In the first few weeks of January 2016, the SEO world was abuzz with a flurry of activity—from listicles along the lines of “23 things that are the future of SEO in 2016” to local search trends in Utah to ever more conjecture surrounding Google’s upcoming Penguin algorithm update (which will come out eventually, we’re sure).
The SEO world loves to speculate about the unknown; what the future of mobile search is, what the hottest SEO trends will be, etc. At the end of the day though, much of this guesswork remains just that—guesswork. Rather than fretting too much about the future, SEO specialists need to focus on the here and now.
While it can be tempting to jump on the nearest SEO bandwagon when something new and exciting comes out, SEO isn’t really a game to be played with fleeting trends. Rather, SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on optimizing content to better fit the needs of your customers—and consequently, search engines.
Whether you’re optimizing a website for a local Utah business or a multinational corporation, many of the core concepts remain the same. Good keyword research, social media presence and original content creation will always be relevant. Building a wealth of high-domain authority backlinks and other such things will follow naturally, so long as your content is focused first on real human beings—in quality SEO practices, search engines come second.
SEO has always been a long-term strategy, Most campaigns take months, if not more than a year to deliver real quantifiable results. For such an enduring strategy, changing the game every few months or so could potentially be detrimental to overall SEO gains.
Whether you’re optimizing for a small business in Utah or a larger nationwide chain, consistently delivering high-quality, relevant content that real consumers will want to read is sure to boost your search rankings better than any trendy new quick-fix SEO practice. Instead of fretting over every new trend, focus on the SEO practices that work for you.
