In our first of the 2016 trends, we looked at the year ahead for social media. Social media is a quickly evolving segment due to heavy competition and a constant influx of new entrants. This week we’re going to look at the top search marketing trends; another segment that’s constantly evolving but for different reasons. There aren’t a lot of competitors. We’re usually just talking about Google while everyone else is along for the ride. Change in search is driven by maximizing profits for Google through relevant search results and providing value to advertisers. Those are two of the overarching influencers for the top search marketing trends for 2016 below.

Fighting for space in results

Rank first and win the day. That’s all it took in the past for organic search result success. But, several factors will make it tougher to get search engine results page (SERP) visibility in 2016.

• Rich answers – If you’ve asked Google a question lately, you’ve probably seen a box pop up at the top of results with the exact answer you were looking for. That’s the rich answer. Instead of giving you the best page to look at, Google is using its machine learning to provide you with an answer. The number of rich answers has been growing, and 2016 isn’t likely to see a slowdown. Want your page to drive the rich answers? Find a way to answer the questions your customers are asking—and structure it in a way Google can easily grab.
• Mobile – Obviously mobile searches aren’t going away. They’re thriving and will continue to drive search trends in 2016. The nature of a mobile phone is that it’s smaller. No matter how big Samsung decides to make their screens, they’re going to be smaller than a desktop screen and smaller screens mean less space for results. Not in the first couple results? Make sure to optimize for local search and consider PPC in 2016.
• Increased ad presence – If mobile devices and increased rich answers in organic search weren’t making things crowded enough, Google’s been testing increased numbers of paid ads. More ads up top are obviously good for advertisers. It’s less beneficial to those trying to rank organically. The top result would be under 4 ads, a rich answer, and potential local results. SERPs could be incredibly crowded moving forward.

The further rise of apps

Apps have taken over how we consume data on our smartphones. Rather than go to a website, we’ll just open up their branded app and easily grab whatever information we’re looking for. Search engines like Google are realizing this as a valuable path to relevant results for searchers. So naturally apps are getting indexed. Search Engine Watch called it the “new SEO generation” back in March. While Google has long been taking steps to index apps, 2016 could be the year we see widespread adoption of app SEO. App structure and content should be designed with search engine optimization in mind. Apps in search could fuel downloads, which is a key performance indicator for a lot of  mobile applications.

Algorithms becoming more human

In Google’s effort to provide relevant results to users, it’s increasingly trying to learn how users think. Search algorithms have always been incredibly complex, but there are tons of new and future additions.

• Real-time updates – The Google Pandas and Penguins of the world crawl the Internet to find sites that aren’t providing users the experience Google believes they should be. The punishment is decreased web traffic. Previously these updates have been run at regular increments. But, the goal is to have them run constantly. This means two things for the future: bad SEO will get caught faster and recovery can happen faster.
• Semantic search – Semantic is all about providing context to what users are looking for. SEO at one point was synonymous with keywords. Keywords were how websites told Google what the page was about. Now a single keyword is useless without providing quality content and meaning around it—along with proper markup. Google wants to give users the best answer to their inquiry. Part of that is providing the best user experience. Semantic search might have headlined in 2015, but 2016 will see Google get better and better at understanding people.

Voice and social search

Type a question in a box (likely Google). That’s been search since the beginning. With the rise of smartphones, and now wearbles and virtual assistants, search is evolving. Users will increasingly be using their voices to search for answers. Does the method of search matter to SEOs and marketers? Of course. A user is going to interact with Siri much differently than a search box. Your content will have to attempt to answer detailed questions and not just exist around a keyword or two. We’ve also mentioned previously that social media networks are getting into the search game (and search is getting more social). Optimizing your pages for search in 2016 is going to mean much more than just keywords. You’ll need to understand where your users are searching for information and also how.

These are just some of our thoughts on the upcoming year in search. Let us know in the comments how you think search marketing might change in 2016!