There’s no doubt that IoT devices are rising in popularity. The number of IoT devices worldwide has already surpassed several billion, and the rate is only expected to increase in the near future. With that in mind, you might be wondering how IoT will affect search engine optimization. It seems highly likely that IoT will bring important and noticeable changes to the world of online marketing, and here are just some of the most significant SEO strategies to focus on:

Prioritizing voice search

From phone assistants like Siri and Cortana to smart home devices such as Google Home and Alexa, voice commands are now frequently used for directly answering the questions of users. This trend is only expected to grow, and the search engines behind these technologies will likely prioritize the content that is optimized for voice-based searches. Keywords are still important in this area, but conversational queries are increasing. For that reason, SEO professionals should make potential conversational queries a priority and optimize the content on their websites accordingly, such as performing content analysis and modifying it to offer direct and concise answers to possible questions.

Growing with the SERP

Google’s search engine results page (SERP) has seen plenty of changes in the last few years. With new additions like Knowledge Graphs, Featured Snippets, and the People Also Ask section, visitors no longer have to open actual website pages. And it’s possible that the SERP will transform even further to be more compatible with IoT devices. When we are using gesture or voice-based devices, we have no way of checking the entire results page, and the same will be true for most other screenless or small screen IoT devices in the future. In turn, the SEO strategies that focus solely on SERP won’t be quite as effective in the long run.

Searching differently

IoT technologies can enable businesses to accurately determine risks. Auto insurance companies, for instance, have long been relying on IoT-driven software to examine important indicators when setting their insurance premiums. But consumers are now using similar strategies as well. The advancement of technology has given customers the opportunity to compare car insurance options and rates online, rather than physically visiting each location. Consumers now use search to efficiently find the most suitable car insurance products for their personal needs and make the best, most informed decisions. Marketers should take these new search tendencies into consideration when devising the most effective SEO strategies as well.

Profitable technologies

The IoT industry is constantly growing. The more advanced IoT companies are now focusing on workflow automation, enabling businesses to evolve their operations using the latest technologies. Their modern data fusion platforms now sit at the cutting-edge of data processing, analysis, and ingestion. On the other end of the spectrum, smart IoT home devices that help to digitize and control home environments have been popular ever since their appearance, and are only continuing to advance. If you want to know where the future of IoT lies, follow similar technological advancements. Stay on top of companies that are making and modifying tools for the needs of consumers, and adjust your SEO efforts to these growing trends.

Adapting content

Adapting your content to include the latest IoT platforms will be an incredibly important marketing strategy in the near future. But this change in content marketing will surely require innovation as well. Your SEO efforts in this aspect will need to be able to morph and adapt easily in order to display your content in any form that is required. With virtual reality devices slowly becoming mainstream, for example, it won’t be long before you’ll need to adapt your content for 3D, such as video messages and ads. As IoT technology continues to evolve, so will new marketing opportunities, which is why it truly pays to stay open-minded and informed.

Synthesizing data

Up until quite recently, SEO was mostly focused on the data collected from online sources like keyword planners and Google Trends. However, IoT devices might also enable you to access real-world, offline data concerning your target audience. This information collected from smart devices could be a better representation of user intent than traditional web data. SEO professionals and marketers should embrace this in an effort to predict the online behavior of their consumers, such as following the adaptation percentage of IoT devices among their audiences. This will be key in bringing real-life, offline data to the online marketing industry.

Choosing personalization

People, and especially younger generations, tend to expect more customized approaches from online businesses. With the rise of IoT, this trend might spread even further, as IoT devices already collect more data about individuals and their search histories. From modern vehicles to smart fridges, data will be collected from a number of different sources, and the potential for personalization will truly be endless. New platforms and tools might also appear, with the aim of gathering and classifying data from IoT devices. Marketers need to learn how to analyze and utilize this information more efficiently, in order to customize online ads and other web content to a deeper extent.

While IoT might not have made quite as significant of an impact as was expected, these technologies will certainly become more widespread and popular in the near future. This will have a real impact on search and digital marketing, which is why SEO professionals should focus on the points mentioned above for optimal results.