To see how far digital marketing has come in recent years, it’s hard to imagine it improving any further. It has already hit small plateaus in areas such as the business industry where virtually every website is structured for the same outcome. However, despite the field not seeing any major changes since 2013, that doesn’t mean that smaller digital marketing trends should be ignored. This is especially the case for the search engine optimization strategy that sees constant updates and changes all the time. The reason this strategy is always seeing changes is due to its free nature. While this freedom gives users many options to improve their websites, its organic ranking structure also makes it so that there are many ways to manipulate the system using “black-hat” methods.
Nonetheless, the reason this is important to understand is that it allows the rest of us to prepare for upcoming changes instead of being blindsided by them or needing to use manipulative methods. This was the case with the Panda update which essentially penalized websites overnight mainly regarding content structure. Again, no matter how insignificant current trends and updates might seem, simply knowing about them will be far more beneficial than ignoring them altogether. As for more recent trends, there are a few notable ones to jump on today that will benefit you tomorrow. With this in mind, let’s take a look at nine of the top SEO marketing trends to prepare for in 2020.
#1: Augmented Reality
While augmented and virtual reality has been around for some time now, they ‘ve never had a bigger impact on digital marketing and SEO than today. Augmented reality specifically is now at a point where it is being used for virtual meeting spaces, conference calls, and other important marketing factors. As far as SEO, it’s not a far stretch to say that augmented reality will one day be widely used in agencies for some of the reasons mentioned before. Perhaps more interesting than everything else is the fact that augmented reality is not close to being a final product.
#2: Voice Search Marketing
Similar to augmented reality, voice search marketing is a trend that is increasing every year in terms of importance in digital marketing. While the vast majority of consumers and online browsers still being online, the chunk that does use voice search as the main source for online use is big enough to where it can’t be ignored. In regards to SEO, websites are now having to optimize for keywords that people speak rather than type. To much surprise, there is a big difference between those two keyword types.
#3: Social Media Merchant Posts
Speaking of recent trends, social media marketing is one of the newer forms of digital marketing and has proven to be arguably the most effective strategy. Within the social media marketing niche, a popular trend that is backed up by statistics is social media merchant posts. In a nutshell, these posts are similar to regular social media posts only with an added shopping attachment to them. Given the virtually endless amount of users on social media, we can see how powerful this trend is if it is used under the right circumstances.
#4: User Engagement Content
Content is one SEO factor that hasn’t changed in terms of importance since its initial creation. The only difference between old content marketing with current content is the importance of it having to be informative and engaging. This is the main idea behind the user engagement content trend. By using content that can be played and interacted with, the results of this trend are low bounce-rates and high time-on-page metrics. Worth noting, these are two of the most important on-page SEO metrics that contribute to successful optimization.
#5: “Human-Friendly” Marketing Copy
Ad copy has shown to be one of the most important factors when it comes to converting clients. If you can make it relatable and convincing enough, the rest of the marketing process becomes easy. That said, this same strategy applies to SEO and making a “Human-Friendly” content copy. With SEO, this trend makes content easier to click on and helps with other web page metrics.
#6: Video Only Marketing Content
Since Google acquired Youtube and other video-based search engines and platforms, not many marketers have bothered to use them within their campaigns until recently. Today, almost every form of mixed content will at least a few video-based contents in them. However, if you want to double down on this strategy, going for video only marketing content has proven to work just as good.
#7: Specific Mobile-Friendly Marketing Campaigns
Another of the more recent marketing changes can be seen in mobile optimization. With the number of people who use some type of mobile smart device, it’s no surprise to see this trend being as popular as it is now. What makes this trend so interesting is that it’s also not a far stretch to say that mobile devices will one day be the primary form of online searching.
#8: AI Keyword Research Tools
With search engine optimization, nothing else can proceed without doing proper keyword research. Above everything else, most keyword research today comes from keyword tools and analyzers. For this reason, another trend that many people should prepare for is AI keyword research tools. Sooner rather than later, there will be improved tools that rely on computer analytics and research data to pull up relevant keyword information.
#9: Search Engine Expansions
Last but not least, perhaps the most overlooked trend that goes over people’s heads is the expansion of search engines. Given that digital marketing is focused primarily on searches coming from these engines, any expansion will slowly but surely make an impact on the search results. While we can’t say that these search engines will ever compete with the giants, there are enough of them popping up to make some noise in the digital marketing world.
Digital marketing in 2020 is looking at many trends coming in and out. As is the case almost every year, this shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. That said, if you want to get a real grasp of these trends, consider siding with proven SEO specialists to help you along the way. The more tools you can add to your marketing campaigns, the easier it will sustain success within a crowded digital marketing field.