If you’re an online business who wants to increase growth and profit this year, then you need to be on top of the 7 most critical SEO trends for 2016. This year brings some changes to the way things have been done, and along with market demand, company focuses will follow. With every online site and company now optimizing their online presence to be more easily and actively found by the search engines, no company can afford to lag behind. Here we look at the 7 must know trends for 2016 and how you and your business can stay on top.

Be Mobile

In 2016, mobile use is swiftly overtaking desktop and tablet use, particularly for searches, as more and more people conduct searches while on the run. Even within homes, people still often turn to their mobile to search first, because it is more convenient than other options. That being said, if your site is not optimized for mobile and can’t be reached through mobile search, then your company is going to suffer.

Google’s algorithms are recognizing this trend and boosting results that are mobile friendly in the search results. If you are not paying attention to this trend, you’re quickly going to lose out in the SEO race.

Video Rules

While mixed media including text, images and infographics are still very popular, video is quickly outstripping those as a fun, attention grabbing addition to any webpage. Videos are also becoming enormously popular on social media, getting far more click throughs than other forms of media. Videos get 50% better page ranks in Google, so you can’t afford not to be including some video content either on your site or your social media account.

Written content is still important however. Videos are not always practical to be watched because they can take more data and make noise. It’s important to have a blend, so that something will come up in the blended searches and there is something that appeals to everyone.

Social Content Gains Importance

76% of marketers already use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to boost search results, with great success. More than ever, people are turning to their social networks for recommendations of businesses as well as news and updates, so it’s critical for a business to have a presence there.

In time it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see search engines indexing social media sites as well, in order to better optimize search results, so it’s important we pay attention to this important aspect of internet life.

Digital Assistants Popularity Rising

Siri, Cortana, Google Now… all these digital assistants help to make our lives easier while we search hands free – however it means that we don’t have total control over how we search in the same way as we would doing it manually. Because the search results can be different, we need to be able to work with this too as businesses, to encourage our results to still show high in the list. This means incorporating long-tail keywords in the way they would be spoken i.e. “How long do I cook spaghetti for?” and making content that’s more practical, accessible and to the point, to be more appealing.

Link Deep in Apps

Google has been indexing apps for a while now, and as apps become more popular than traditional web searches in a way for their convenience, deep links in apps become more important and meaningful, such as deep links in a webpage would. Keeping this in mind for search marketing and the development of apps too is important for SEO optimization now and into the future.

Aggregated Content

Searches are not just for one type of content anymore. Studies show that wiki, local, maps, social media, news, images and videos make for 85% of Google search results, indicating the breadth and variety of results that people are looking for when they search. The more you diversify your content, the more you can appeal to a wider audience by offering different types of suitable information.

Get Local

Already in 2015, SEO was becoming more local, more focused and more specific, and it seems as though this trend will only continue. Optimising for your local area is a must, because more of your customers will be looking in their area for your services. By letting Google clearly know where you are located, you can better access customer bases in your local area, and you will top the search results there.

By keeping in mind these 7 must know SEO trends of 2016, this year can be your year for topping the search results, and growing your business.

Author Bio:

Evie Coles is a freelance writer and she writes on different topics that help her readers well. She also associates with several websites such as HostingReviewBox.com and she recommend her reader to read the web hosting reviews before choosing any hosting for their business or personal website. Find her social Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.