The Future of SEO

All we know that technological advances have been progressing in leaps and bounds. And the question what will happen in matters of doing SEO is emerging more frequently.

Webmasters, SEO gurus, and the sphere influencers have already shared their vision for the future trends in SEO and Internet technologies in whole. Summarizing all that has been said, we may name the following changes that are going to happen right away, or at least on a short-term horizon:

• Wide usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Better user experience
• Voice search prevalence
• Interdisciplinary approach to doing SEO

No one knows for sure whether either of these things will happen, though let’s have a close look at each of them to get prepared.

The history of an artificial intelligence (AI) goes back to antiquity with all those stories and myths about intelligent man made creatures. For instance, mechanical servants manufactured by Hephaestus or the bronze man Talos. Many other myths also describe some human-like creations.

The interest in a thinking machine production has never evaporated since those times. The concept of an artificial brain creation was so challenging and promising that very soon it became the hot topic for scientists from different fields. Frankly speaking, the AI is still the same trending as it was centuries ago. Everyone wants to reveal the cognitive possibilities of a human mind.

Usually, when it comes to depicting the artificial intelligence, we often tend to visualize robots invading our everyday life. You may think that the days we’ll live along with machines with artificial intelligence are quite far away from today. Still, the future of robots with an almost human mind has already happened. Just think about all those chatbots, virtual assistants, clever house systems and you’ll see that the era of robots has already begun.

In fact, the use of artificial intelligence in SEO is not new, but still, it’s rapidly developing. Currently, AI is used to collect data on targeted ads, to identify the relevance of content, to specify the segments of customers for cross-selling, and to analyze the behavior metrics of the target audience.

Basically, there are three types of AI: Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).

ANI is used for the one particular action (car driving, chess playing, chatting etc); AGI is the intelligent system that performs an action of the same level as human; ASI is the most advanced artificial intelligence system that surpasses human capabilities.

Nowadays ANI is used for the majority of all automated machines. One of the most prominent entrants is the Google’s RankBrain that can understand the context and content of your website, whereby providing better search results for the end user.

Though the systems like RankBrain are still at the very initial phase of their evolution, they show stunning results. Moreover, it also involves the machine learning. This means that eventually, it will get only smarter and more precise.

It will definitely change the way we do SEO. Very soon it will be no longer effective to use exact keywords in your content aiming to get the higher position in SERP. Through this algorithm, Google will be able to rank any website based not only on the actual content, but it will acquire a possibility to read between the lines. The only thing that will matter – is a value and relevance of the information you offer to your readers.

All we know the Google’s obsession with a user. Every algorithm, update, and new platforms are created to better the UX. No secret, that you will end up with nothing good for your rankings if you disregard your target audience needs. The good UX is the main fuel for traffic and profit generation.

And its significance will only grow with years.According to Smart Insides research, around 80% of all internet users own smartphones and use them to surf the Internet. This is a good news for you in case you have a strong mobile marketing strategy. If not, it’s the high time to elaborate it.

No wonder that Google also strives to improve the UX during mobile search. This is the main reason why the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) gained popularity. If you have ever tried to load the desktop site onto your mobile device, you know what I mean. Usually, if a site loading takes more than 3 seconds, you just bounce it. And that’s it. No matter how beautifully designed your website is, or what a valuable content you offer, people will just refuse to browse the site as slowly as a snail.

Actually, UX concerns not only the loading speed of a website, it also regards the engaging content, handy structuring of your website, on-page optimization and much more.

One more thing that will be altered in order to please the target audience is the relevant and quality backlinks you acquire. These characteristics were always important and their significance will be growing. From now on, there is the only way to beat your competitors – play by the rules and avoid toxic backlinks. Trust and building a relationship with your readers is your ticket to success.

While optimizing a website or creating a new one always ask yourself: “Would I, as a reader, spend at least several minutes of my life on this website?”. If your answer is positive then you are on the right way.

Typing your search request with a keyboard is so old-fashioned. According to the Google’s recent study over half of U.S. teens and 41% of U.S. adults use voice search every day, with its use continuing to grow.

Clearly, the voice search results optimization is an inevitable part of the SEO strategy for the long-term perspective. Nowadays there are four major virtual assistants that are based on the speech recognition system: Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant.

One of the main reasons why the voice search won fame is a vast variety of devices that literally brought the voice search in our homes. There are many voice recognition gadgets to choose from, and, obviously, there to be more.

Voice search seems to be very promising for websites that gain many customers by virtue of local SEO.

target=”_blank”The main thing that will significantly change is the way people do the search. Voice search is all about the usage of conversational language. Which means that long-tail keywords are going to dominate. For you to take care of your website SEO, you need to consider carefully which questions might be asked about your company, product or service.

One more proven technique you should always use whatever it happens is looking at your Google Analytics. Google’s Search Console indicates how many people come to your website. Nevertheless, you cannot reveal how did people reach your site, this result is a solid basis for you to decide on your further steps with your SEO strategy.

Typically, most people do voice searches on their mobile devices, thus a mobile-friendly site is an absolute must for you. Because if a user does a voice search, then reach your website and finally have a bad experience, you will fail!

One can hardly imagine how to implement digital marketing strategy without a proper SEO plan implementation. Basically, digital marketing deals with enlarging, engaging and converting clients online. Digital marketing includes SEO, content marketing, and many other channels to reach the set goals.

Little surprise that many people don’t distinguish SEO specialist from a Digital Marketer. In some point, these two spheres overlap. As a result, a modern SEO combines technical knowledge, user behavior, experience on the website, content creation issues, and your business goals. You need to have and use the interdisciplinary skills to win the current and future SEO.

Remember – the past cannot be changed, whereas the future is in your power. Keeping up with the latest trends and transformations is the best way to grow in success and popularity.