As usual, 2014 was chock-full of changes, tweaks and announcement by Google that stirred the SEO community. We saw Google authorship removed from search results, a crack down on guest blogging (for SEO purposes) and additional updates to Google’s algorithm cracking down on poor content & manipulative link building practices. So, what do we have to look forward to in 2015?
What’s next?
My guess is that we see more of the same in 2015. Businesses and SEO’s that focus on loopholes and tactics designed solely to manipulate search rankings will continue to cringe with every announcement by the Google Web Spam team, while those who have learned their lesson will employ strategies geared toward developing true authority and trust. Here are my recommendations for the coming year…
How do I prepare?
Preparation is everything. When preparing your SEO efforts for 2015 have these things in mind.
- Diversify your traffic sources through quality inbound links & reduce your reliance on organic search traffic
- Although the formula is becoming less rigid, make sure your pages are properly structured for search
- Make 100% sure that any paid links, sponsored links or online ads pointing back to your site use the nofollow attribute to keep you clear of trouble
- Focus on implementing and creating effective content marketing strategies that allow you to earn links and develop an active audience
- Promote your content to popular resource sections and curated lists
- Allocate a good part of your SEO efforts to relationship building, it can be a major contributing factor to your success in all facets of your digital marketing
- Give the skyscraper technique a try!
How do I measure?
Here are the metrics I would suggest focusing on for your 2015 SEO efforts…
- Traffic from organic search, with Google Analytics
- Traffic from referring links, with Google Analytics
- Domain Authority
Noticeable absent from this list is the popular keyword-rank tracking. Although it can still serve as a valuable insight to aid your SEO efforts, keyword rankings shouldn’t be a primary metric for you success in 2015. If you are interested in tracking your keyword rankings, we highly recommend Moz Analytics, but there are some free tools that can help you track keyword rankings as well.
Now that you’ve heard our predictions for SEO, check out our other predictions for more aspects of Internet Marketing.
