Advanced search technology will impact SEO and content marketing strategies, forcing brands to evolve or else be left behind.

Marketers are challenged to fit keywords into their web content naturally. Some keyword strategies are easy enough to incorporate, but there is a growing push to include questions and long-tail phrases that mirror the way internet users actually perform queries. This problem will become exacerbated as new technologies come to light, according to forecasts made in a recent interview with Google Scientist Jeff Dean featured in the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Marketers already struggle to get the right words on the page, Search Engineer Matt Cutts said in a Webmaster Help Channel video in which he listed the biggest SEO mistakes webmasters make. As an example, he says that online content offering information about Mt. Everest should use the term, “How tall is Mt. Everest?” rather than “Mt. Everest height,” because the former is closer to the way people actually search.

This will become more important with the rise of voice query technology – a belief both Google employees share. Dean, who works with the company’s Systems Infrastructure Group, expects search technology to advance to a point at which consumers can say “Please book me a trip to Washington, D.C.” and the engine will take a conversational approach to solve the search problem, following up with questions such as, “What hotel do you want to stay at?” and “Do you mind a layover?”

This is in addition to image recognition technology currently being developed by Google, Dean adds.

Ultimately, brands may need to create SEO and content marketing strategies much more sophisticated than the campaigns they currently run, if they want to generate leads and drive website conversions. In the meantime, it’s wise for marketers to consider how the website content they produce can be optimized for search behavior and adjust keyword strategies accordingly.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.