The 4 Golden Rules of SEO for 2016

For several years, search engine optimization has been at the forefront of digital marketing Local SEO Wiz. SEO is considered one of the most important elements of any online marketing strategy, mostly because of the tremendous popularity of search engines. In fact, reports from early 2016 show that Google is now a more trusted source of news than traditional media.

Although SEO has been popular for a few years, it changes very rapidly because of updates to search algorithms. Business owners looking to find success this year should follow some of the new SEO rules that have come about so that they can drive as much traffic as possible from search engines.

1. The Importance of Long-form Content

Google has consistently told marketers attempting to rank more highly on its search engine that content quality is much more of an important factor than how much content is posted or how fast. Long-form content usually provides more value for readers, which means Google is more likely to rank it higher in search results.

2. Mobile Continues to Grow

The rate of use of mobile devices has grown tremendously over the past few years. It's now estimated that 9 out of every 10 American adults has a cellphone, and nearly 6 out of every 10 has a smartphone. This trend is not lost on Google and other search engines. They know that more and more people are now browsing to websites on mobile devices, which means they need to have an experience that can be loaded clearly on these devices. This year, mobile optimization will be one of the SEO rules that is more important than ever.

3. Less Emphasis on Keywords

It was reported as early as 2013 by digital marketing pioneers like Moz that keywords would become less important in favor of ideas like context: where a person is, what they are doing, what time it is, etc. This idea continues to be prevalent in the industry as search engines do what they can to ensure that their users have the best experience possible. Jayson DeMers at Search Engine Watch wrote in late January 2015 that keywords were quickly becoming less important than the overall meanings of websites.

4. Google Scraping

In an infographic designed to summarize notes from a presentation by Rand Fishkin, a digital marketing pioneer and the founder of marketing company Moz, it is noted that Google is beginning to scrape data directly from websites. Fishkin uses an example of "NFL scores" as a search query that Google responds to by displaying its own results, preventing users from having to visit the actual NFL site. In 2016 this scraping will continue to be a factor in search engine optimization, for better or for worse.

These tips will help you stay on top of SEO rules in 2016, but the best search marketers know that they must keep up with the trends in a quickly-growing field like SEO so that they can gain new business through search engines.