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5 SEO Trends CMOs should Really be Following

Martech Outlook | Thursday, October 10, 2019

To bag the attention of customers, CMOs must incorporate tech advancements in their SEO strategy. As a formula to success, these upcoming tech trends hold the potential to work out an apt action plan. 

FREMONT, CA: Today, the marketing industry is at a point where change is occurring faster and more dramatically than ever before. Being the brain behind marketing operations, CMOs should consider SEO as the backbone of their business. Ranking higher on search engines takes effort and time, and it gets even more challenging with the ever-changing technology trends. But, what are the dominant technology trends shaping SEO strategies? How do they affect search results? And why do any of them matter to CMOs? Here is a clear picture. 

• Machine Learning

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Machine learning is a way to analyze data automatically using algorithms. A machine learning system can learn about data patterns and make decisions without much human involvement. Machine learning and marketer’s fascination for it has been around for a while. Marketers’ experimentation with machine learning proves to be incredibly useful, as it helps the search engine better interpret search queries and offer more relevant search results in response to them. The machine learning system is also able to understand the query, and it receives much of its knowledge form the data gathered. The cognitive capacity of the machine learning system is used to improve the ability to understand ambiguous search terms constantly.

• Virtual Assistants

Website optimization is essential for brands to fulfil their business objectives effectively. The ideal way to optimize a website for search engines is to employ a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants can guide brands along SEO and assist CMOs in creating a successful online marketing campaign. With this, CMOs will have an assistant at the brand’s side to assist in creating a successful campaign. Virtual assistants are also great at setting up tools for monitoring and fixing issues. Many virtual assistants are also in charge of setting up content, so a quick check can easily become a part of the SEO process. Besides, a virtual assistant can provide invaluable tracking assistance, monitoring analytics and informing the SEO team of optimization requirements.

 

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) with Data Analytics 

How is NLP relevant to SEO? NLP with data analytics can help marketers identify the topic of interest accurately. Rather than relying on improper or incomplete tagging, keywords can adequately be classified into their highly-specific parent categories with the help of NLP. Finding topic affinities is essential for marketers because it gives them a much better understanding of the customers. Can CMOs take a step higher with analytics? With analytics integrated with NLP, CMOs can understand past low-level connections, specific search keywords, and determine the concepts which spark customer engagement. Essentially, just as NLP enables a search engine to understand queries better, analytics with NLP allows marketers to connect audiences with the content of their interests. NLP armed with analytics revolutionizes brand’s SEO initiatives enabling it to open new doors for customer engagement.

• Mobile-First Indexing and Video Optimization

Major search engines have not only become smarter but also more specific about the experience they want to offer for their users. Today, quality SEO is no longer limited to the desktop with the rise in the use of smartphones. This why mobile SEO is a topic that no successful CMOs can afford to ignore. Mobile search engine optimization (mobile SEO) optimizes a website for search engine queries originating from mobile devices. This technique enables a website to rank for mobile searches and allows the site to show up first in mobile-device-based search engine results. Typically, mobile SEO focuses only on on-page optimization techniques to improve mobile search optimization.

Voice search is not the only SEO trend taking over the marketing arena, but videos are, too. Video is an information medium, which is a rich source of customer traffic when used cleverly. Video SEO is becoming a popular trend in SEO, which is simply optimizing to be ranked on the search results for relevant keyword searches. Video optimization can be done by choosing the right video hosting platform, inserting a video transcript, making thumbnail image engaging, and even paying attention to video titles and descriptions.

• Blockchain for SEO

Blockchain technology has a great role to play in making the internet more secure, and that's why it is getting more popular in search engine optimization. CMOs can integrate blockchain into their sites and potentially profit from it. Blockchain can be used in SEO for validating backlinks. The effects that blockchain is going to create on SEO are yet to become clear, but inquisitive webmasters are already carrying out their experiments. CMOs can see the fruits of their efforts very soon.

With the advancement in technology and the changing user behavior, CMOs will experience major SEO updates and trends that will rule the years ahead. It’s more than worthy of investing in research and trend spotting. Noting down the above trends will enable CMOs to respond quickly to changes in the industry and get a hold over the competition. 

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