There have been lots of changes over the last year and 2016 is going to see a lot more. Here is a round up of some interesting topics we have been thinking about ready for 2016.
Devices
It makes sense to start with the obvious: Which device people will use to view your websites? This will depend on your business but we can’t see any reason why more people won’t be using mobile devices and tablets more and more when browsing the web. Although a lot of experts in online marketing predicted 2015 to be the year of the mobile (even Google with the mobile algorithm changes back in April) we don’t expect 2016 to be the year of the mobile but visits will continue to grow at a similar rate to 2015.
We agree with Rand Fishkin from Moz on this
However, if you don’t have a responsive website yet this is something that should definitely be part of your plan for 2016 because mobiles and tablets are obviously here to stay.
If you want to discuss a responsive redesign of your website please call us on 01492 460 460 or email Jon on jon@janklin.com and we’ll be happy to help.
SEO
We see this continuing to change in the way that it has over the last few years, especially with the introductions of big Google updates (Penguin, Panda and RankBrain – which we discuss below) and ongoing smaller uncovered updates. Good unique content on well written pages will continue to be important but we see the technical aspects of a website and visitor behaviour continuing to be increasingly important over the next year.
Also off-site work will continue to be a key component of digital marketing success, this includes: External Links; Social Media; Mentions of your site, company and brand. However there will be continued importance of the quality of and existing links and associated data as well as those gained in the future.
One key area we do see Google improving on in 2016 is the semantic part of it’s algorithm. This has been an important part of the Google Algorithm which has helped stop keyword spamming.
The importance of Google AdWords
From small to medium companies working on their online marketing there normally have to be compromises as to where the spend should go for the best Return On Investment. From a search point of view there has always been a main choice to make between Organic listings and Paid listings.
When I started work in SEO over 10 years ago there were 2 options we recommended:
- Organic SEO: This was seen as the investment where you would see smaller improvements at first but these would build over time;
- Pay Per Click (PPC): This is when you would simply pay for every visit to your website but as soon as you stopped doing this you lose your positions.
However over the last 5 years, year on year, the Click Through Rates on Google AdWords have continually been growing. Back in 2011 you would be expecting up to 90% CTR on Organic listings but in 2015 we would expect this to be over 10% lower. There has even been speculation that in 2016 Organic CTR could be as low as 70%.
70% is obviously still high but this is where we recommend not choosing either Organic SEO or Pay Per Click but instead using these figures to slit your marketing budget between them. We also recommend not stopping PPC once the top rankings for your phrases have been reached.
Making the most of Retargeting
If you are unsure of what Retargeting is, we have explained it here: Retargeting.
This is a great way to make the most of visitors that have visited your website and not converted (bought items, contacted you etc.). With retargeting you can then have placements across the web with additional offers and incentives to people who have visited your website. We have been providing this service for over a year now and have seen great success, especially when compared with re-marketing on Google AdWords – which is a primitive alternative.
So why should people make the most of this. We think that this will become increasingly important in 2016 to online marketing however we also predict that due to how much more this technique will be used there may be additional legislation in late 2017 or 2018 to limit it’s use (this will be an additional follow up to the Cookie Laws of 2012).
An Eventful Year
One thing we can all be sure of is that 2016 is going to be an eventful year. Online Marketing is always changing and above we have mentioned a few areas to look out for however there are 2 controversial areas which we are very keen to follow:
RankBrain – This is the rumoured Algorithm update that there has been a lot of speculation about (which may have actually been launched last year). It’s the Machine Learning part of Google’s algorithm where the algorithm will use data patterns and trends to update itself rather than using the strict program instructions.
DuckDuckGo – This is a search engine that you may have heard of (as it have been running since 2008). It’s an interesting one because it has been continually growing ever since is started and although it is small, it was the fastest growing search engine last year. The main area we are interested in is where it will go from here and whether it is taken over by one of the big players such as Facebook.
We hope you found the above topics interesting and If you would like any further infromation please feel free to contact us – Call: 01492 460 460, email jon@janklin.com
