The iMarketing Cafe Team
The iMarketing Cafe has come out with an SEO survey for the third year in a row with an objective to take the pulse of the SEO community.
The survey was recently conducted on Twitter and more than 300 SEO experts around the world were contacted and were requested to tell us what they thought was the one big change that could possibily happen in the SEO landscape in 2016. Interestingly, few answers are similar and some are very different – you’ll find some interesting responses below. Read on.
As usual, we didn’t publicize the survey much but still considerable number of industry experts responded. The iMarketing Café team heartily thanks all the contributors/experts for taking time out to respond to our tweets.
They are some of the most sought after social media thought leaders in the world. They are widely-recognized and are greatly influential on social media. We thought it would be fun to test their intelligence 😉 and ofcourse, we knew that the views and insights shared by these experts would be useful to our readers.
Larry Kim, Founder & CTO of WordStream Inc, says:
@iMarketingCafe user engagement as big ranking factor
— Larry Kim (@larrykim) October 26, 2015
Debra Mastaler, Founder of Alliance Link, says:
@iMarketingCafe Content paywalls/membership sites + competition for quality sites to host content will make all content tactics very hard.
— debra mastaler (@debramastaler) October 27, 2015
Michelle Robbins, Vice President of Technology at Third Door Media, says:
@imarketingcafe tbh I think the change will be a focus on the basics – ensure technical aspects are set & implement marketing fundamentals.
— MichelleRobbins (@MichelleRobbins) October 29, 2015
Ian Lurie, CEO of Portent, says:
@iMarketingCafe I don't see a big change. I see movement towards more data-driven, JSON-LD driven results, though.
— Ian Lurie (@portentint) October 20, 2015
David Mihm, Director of Local Search Strategy for Moz, says:
@iMarketingCafe App Indexation
— David Mihm (@davidmihm) October 22, 2015
Peter Attia, Director of Content and Search at HomelLeads and Founder of DiceyGoblin, says:
@iMarketingCafe I believe site usability and user experience is going to start playing a much bigger role in search in 2016.
— Peter Attia (@PeterAttia) October 22, 2015
Robert O’Haver, an SEO consultant and host of SearchTalkLive , says:
@iMarketingCafe The biggest changes I see in 2016 are to mobile search both in the way we search, user experience & design.
— Robert O'Haver (@RobertOHaver) November 18, 2015
Derek Edmond, Managing Partner of Komarketing, says:
@iMarketingCafe In general I believe there will be a greater focus on the connection between mobile app indexing and SEO (1 of 2)
— Derek Edmond (@DerekEdmond) October 19, 2015
@iMarketingCafe specific to B2B I think we're getting much closer to end to end conversion performance across channels (especially SEO)
— Derek Edmond (@DerekEdmond) October 19, 2015
Tad Chef, Founder of Onreact and SEO2.us, says:
In 2016 you need to decide: will you become Google's taxi driver and sell their ads or will you popularize your clients? @iMarketingCafe
— Tadeusz Szewczyk (@onreact_com) October 21, 2015
Kane Jamison, Founder of Content Harmony, says:
@iMarketingCafe Hiring will be more clearly split to technical/dev focused SEOs, vs content/growth focused SEOs.
— Kane Jamison (@KaneJamison) October 22, 2015
Bob Jones, Director at Visible, says:
@iMarketingCafe it will keep calm and proceed with caution.
— Bob Jones (@bobjones) October 22, 2015
Simon Penson, Founder of Zazzle Media, says:
@iMarketingCafe mobile first thinking, in the truest sense. This & better understanding of context-based search.
— Simon Penson (@simonpenson) October 22, 2015
Melanie Nathan, Digital Marketing Specialist at Topdraw
.@iMarketingCafe That desktop searches will continue to dwindle (plummet?). Mobile is where the conversions will be.
— Melanie Nathan (@melanienathan) October 20, 2015
Jayson Akers, Digital Marketing Consultant at Epica Interactive, says:
@iMarketingCafe Expect more rhetoric on the long click, short click doctrine and thus more pay-to-click services will pop up #SEO Survey
— Jayson Akers (@azakers) October 19, 2015
Harris Schachter, Content Marketing Product Manager at Capital One and Owner of OptimizePrime LLC, says:
@iMarketingCafe SEO-as-a-service ramps down, and SEO-informed marketing ramps up. Both the amount of demand and suppliers.
— Harris Schachter (@OptimizePrime) October 22, 2015
Takeshi Young, SEO Manager at optimizely.com, says:
@iMarketingCafe Google recently advised against removing authorship markup from your site. I predict authorship will make a comeback in 2016
— Takeshi Young (@takeshiyoung) October 22, 2015
Vee Popat, Founder of VPDMDigital, says:
@iMarketingCafe proper image optimization becomes a competitive advantage with local seo.
— Vee Popat (@veepopat) October 23, 2015
Sebastian Cowie, Director at SCDigital Ltd, says:
@iMarketingCafe that SEO's who haven't explored paid marketing channels will start looking for new jobs. #SEOExpertSurvey
— Sebastian Cowie (@sebastiancowie) October 22, 2015
Russ Mann, Independant Marketing and Business Consultant, says:
@iMarketingCafe Google will make algo changes that render a lot of current popular content marketing techniques much less effective.
— Russ Mann (@mktgmann) October 22, 2015
Tim Grice, Head of Search at Branded3, says:
@iMarketingCafe there'll be more than one. I think businesses will begin to realise Google isn't the only search engine
— Tim Grice (@Tim_Grice) October 23, 2015
@iMarketingCafe you tube, app stores, review sites etc… are all part of the journey and deserve more focus
— Tim Grice (@Tim_Grice) October 23, 2015
Kristopher B.Jones, Marketing consultant, Internet Entrepreneur and Author, says:
@iMarketingCafe pay to play in local. Google will start charging for top placement in local search packs. https://t.co/zHqYZXVY6s
— Kristopher B. Jones (@krisjonescom) October 23, 2015
Dave Synder, CEO of Copypress, says:
@iMarketingCafe i expect that SEOs will become cross channel maestros, helping quarterback across initiatives across multiple channels
— Dave Snyder (@davesnyder) October 23, 2015
Mihai Aperghis, Founder of Verify, says:
@iMarketingCafe If Penguin will indeed switch to real-time updates, that will probably decrease the life span of black-hat link strategies.
— Mihai Aperghis (@mihaiaperghis) October 24, 2015
Jey Pandian, SEO Director at Mindshare, says:
@iMarketingCafe Connected apps, today there are no apps that allows seamless switching – all players are building (but it doesn't exist yet)
— Jey Pandian (@jeypandian) October 26, 2015
@iMarketingCafe by seamless switching, I mean staying in one ecosystem and being able to discover other ecosystems by choice and predictive
— Jey Pandian (@jeypandian) October 26, 2015
Scottcowley, Digital marketing and social media researcher, says:
@iMarketingCafe Improvements to mobile voice search coupled with algorithmic "incentives" for site owners to improve their mobile UX.
— Scott Cowley (@scottcowley) October 27, 2015
Patrick Hathaway, Director – marketing and Editor-in-chief for URL Profiler, says:
@iMarketingCafe Everyone (even inbound marketers) will realise that technical SEO is actually really important.
— Patrick Hathaway (@HathawayP) October 27, 2015
Khem Raj, an SEO consultant, says:
@iMarketingCafe We need to properly define SEO. Influential & well known experts are using this term as per their own convenience & (cntd)
— khem Raj (@khem_raj) November 5, 2015
@iMarketingCafe misguiding the new generation, making sure that they just follow what these so called influential experts have established
— khem Raj (@khem_raj) November 5, 2015
@iMarketingCafe As per experts I am talking about LInk building is SEO, PR is SEO, everything you do is SEO except PPC & other paid (contd)
— khem Raj (@khem_raj) November 5, 2015
@iMarketingCafe marketing which not true. SEO is to make sure that our website is accessible, user friendly, search engine friendly &(contd)
— khem Raj (@khem_raj) November 5, 2015
@iMarketingCafe capable of converting visitors into customers without much hassle. Rest all is promotion/marketing
— khem Raj (@khem_raj) November 5, 2015
Ryan Jones, Manager – search strategy & analytics at SapientNitro, says:
@iMarketingCafe search will move further away from listing websites and closer to answering questions / helping users "do" something.
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) October 27, 2015
Kalena, Founder of Search Engine College, says:
I think the term SEO will become more outdated as it is absorbed by logical UX design, mobile friendliness & accessibility @iMarketingCafe
— kalena (@kalena) October 27, 2015
Grant Simmons, VP of search strategies at Homes & ForRent, says:
The connected car will necessitate different mindset of 'local' & consumer intent #ConnectedCommuter #CommuterIntent https://t.co/A944pOO0ie
— Grant Simmons (@simmonet) October 28, 2015
1 more:
Keywords -> Queries -> Concepts = Smarter content research & authoring.
#Google #RankBrain = #UseYourBrain https://t.co/D1dcMg3Hig
— Grant Simmons (@simmonet) October 28, 2015
Susan Dolan, Founder of SEOWebMarketing, says:
The SEO world will realise how important relevant tweets for SEO targeted links x @iMarketingCafe PS wouldn't send same to all but I answer!
— Susan Dolan (@GoogleExpertUK) October 28, 2015
Russ Jones, Founder of theGoogleCache.com, says:
@iMarketingCafe I think predictive analytics is going to change how we all do research for SEO
— rjonesx (@rjonesx) October 28, 2015
David Iwanow, Founder of LostPress, says:
@iMarketingCafe Mobile Apps will become a traffic channel… #SEOExpertSurvey
— David Iwanow (@davidiwanow) October 28, 2015
Steve Plunkett, Sr.Search Scientist at RockFishDigital, says:
.@iMarketingCafe A. Responsive for Tablet/Desktop B. Mobile specific website C. Mobile Application D. Brand APIs for Digital Shopper SEO.
— steveplunkett (@steveplunkett) October 28, 2015
@iMarketingCafe I say that is the one big change, because that is #1 effective strategy for brands online currently which is kinda like SEO.
— steveplunkett (@steveplunkett) October 28, 2015
Kai Spriestersbach, Owner of Search One, says:
@imarketingcafe Deep App Indexing will become really important. #SEOExpertSurvey
— Kai Spriestersbach (@seokai) October 28, 2015
@imarketingcafe SEO without other Marketing is dead. #SEOExpertSurvey
— Kai Spriestersbach (@seokai) October 28, 2015
@imarketingcafe Linkbuilding will be great Content plus awesome Seeding #SEOExpertSurvey
— Kai Spriestersbach (@seokai) October 28, 2015
Erwan Derlyn, SEO & SMM Manager at Zettle, says:
We will see emerging a new sort of queries with people using search more intuitively with their smart watch, SIRI, GG Now…@iMarketingCafe
— Erwan Derlyn (@AirForceWan) October 28, 2015
Chris Silver Smith, CEO at ArgentMedia, says:
@iMarketingCafe Quite possibly, increased recognition that citations are likely used in Google's algorithms, beyond merely in local. #SEO
— Chris Silver Smith (@si1very) October 28, 2015
Matthew Diehl, SEO & Content Strategy Manager at Pegasystems, says:
@iMarketingCafe 1. Increase in SEO-backed data-driven, long-form content per @BuzzSumo @Moz study https://t.co/H1uV9DoUWS #SEOExpertSurvey
— Matthew Diehl (@matthewdiehl) October 28, 2015
@iMarketingCafe 2. More machine learning components, like RankBrain, to handle Query Deserves Vector (QDV) searches from mobile/voice search
— Matthew Diehl (@matthewdiehl) October 28, 2015
Nedim Neximuss Šabić, Internet marketing consultant, says:
@iMarketingCafe webmasters will care less about SEO at all, like the interest dropped this year, it will just keep on falling …
— Nedim Neximuss Šabić (@neximuss) October 29, 2015
Thomas Ballantyne, Speaker, Marketing/SEO Consultant, says:
@iMarketingCafe in 2016 experts will note Search Engine rankings are more and more based on historical User Data. time + clicks = rank
— Thomas Ballantyne (@Thos003) October 29, 2015
Themelis Cuiper, Director at AdSocialMedia, says:
@iMarketingCafe big change in the SEO landscape in 2016 is Machine Artificial Learning on SERP gone with cur-ration and double spin posts –
— Themelis Cuiper (@Themelis_Cuiper) October 30, 2015
@iMarketingCafe SEO 2016 win with human gamification/interaction on topic/interests – people and robots want action, attention (yes AIDA)
— Themelis Cuiper (@Themelis_Cuiper) October 30, 2015
David Waterman, Director of SEO at The Search Agency, says:
@iMarketingCafe SEO will die 5 more times in 2016 but continue to be the most influence component of establishing/growing a brand online
— David Waterman (@SEOWaterman) November 3, 2015
Additional Reading:
Matthew Diehl, initially shared this great piece of information with us and on request he tweeted the shorter version (pasted above) of the following content. This is the full version:
The BuzzSumo/Moz study on shared and linked content gives us a strong direction for SEO strategy in 2016. We will continue to see the convergence/integration of SEO and Content Marketing but now SEOs have data-backed research that will drive content production for content’s sake (quantity of content) out of SEO strategy and replace it with data-driven, long-form content that provides actionable value or thought provoking viewpoints to an audience. The value of this strategy to SEO, and potentially business goals, can be at least 3-4x more than a fast-paced, short-form content churning strategy. 2. We will see more machine learning algorithm components being announced. RankBrain, the third most important component in Google’s algorithm, proved that AI can beat humans when it comes to result quality. The move to machine learning may have quality benefits but it also has significant operational benefits to search engines. In the case of RankBrain, it allows Google to utilize a more finite set of results capable of being recalled based on RankBrain vectors rather than operating a unique set of results for every query entered. With mobile and voice search continuing to rise, the number of unknown queries, or Query Deserves Vector (QDV) searches, will also continue to rise. RankBrain’s word vectoring process is how Google will keep up with this demand.
Summing up:
Presented by: TheiMarketingCafe Team
Join us on Facebook and Twitter . Tell us what is that one big change that you expect in the SEO landscape in 2016. Post your views in the comment section below.
Read – Behind the scenes stories/Fun
Have a look at the SEO surveys we conducted in 2013 and 2014.
Copyright @ TheiMarketingCafé.com . You can use/publish excerpts from this post provided you give us the credit (link back).
This article addresses SEOs across board – so, if you are an experienced professional, you may already know some of the things I have discussed in the article and they may sound obvious but they have been purposefully discussed to connect the dots and present the whole picture so that SEOs at all levels ( including beginners/newbies ) can understand.
SEO Survey: Behind the Scenes Stories/Fun
Decoding the SEO Trends in 2018 – How to Adapt Efficiently Without Going Overboard
SEO in 2017 – 10 Highly Relevant Questions Answered by Top SEO Experts.