What is the future of SEO?

HubShout is no fortune-teller, but if history has a way of repeating itself, we can make a couple predictions.

Content is king. Long may it reign.

Because Google wants to deliver its users the best results, it looks for great content. The problem is the fact that “great” is a subjective term. What’s “great” to one person is “just okay” to another. Worse, what’s “great” one year might be tacky the next. SEO can be Sisyphean this way.

Content has sat on the throne for years now, and it probably won’t cede anytime soon. Consequently, you need to continue offering users the best, most-relevant content possible. You need to post fresh blogs and pages, as well as update old ones, too.

Keywords will always be a factor.

Imagine searching Google for something without using words. You can’t, can you? Keywords are an integral part of SEO. That’s just how it is.

That being said, what’s wise to target this year may not be as practical next year. Keywords are slowly evolving. Innovations to mobile technology are changing search user behavior.

“Best pizza Rochester NY” is a perfectly logical keyword to target, because it’s what many users search for when they’re want a solid slice of za. However, Google Now, Siri, Cortana, and other mobile AIs allow users to voice search. They can simply ask their phones to look for something. Consequently, many expect the linguistic structure of keywords to become more natural. Users don’t have to grunt “best pizza Rochester NY” into their phones to get what they’re looking for. They can ask their phones to find “pizza near me” or “Where’s the best place to go for pizza?”

So what does all this mean?

If you want to rank well in the future, you need to continue posting great content until the day your business dies, and you need to strategically target the keywords people are using to find your products.