Good news, content marketers: SEO hasn’t really changed! Columnist Nate Dame explains how to get the most bang from your SEO buck in 2015.
The year 2015 is nearly upon us, and every marketing department is forecasting and planning how to make a new splash next year. How is your SEO strategy looking?
Now is a good time to dust off your (possibly outdated) SEO strategy and get it ready for the new year. Make sure it’s pointed at the right goal, and make sure that goal is understood and adopted across the entire organization: Google says the user is in charge, so — yep, you guessed it — the user is in charge!
Google’s Destination did not Changed Yet...
Many content marketers are confused about what SEO actually is today among seemingly endless changes. SEO has changed over the years, but Google has not. Google has always been interested in providing the best results for its users. Period. SEO has only “changed” because too many internet marketers have been looking for the short-term win.
As 2014 draws to a close, even the most stubborn SEO professionals are being forced to recognize that there is no quick win. Google wants to provide the best user experience possible, and you can’t get that by cheating.
Changes in Some SEO Strategies in 2015
It is the strategies used or the search ideas, websites used for promotion, the type of content, keywords, there has been a drastic change in everything. The same trend is anticipated to continue in 2015 also. Here is a quick glance at the expected changes in search engine optimization marketing strategies in coming year.
1. Ban on Negative SEO
In 2015, great efforts will be made to put a check on negative SEO and spamming. As per the search engine experts, Google will come up with strict rules to cope up with spam, bots and the search engine marketers who prefer black hat SEO to get higher ranks quickly. This is not something new, Google is going to do, it already has a number of guidelines against spamming and negative SEO, but the situation is going to get more difficult for the SEO companies looking for easy promotion ways.
2. Change in Exact Keyword Research
User will get improved search engine results in 2015, as the AdWords won't depend on bots to match exact keyword research. Instead of a number of unnecessary ads and search results, users will get exactly what they want. Experts say that signals will be the criteria for Google instead of keywords, creating problem for the advertising companies as they will find it difficult to analyze the signals used by Google. It is expected that search engine optimization will no more be just a content based strategy, rather other strategies like events; press releases and contests will also become part of the strategies to drive audience to a particular website.
3. Improvement in Mobile and Voice search
The most important point to be noticed for SEO in 2015 is the improvement in voice search and mobile based results. This is a well known fact that the number of users using mobile for searching different information is rapidly growing and this compels marketers as well as search engines to alter their strategies to enhance their reach. Only an experienced search engine optimization company can understand this and can form strategies accordingly.
4. Improved Content Quality
The upcoming year might bring some serious problems for the online marketers, but for clients and users it's going to be great. Google will add a whole lot of new content like snippets, one box and knowledge panels to offer improved and informative search results to the visitors. A PPC company will have to focus on more informative, catchy and Google friendly content for campaigns to offer audience rich content.
Now, Top 10 Tips for SEO Survival in 2015...
1.Create Quality Content
Google can detect well-written content, and can detect poor quality content, or unoriginal text. If you want to see success in 2015, you need to work on creating high quality content for your website. Google rewards sites that offer consistent top-notch content, and with those rewards comes more traffic, more business, and more revenue. So, strive for quality over quantity.
Keywords are still a factor in content, but with the Hummingbird update in 2013, the way they are used, viewed, and searched has changed dramatically. A more conversational style search is performed when people use the search engines, so conversational style keywords need to be used in order to obtain the best ranking.
2. Use Organic Outreach to Build Links
The last five years have brought about a dramatic change in how links are shared across the Internet, and between sites. Google has devoted a great deal of time preventing people from using links to manipulate its algorithms in order to obtain higher SERPs. Links are still an extremely important element to SEO campaigns, but in 2015, the only way to benefit from links is to obtain them organically. If you are unsure how to obtain organic links, the answer is simple, write engaging, high-quality content that is shared with people who are interested, and they will want to link to your site.
It is extremely important to keep an eye on links in 2015, avoiding any negative links that could potentially harm your ranking, or penalize your site. Monitoring tools are a huge part of ensuring only quality links are connected to your site, and give you an easy way to remove any negative or potentially harmful ones.
3. Encourage +1’s
Google + is becoming a serious player in the social media platform, as well as with the giant search engines results. If you have not created a Google + page yet, it is time! In 2015, you can expect to get much more attention from Google + than ever before, so start encouraging people to give your page a +1, and to join your circle. The larger your circle, the more likely your business is to be found when someone performs a search.
4. Write Good Title Tags
Title tags have been a factor in SEO for over a decade, and in 2015, they are still a very relevant part of any campaign. Writing a good title tag should read more like a newspaper headline than a bunch or keywords, so keep it descriptive, but of course, still with keywords included. There are many different opinions on the ideal length of the title tag, but most agree that 110 characters should be the minimum. There is no need to repeat keywords within the tag; that only wastes that precious small space.
5. Get People Talking About Your Brand
A large player for SEO in 2015 is brand mentions. Get people talking about your brand, and mentioning it on their website, or any website for that matter. Google experimented with the theory of ranking with the mention factor involved several years ago, as things have evolved in the last year, it is safe to say it may be a large factor in 2015. So, start mentioning influential people on your page, in your blogs, and on your social media pages, and encourage them to do the same for you. The higher quality your content, the more beneficial your shared information, and the better your reputation increases the chances that you will be mentioned throughout a variety of platforms.
6. Use SEO-Friendly URLS
SEO-friendly URLs may not be the batter in the SEO cake mix, but they can be the frosting. Having an SEO-friendly URL is easy when using a management system, such as WordPress. If your page contains indoor dog houses, then it should read www.yourbrand.com/indoor-dog-houses. Like I said, this is not a huge part of your SEO campaign, and it is not a large signal for the search engines, but it creates a better-organized site, gives users a clear picture of what the site is about, and increases SERPs slightly.
7. Create an Engaging Web Presence
Google has deflected the notion that they factored in sites that people most frequently visited, such as Yelp, Wikipedia, Amazon, and many others, but evidence is proving these are factors now, and could be large ones in 2015. So, get your website noticed, mentioned, and linked to the major players. Just make sure you use organic strategies to obtain your recognition, the days of buying, selling, and trading links for rankings is long gone…and if you try to bring it back, you will be long gone as well.
8. Have a Fast Load Time
Google has spent millions of dollars to create faster load times for search results. If they have taken load times so seriously, shouldn’t you? Those millions of dollars were spent to increase the load time for users by only a hundredth of a second, so reducing your load time by several seconds could have a huge impact on your sites popularity with both the search engines, and users.
9. Get Social
Social media platforms have all but taken over, and when it comes to SEO, they are a huge part of the strategy for any campaign. Search engine algorithms are already including social media signals to factor in rankings, and in 2015, those calculations are planned to skyrocket.
10. Get Mobile
Mobile optimization is nothing new, but with the upcoming year, it is becoming more important to SEO. In order to compete, you must have a mobile marketing plan in place, and have your website optimized for mobile use. With so many people using smartphones and tablet for their Internet search, it is imperative that you have a plan ready to compete for their business.
There are 100s of factors for ranking high in the SERPs, but only a choice few really matter in 2015. In order to create a dominate business online, you need to master the most important factors. You can focus on the other signals as well, but not until you master the ones that are on this list.
