2015 SEO Tips and Trends

My mother called about a week ago DEMANDING I send her a Christmas list. At 23 years old, I thought providing a Christmas list to my mother was a little unnecessary. But to keep her happy, I emailed her one anyways. And then it hit me. We’re a little over a week away from one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving, and just over a month from Christmas! The holiday season is officially here.

For business owners, another season may be on your mind—budget season. As children complete their wish lists, business owners are reviewing 2014 financial reports and finalizing 2015 budgets. As 2015 quickly approaches, it’s important to ask yourself, “Did I leave room in my company’s budget for online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO)?”

Great online marketing and SEO can be the key to your company’s success in 2015 and beyond. Keep scrolling to learn more about 2015’s top SEO trends, tips for successful SEO in 2015, and what impact these can have on your business.

SEO Trends of 2015

Content Is (Still) King

If there is one golden rule of SEO, it’s that content is king. As Google and other search engines continue to fine tune search results to maximize user experience, providing valuable information to users is the number one priority. When users are able to find valuable search results—AKA results that answer their question or solve their problem—your website is viewed as authoritative. This also helps increase the amount of returning visitors to your site in the future.

Increased Importance of Mobile Search

For those of you thinking mobile search doesn’t matter, consider this—a study released by comScore revealed that 2014 is the first year where mobile search has surpassed desktop search. This means users are spending more time browsing the Internet via mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) rather than a computer, and search engines are taking notice.

Social Engagement

We all know the popularity of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest, Houzz, etc. But as a business owner, do you truly understand the power of social media? When done right, engagement with potential customers and returning customers over social media builds long lasting customer relationships and brand loyalty.

Long Tail & Conversational Keywords

As a whole, users are beginning to use long tail/conversational keywords when performing an online search. For example, it would be great to grab the number one search result for “electrician” (if you’re an electrician…) on Google. However, most users who search “electrician” probably don’t need to learn about the profession or what an electrician does—they are most likely searching for an electrician near them to fix a problem!

Example of a general search:

Example of a long tail/conversational keyword:

Notice the difference in organic results (found below Google AdWords results). For an electrical company located in Gaithersburg, MD, ranking for long tail keywords and conversational keywords could mean the difference between landing a sale and not, and the same goes for your company.

Personalization and Page Results

As evident in the screenshots above, Google and other search engines are tailoring their results pages based on several factors:

• Keyword relevancy (how closely your website’s content relates to the user’s search)
• Proximity to user
• On-site SEO (your website’s content, site structure, linking profile, site speed, etc.)
• Off-site SEO (social media, Google+, Google Maps, etc.)
• And more

By taking so many ranking factors into consideration, Google and search engines alike are able to provide users with more personalized search and page results than ever, and we expect this trend to continue into 2015.

Tips to Adapt Your Company to 2015 SEO Trends

Although there are no significantly major changes from 2014 SEO trends, 2015 trends are still slightly different. As Google continues to roll out updates to their latest search algorithm, it’s important to continually adapt your company’s online marketing and SEO efforts in order to maximize your online real estate.

Here are a few SEO tips to consider in 2015:

Continue to deliver great, effective content. Not only does great content establish and maintain industry credibility, it helps build your linking profile. If your content is viewed by users and other industry leaders as authoritative, they will begin linking to your website, and Google loves a great linking profile.

Optimize for mobile search (in addition to desktop). It is critical to optimize your company’s website for mobile search. By doing so, this reduces your bounce rate, increases the likelihood of qualified leads, and generates great user experience and brand engagement. Mobile users, unlike desktop users, are often in searching for bits of information—a phone number, address, etc. so be sure to optimize your mobile site accordingly.

Diversify your only platforms. Don’t just rely on your website to build your brand and generate leads. Through the use of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Houzz, and online directories (Google Places, Yelp, Angie’s List, etc.) you’re able to put your company and its products/services in front of consumers more effectively. So, diversify your online platforms in order to increase your company’s reachability and drive social media engagement.

Write for users, not search engines. Search engines do not purchase products or services from your company, so why spend time and money to create content for the sole purpose of ranking highly? You can be penalized for Google for practicing black-hat (unethical) SEO, so be sure not to violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines in your quest for great content.

Online Marketing & SEO from Blue Corona

Can’t keep up with your company’s online marketing and SEO? At Blue Corona, we offer online marketing services, including SEO. Contact us today to learn more about our services.