SEO is a fast evolving domain in the IT industry. What was relevant and effective yesterday as a proven SEO strategy no more holds good today. Therefore SEO is something on which the businesses need to keep a constant watch and update their strategies and practices in tune with the evolving trends to stay successful. Over the recent past, there have been a large number of developments in the SEO arena which are worthy discussing to catch up with what is missing in our strategies. Most importantly, the algorithms evolved by Google from time to time keeps the site owners on their toes with a lot of upcoming developments and changes demanding them to keep pace with. Here are some impending changes you Search Engine Optimization Experts expect over the coming months.

Optimizing intelligently
Keywords are always important. Simple words input as search query yield simple results. Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable than any time in the past and therefore they know what they are looking for. Therefore search engines are becoming smarter to react to what the users actually intend to look for. Today’s users are inputting long phrases in search engines that collect data and heuristics to list the results in a more intelligent manner. Therefore businesses must now shift to base their digital content to focus on intent rather than just key words. Therefore you need to do the following to stay successful amidst the changing paradigms.

In the first place, investigate the intention of the users and whether your content can provide the answers to what they are searching for. Based on your research data, optimize your content and make the changes required to boost up the ratings. Alter the content in a way clearly reflecting the reader’s experience. Keep pace with the analytics to check what works and what does not work and alter your strategies accordingly.

Structured data markup also called as schema markup can help in achieving such enhanced listings on search engine results page. This happens because this markup enables to assist the search engines to understand the web content letting them display the information that the users really look for. A recent study published by Stone Temple Consulting has brought to surface that the volume of rich answers listed in the search page has almost doubled over the past two years. If we assume this trend continues, then it is most likely that we can expect more number over the coming years.

Cross-channel marketing
Some Search Engine Optimization Experts often mistake cross-channel marketing as the same as multi-channel marketing. In reality, they are completely different from each other. While multi-channel refers to creating a presence on several platforms at once, cross channel means you are making use of multiple channels at a given time to do an integrated marketing. For instance, if the users are viewing products on their mobile app but do not buy them, you can choose to send them targeted ads depending on their searches over the social media as well as email.

While we are familiar with multi-channel marketing for quite some time, we can say cross-channel marketing is a kind of extension to it. The principal objective of cross-channel marketing is to evolve a brand presence that works consistently across multiple channels enabling the users shift seamlessly between devices and platforms for purchasing.

Proliferation of mobile usage
The booming use of mobiles has reshaped SEO during the recent past. IN the near future we do not see mobile search slowing down rather than going up. The traffic is fast shifting towards mobiles from desktops. Already most websites are getting an overwhelming majority of their traffic from mobile devices. Following this trend, Google has announced that mobiles should be considered as the default user experience. In fact, Google is now experimenting to create its index mobile- first. Mobile optimization is therefore should be on top of the list of SEO strategies.

Voice search optimization
Voice search is one of the fast growing search options today. Voice search is considered to be fast and futuristic as it is hands free. With the advancements in technology, the error rate of voice search is coming down significantly. It is acknowledged by Google that the errors in the speech recognition rate have come down to only 8 percent today from 25 percent reported a year back. In order to move a step higher than voice recognition into voice understanding, sites are expected to change their strategies based on previous searches, context based on location and frequently used apps, customized information and keyword research that works on spoken queries.