead in the game in 2016. Check out some stats to know the benefits of ranking in local search results.

• Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within a day. (Source: Searchengineland.com)
• More than 60% consumers have used local information in ads. (Source: Business2community.com)
• 50% mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results. (Source: Business2community.com)

Your listing in the local pages can increase consumer engagement with your business and your ranking. For instance, check out this example of three hospitals. The one that has the highest number of reviews ranks the highest. (Image source: Search Engine Journal)

To conclude, you must brace yourself in expanding your presence on social media, instilling videos of your business in your content so that you get Page 1 ranking in Google. A good ranking ultimately helps you build strong influence and enhance your brand name amongst your audience.  So, don’t miss out on any latest update by Google and trends in search rankings to shine out in the crowd. The better SEO strategies you have, the more benefits you will have.

So, concentrate on creating fresh and quality content that you can and promote it across all social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. By just doing this, you will find that your search rankings have improved tremendously. The next step would be to sustain the rank by posting fresh and unique content and videos regularly.

Though trends keep on changing, we expect that these 7 SEO trends are most likely to dominate the scene in 2016. While some of them will become extinct like the dinosaur, some will evolve and outlast the rest. Nevertheless, we’re sure by embracing these trends, you’ll be able to spearhead the market in the New Year.

Did we miss out anything important? Please leave your comments and let us know.

WHAT IS ORM AND SEO DIFFERENCES

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is used to increase the search engine ranking of your content. Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a bit broader of a term, and is used to specifically manage the online reputation of a person, place, thing, site, brand, etc.



ORM vs. SEO: What's the difference?

What is an online reputation management company and how is it different from asearch engine optimization firm? An ORM company is a technical public relations firm that uses aggressive content marketing and search engine optimization to achieve wholesale change in search results for branded search terms.

Even if you can’t tell a meta tag from a long-tail keyword, you’re probably familiar with the concept of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO boosts your website’s search visibility and makes you easier to find online. It’s a core function of competent online reputation management companies—and, if you care about managing your web presence, you need to have a firm grasp of SEO.

But SEO is not online reputation management (ORM). Reputation management services definitely include an SEO component. But when it comes to comprehensive ORM campaigns, SEO is far from the whole story. Let’s take a look at the key differences between SEO and ORM.

Online Reputation Management Explained

ORM is important and SEO is a key part of most ORM campaigns. Online Reputation Management is even more basic in its definition, but broader in scope of what it entails. Online Reputation Management is exactly what the phrase suggests, managing your online reputation. Looking closer at some of what could have an online reputation is where this becomes difficult. Basically anyone, anything, or any company has an online reputation. The obvious ones are: people, companies, and brands.

ORM or SEO: Which type of online marketing is your company in need of?

he best and easiest way to help decide what it is that your company needs more, is to

• Check Google, look for your company.
• Where does it appear?
• Does your company’s web presence appear early?
• Is there negative information anywhere you can see?
• Check the employees names for the same things.

If you see something negative, it is time to become a social media/SEO/Google Analytics expert or it is time to call a company which specializes in Online Reputation Management The longer you wait, the more click through’s the negatives will receive. When someone google’s your company, they will come across the negative. People are leery of trusting anything from the internet. People are much more likely to trust negatives over positives. Negative reviews get more credibility than positive reviews. If you see those negatives you need to be ready to act fast.

If you do not see anything negative about any of them, GREAT! You are ahead of the game. You have a couple of options from here and pursuing both of those options may be a smart move.

• You can work hard improving the SEO of your web presence. Your web presence includes your website, social media, and outreach efforts like guest blogging and reviewing items and services related to your business.
• Your other option is to be proactive and contact an experienced online reputation management company and allow them to begin tracking to make sure no negatives come alive online. This would allow you to have the piece of mind that if something happens, one of the top companies in the world at ORM and SEO is on top of it from the beginning.
• Your third option is to do both. This is probably the best option. In addition to working on your company’s SEO and assisting with the development of a positive web presence, a good online reputation management company will monitor your web presence. This can give you the peace of mind you need to focus on the business that you know best.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/seo/online-reputation-management-orm-seo-company-need-0909732#hXkT5GlcurPysSL3.99

Google: Penguin Update 4.0

Google updates Penguin, says it now runs in real time within the core search algorithm

The latest announced release, Penguin 4.0, will also be the last, given its new real-time nature.

After a nearly two year wait, Google’s Penguin algorithm has finally been updated again. It’s the fourth major release, making this Penguin 4.0. It’s also the last release of this type, as Google nowsays Penguin is a real-time signal processed within its core search alorithm.

Penguin goes real-time

enguin is a filter designed to capture sites that are spamming Google’s search results in ways that Google’s regular spamming systems might not detect. Introduced in 2012, it has operated on a periodic basis.

In other words, the Penguin filter would run and catch sites deemed spammy. Those sites would remain penalized even if they improved and changed until the next time the filter ran, which could take months.

The last Penguin update, Penguin 3.0, happened on October 17, 2014. Any sites hit by it have waited nearly two years for the chance to be free.

Those long delays are now to be a thing of the past, according to Google. With this latest release, Penguin becomes real-time. As Google recrawls and reindexes pages — which happens constantly — those pages will be assessed by the Penguin filter. Pages will be caught and/or freed by Penguin as part of this regular process.

Penguin becomes more page-specific, not sitewide only

Google also said this new Penguin algorithm is “more granular.” From its post:

Penguin is now more granular. Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole site.

Previously, Penguin was a sitewide penalty. So, does being “more granular” mean that it’s now page-specific? Yes and no, it seems. We asked Google for more clarity about this, and we were told:

It means it affects finer granularity than sites. It does not mean it only affects pages.

Our best interpretation of this statement is that Penguin might impact specific pages on a site, or it might impact sections or wide swaths of a site, while other pages are fine.

Past Penguin updates

For history buffs, here’s the rundown on Penguin updates over time, as well as the impact they’ve had on queries, according to Google:

• Penguin 1.0 on April 24, 2012 (impacting ~3.1% of queries)
• Penguin 1.1 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
• Penguin 1.2 on October 5, 2012 (impacting ~0.3% of queries)
• Penguin 2.0 on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
• Penguin 2.1 on Oct. 4, 2013 (impacting around 1% of queries)
• Penguin 3.0 on October 17, 2014 (impacting around 1% of queries)
• Penguin 4.0 & real-time on September 23, 2016

Penguin 4.0, Google would not give a specific number of the percentage of queries it impacted, mostly because the update is constantly happening and the percentage will constantly be changing.

Five Tips for SEO

Every year, search engine optimization seems to change in some ways. Here are five helpful tips for you to keep track of how to best optimize your content in 2014:

1) Don’t slack off on your company’s social media presence

Although social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ have been around for years now, that doesn’t mean they are irrelevant. If anything, your business needs to have a strong social media strategy now more than ever to help build awareness for your brand and to drive web traffic.

Also, remember people want to share relevant, quality content that relates to your audience’s lives in some way—don’t just create things for the sake of sharing. SEO optimization for your website isn’t just about creating and sharing content—it’s about creating and sharing content that people will care about.

2) Keep your writing natural

In the past, Google may have been more likely to pick up word-for-word keywords. Now, though, with the introduction of Google’s latest search algorithm Hummingbird, natural writing is taking center stage. This ties back to your company having strong content that drives traffic. Instead of focusing on writing around a keyword, make your keywords flow more naturally—if a few words are separating a keyword phrase, that will be OK. Google now recognizes ideas more so than just words, allowing your writing to really shine.

3) Don’t forget about local search optimization

Local content and search engine indexing will not be slowing down this year. More and more, Google is localizing search results to better cater to users’ needs. Look more into Google+ Local to see just how powerful localized results can be. In fact, the more you can use localized long-tail keywords and build out your local listing profiles, the better.

4) Keep your sites responsive

In the past, web and mobile sites largely lived in separate worlds—sites looked and performed completely differently on mobile devices and desktops. Now, though, if a company wants to not only look fresh but be indexed well in search engines, it should create a responsive site that can be viewed on all of today’s modern devices: smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers. This not only creates happier users because they get a consistent, functional website, but it can also increase your search engine visibility and shares on social media.

5) Establish yourself as an expert

Whatever your business’s focus is, you’ll want to come off to your clients as an authoritative voice in your field of expertise. To do this, continue to create content for your blog, but make sure you can provide your viewers with helpful information. When you can provide practical tips for your readers, your website will be more valuable, as will your search engine optimization. Your viewers will begin to trust your voice more on important industry issues, and you can become their one-stop shop for important information.

How to Establish a Goal Plan for Your PPC Campaign

Pay Per Click online marketing campaigns can be highly effective at driving traffic to your website. However, a PPC campaign that does not have specific, well-defined objectives is next to useless. Without a target in mind, it will have no coherent result. These objectives must be in line with the company’s strategy and image, and have real-world, measurable results that advance the company’s interests. Take the time to learn about goal-setting for successful PPC advertising campaigns. With proper planning, they can have a powerful effect on sales and conversion rates.

Make Both Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

When organizing your PPC campaign, set goals on every timescale, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. The short-term goals should be steps involved in achieving the long-term goals. The short-term goals can then serve as benchmarks for progress toward the long-term goals. When planning campaign goals, compare similar timeframes and make sure that none contain an unreasonable number of goals for that length of time. Also make sure that all of the goals are in their proper order. Finishing half a task and then waiting for the results of a task that isn’t scheduled to start for a week is something of a waste of time.

Make Your Goals Both Challenging and Achievable

There is no point in a goal that is easy to achieve. Your goals should inspire you and your team to go the extra mile in order to achieve it. Similarly, a goal that is impossible to achieve prevents all progress. A good goal is just a step beyond your present grasp. A good goal will put you and your team a little out of your comfort zone, but not entirely out of it.

Focus on the Results, not the Tactics

Your goals need to be based on the results that they can achieve for your company. Making goals that are nothing more than a tactic for getting results is putting the cart before the horse. In other words, your goals should read like “Increase sales by 5 percent over the previous month and decrease costs by 3 percent,” instead of like “Add another 400 keywords.” Only after you have defined your goals in terms of the results that you want should you choose tactics to get you there. Use both baseline goals and stretch goals. Baseline goals focus on the minimum threshold for success, and stretch goals should set the standards for success that goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Create Benchmarks by Reviewing Past Performance

The best way to set goals for your PPC is to analyze the performance of previous campaigns. Conduct a review each month of the month before it, and set your goals on the basis of continuous monthly improvement.

While setting your campaign’s monthly goals, remember that some produce better results than others do. Look at the effects that time of day, date, month, and quarter have on performance. When doing this, avoid comparing time periods that don’t have a lot to do with each other. You cannot compare weekdays and weekends, for instance, or first quarter results to second quarter results. Set your goals to be relevant to the nature of your performance data. For instance, if November sales are high each year because of the holidays, then November should not be compared to October, but to November of the previous year.

Keep a record of special events that skew performance results. For instance, a special sale that significantly boosted conversion rates for July, a problem with the manufacturing process that caused a loss of sales, and a software problem that made your online order forms inaccessible would all be examples of special events that make figures for those months atypical. Expecting other months to have similar figures to months containing such events would be a bad idea.

Keep Track of Your Goals

Write down each of your goals as you create them. Record who is accountable for each of them. Keep track of benchmarks and progress toward each goal in the same document.

These goal documents not only help you to remember details and keep track of who is responsible for what, they also give you a ready way of seeing the big picture. They should also inspire you and your team to greater efforts.

Analyze Goal Achievements

Analyzing the goal achievements of previous PPC campaigns is an important part of setting future goals. Your analysis must go beyond the level of merely asking whether or not you hit the goal. You must also figure out why the goal was or was not achieved, and how it could be done better next time. You must develop a sense of whether the obstacles can be overcome in the future.

Summary

The precise amount to optimize or expand your PPC marketing campaign depends on the specifics of your business and industry, as well as a host of other factors, such as time of year. The only way to establish realistic goals is by knowing your company and its capacities, and experience running other PPC campaigns. Learning how to set the best goals is a matter of trial and error.