SEO and Digital Marketing: Where Are We Now?

Search engines play a priceless role in navigating the internet, and this need for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and disciplines. It’s the hallmark of any gains-focused digital marketing company. But where exactly are digital marketing and SEO now, and headed where?

Humanity and his marketing methods have gone from people training their vocal cords in marketplace plazas to digital “shout-outs”. Today, we’re at the doorstep of the fourth industrial revolution as emerging markets transition to full digital within the coming decade.

Let’s look at continuing trends and emerging innovations today that will also influence people and businesses everywhere in the next few years.

Mobile domination and multi-platform

If you’ve noticed the rise in digital marketing services for mobile, that’s because the trend is clear: mobile is set to become the apex predator in digital marketing. There are now more than 5.15 billion mobile users in the second quarter of 2020, and smart businesses are taking advantage of this booming portal to potential customers.

A recent e-commerce study reveals that mobile online transactions rose by 4% in many global regions. This positive trend further reinforces data from Statista forecasting how mobile ad spending is growing enough to outpace desktop ad spending by 2022.

Despite the strong momentum of smartphones, currently, desktop and tablet devices are still holding the top spot (at least for the Western market), but not by a large margin. Using an adaptive and responsive web design is still the best way to maintain a good foothold for global user visits. The “mobile-first” strategy may just become the new go-to approach in a few years, however.

Video and voice search

A sharp increase in demand for internet bandwidth and the intense rise in usage use characterizes the second decade of the 21st century. As a result, video and multimedia content have become the top content being searched and viewed across the globe.

More recent developments such as voice search fueled new novel digital marketing approaches even in developing countries. For example, search engine optimization in Singapore is changing significantly due to the rising popularity of voice assistant devices.

Search algorithms rank sites with prominent and valuable video content high, as well as those with well-composed snippets. Becoming a search engine’s featured snippet lets you take a good chunk of traffic away from competitors as your content is the first thing users get to see in their search results.

The importance of AI and analytics

The value of smarter, more complex artificial intelligence (AI) tools is significantly increasing year by year. Its uses now span more than just data collection, branching out to automated response and interaction, search prediction, and market analysis. The constant evolution of AI has companies investing in search engine marketing (SEM) on their toes for the latest trends and developments.

For example, the rollout of Google’s RankBrain algorithm changed and influenced search engine results pages (SERPs) differently than previous algorithms; it was just different. It can learn and improve with time. SEO techniques that worked flawlessly before may become spotty with this new AI, along with another tool – Google Discover. Discover ranks content based on their quality and observed interaction with users that indicate interest.

Search-friendliness

Along with the swift changes in AI and search algorithms came the need for content to become even more search-friendly. Secondary keywords are gaining value as algorithms start learning to index keywords in context rather than just location and prominence. As AI grew smarter, so do their analysis of user queries – and that’s where location still plays a significant part.

Your local SEO consultant may tell you how search now prioritizes delivering results according to a user’s declared or known location. More importantly (at least to Google), aggregated user reviews, and Google My Business (GMB) elements now join proximity as the largest impact producers for local search rankings.

Interactive tools

Users are quickly bored in the age of digital. Marketers are inventing more ways to come up with personalized content. Some examples include the insertion of 3D images, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) content, shop integration (one of Instagram’s best commercial features), as well as in-app games. Quiz games and polls are also great tools to collect data for studying buyer behavior.

Conclusion

SEO and digital marketing are more vibrant in 2020 than in previous years with new developments and trends. It’s worth keeping your knowledge bank updated with the latest innovations with a competitive SEO expert who can also deliver digital marketing requirements such as Media Manager, a Singapore-based Digital Marketing/SEO (Search Engine Optimization) agency. For more information, you can reach out via https://www.mediamanager.com.sg/contact/.

Sources:

https://moz.com/blog/announcing-state-of-local-seo-industry-report-2020

https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-trends/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/02/03/2020-trends-in-digital-marketing/?sh=530ecc3c2f03