HOW TO MASTER SEO IN 2016

 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a fluid technology. The tips and tricks (white, gray, or black hat) that you used last year might not work as well (or at all) this year. If you’re stuck with the “same old same old” with regards to your SEO tactics, it might be time to reevaluate and try something new. That’s especially true if you’re not seeing any results.
I sat down with Navneet Kaushal, the CEO of PageTraffic, to discuss the best ways to master SEO in 2016.
AJ: What do you see as the single most important emerging trend in SEO in 2016?
Kaushal: That’s easy. Clearly, mobile optimization will take front and center stage this year. Marketers who neglect to specifically target people using mobile devices will not only be limiting their reach, but they’ll also be effectively committing SEO suicide. We’re at the point now where mobile devices have surpassed desktop devices in terms of the number of users. It’s more important than ever to ensure that part of your marketing reach includes people on mobile devices. Further, there are more searches on mobile devices now than there are on desktop devices. That means search engine marketers are going to have to be certain that their sites are responsive. Otherwise, users will get frustrated with unprofessional or unusable output and visit another site – probably a competitor’s.
AJ: How do you see social media impacting SEO this year?
Kaushal: I think it’s going to be challenging for new sites to keep pace with social media. When people on the Internet can get their news in real time from Twitter Moments, they’re likely to prefer that channel than to a blog with popups and annoying banner ads. That could put pressure on news sites that optimize their stories for search engine results. It’s likely that people will just go to social media to get their news as opposed to browsing around the web as they did years ago. Also, social media influence will diminish the number of backlinks that some sites receive from one-man-shop blogs. That could hurt their rank in the search engine results pages.
AJ: How else do you think social media will impact SEO?