If you work in digital marketing, you already know that it can be a challenge to stay up-to-date with every single SEO fad. But it’s essential that you make this a priority.

Google changes its algorithms on a near-constant basis, which will often create confusion and frustration for clients who are impacted. Moreover, technological improvements can have major effects on how web users conduct searches for what they need. Together, these shifts shape the ability of your clients to reach their target customers.

Technology evolves just as rapidly as it’s adopted. But if you know exactly which advancements are having the biggest effects on user behavior, you’ll be able to adjust your SEO strategy to ensure they’re factored in. Here are three major tech trends that will continue to have major effects on digital marketing in 2020.

Voice Search

Alexa and Siri are frequent guests in American homes. With more people relying on digital assistants, the way they’re conducting web searches has changed. Instead of typing a few keywords into a search query, voice searches are more likely to include complete questions. In addition, a voice search conducted on a smartphone or other device may produce only a few select results, rather than multiple pages of possibilities.

To address the growing use of voice search, you’ll want to ensure that the content on your site is written in a natural and conversational style and that you incorporate the keywords that people will be most likely to speak aloud. Including full question phrases on prominent pages on your website may also allow you to rank or to be featured in search snippets.

Chatbots

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly more prominent throughout many industries, so it’s no surprise that many businesses are using chatbots to address customer service messages. These chatbots can provide assistance 24 hours a day and can even help to address issues in the lead funnel.

While you might not think that customer service chatbots will play an essential role in SEO and digital marketing, remember that website user experience does matter. And since consumers prefer to interact with a chatbot than to contact a customer service agent by phone, including this feature on your site can keep visitors there for a longer period and promote greater satisfaction overall. That can ultimately pay off when Google is calculating your site’s ranking signals and improve your conversions in the long term.

Mobile-Friendliness

Just about everyone regularly conducts internet searches on their smartphones or other devices. While mobile websites used to be a supplement to desktop versions, the tables have turned. Now, mobile sites are indexed first — so if you have a separate site for mobile that doesn’t provide a consistent user experience, your rankings could take a major hit.

Keep in mind that you’ll also be leaving prospective customers in the lurch when you ignore the need for mobile friendliness. Consumers will abandon a site if it’s hard to navigate on their phones, meaning you’ll lose out on sales. Your site must be responsive and be designed with mobile in mind if you expect to reach your audience.

The main takeaway here: treat technology as your guide. Rather than being resistant to the change that technology brings, you’ll need to do your best to embrace it in all aspects of your marketing. Tech will continue to lead the way, so you won’t want to be left in the dust.

Social Channels, SEO & Your Brands Voice

“The strongest blend of SEO and Brand Voice happens on a company’s social channels. Nowhere else can you be timelier with key search terms and related content for your business or product than on social,” says Victor Machado of PW Digital Agency. “Getting it really right is to understand the value of each channel’s voice/vibe and how your brand can best leverage that platform to show a side of your brand’s personality that remains true to itself, in-line with the platform while linking back to relevant content on your website.”

“The rookie mistake: using automated platforms to blast out a single, repetitive message to all social channels. In these instances, the maximum leverage of SEO and Brand Voice is undercut by convenience. Why? Because most B2B’s still view social as a task rather than an opportunity. PW Digital Agency guides our clients toward maximizing opportunities—even when the cost is some additional work.”

Focus on your Core Business not IT

“Many businesses don’t want to hire a full-time IT staff, developer, designer to manage their website,” says Taylor Miles of Webbrol. ” Especially in 2020 after the work from home trends, Cloud Hosted CMS solutions like Squarespace, Shopify, Wixx, and even very lightweight fast sites like gatsby.js are starting to take market share from the long time kings WordPress and Drupal CMS.   These sites enable almost anyone without any tech skills to set up an ecommerce website in hours or days.  You can buy plugins for squarespace, or hire a outsource website development company to build it if you don’t have the time.”

High Quality SEO-Optimized Content

“Producing high quality SEO-optimized content for your blog, at a good frequency, is still a very effective strategy to grow targeted, organic search traffic,” says Evan Weber of Experience Advertising. “With the advent of retargeting ads, widgets, and push notifications, companies can really drive revenue and build their audiences with a proactive content marketing strategy. This type of SEO strategy has some of the highest returns you can get with your digital marketing spends.”  

New Social Media Platforms to Emerge

“With the current fallout of major social media players such as Facebook and Twitter there are several new social media platforms that will emerge,” says Alex Valderrama of Cranium Agency.

Invest In Marketing

“Cutting your marketing budget to save money is like stopping a clock to save time,” says Matt Peterson of ROI Sharks.