The rise of search engines has made SEO one of the most valuable digital marketing methods for companies worldwide. Today, SEO can help you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), get more targeted traffic from keyword-specific searches, and ensure your customers read your content on the most advanced browsers. Digital Marketing has become one of the key promotional activities businesses need to build their profiles.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is a broad term that refers to two things: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page refers to how you optimize your web pages so that they may rank as high as possible when someone searches for specific keywords. Off-page SEO refers to any content generation or keyword placement offsite that can affect its rankings.

Each sector relies on various strategies to manipulate search engines and their result suggestions according to the latest trends. The methods, however, are not free from the influence of trends and end up catering to the demand. You must monitor these trends to guide traffic toward your domain. To begin with, you need to understand what the different search engine algorithms look at when ranking websites. Algorithms are unique formulas that search engines use to trace and analyze content for its relevance to the search query. You can explore The Marketing Vibe SEO blog for dedicated observations and discussions related to these trends. Here are some of the most popular SEO trends that’ll help boost your digital marketing strategy.

1. Interactive Experiences

People indeed want to interact, which is one of the main reasons they are so interested in social media. Businesses not active on the Big Four social media websites find it hard to reach their target markets.

The same applies to SEO as well. People are looking for interactive experiences when they search for something on Google. Thus, a user may be less likely to click on a non-interactive site but rather scroll over to sites that offer more engaging content. If your site doesn’t provide a certain type of content, you may want to rethink its design or make changes accordingly. As an example, compare any product advertisement website and the BuzzFeed homepage. The former introduces no interactive experiences and generates fewer clicks than the latter, which boasted 100 million hours of usage from its audience in 2016. The link between interaction and traffic is undeniable.

2. Focus on user intent

Another concept that’s more likely to affect your search engine rankings is user intent. Also known as the search query, the goal is the core of all online searches. Although search engine algorithms know how to extract this information and display results according to it, they also look at how you structure your website in this regard. In other words, they judge you based on how you answer the question: “What are my users looking for?”

The good news is that this concept is not an entirely new one. Your task is to determine the search’s intent and structure your content accordingly. For example, if you own a store that sells furniture, you should know that Google interprets any furniture-related search terms visitors to enter to understand their intent. Customers may be trying to find reviews from other clients or contact details, or they might be looking for how to reach your store or find out about a promotion. Your online content should target these key elements and your offsite content. Even a minor increase in user experience can mean a serious SEO breakthrough for those who understand what the resulting figures imply. Ultimately, it’s about answering questions and providing what people are actively looking for when they visit your site before they’ve even clicked onto the page.

3. Omnichannel Digital Marketing

One thing that may have grown in popularity due to the rise of social media and smartphone apps is that people tend to be less loyal to one specific website. This lack of constancy is because they prefer to use more than one platform at once instead of sticking to just one. In other words, they are more inclined to use multiple digital media channels simultaneously when conducting their searches. For example, people may search for a product on Google and finish the process on Amazon instead of visiting both websites simultaneously. It’s also true that users are subjective buyers with preferences that extend to what digital media platform they’d rather use for the same activity. For example, someone might like buying clothes they see advertised on Instagram rather than on Google, simply because they prefer using the former site. Omnichannel marketing is the key here, as it requires marketing campaigns to spread across multiple sites based on the target demographics’ preferences. This method can easily drive organic traffic to the main website and boost interactions.

4. First-Party Data Collection

First-party data is data you collect from your website and may use to improve your keyword ranking. For instance, if you publish a blog post about traveling to France, you can create a list of related topics that your readers might be interested in. You can easily generate this type of information by having a live chat on the site or by collecting feedback through other methods. Once again, you create these opportunities to engage your customers rather than as a task, which is why first-party data collection may also be beneficial for Google rankings.

5. Mobile Optimization

It’s fair to say that mobile optimization is a significant trend in digital marketing, as nearly 60% of all searches are made using mobile phones. Even if you aren’t planning to create an app for your website, you should consider optimizing your web pages for mobile devices. The good news is that there’s nothing tricky about it. Add responsive design elements and ensure a pleasant user experience while using any device on the website.

Conclusion

To succeed in digital marketing, you need the latest information on user trends and awareness of techniques to capitalize on the various social media networking channels to build a brand identity. By following trends, you can get great ideas for your advertising campaigns or make well-informed decisions to invest in an SEO strategy that will work for you. Today, we know more than ever how search engines like Google will use first-party data to determine their rankings. However, as with many other things that influence our day-to-day actions and drives, there are still quite a few unknowns that need to be uncovered by digital marketing experts. Until then, it’s up to the marketing sector to make the best of what they have available.