Search Engine Optimization has become the most spoken word in the online world. The SEO industry has evolved over the years based on user experiences and business needs. Businesses and corporates that would like to establish a stable online presence have to adapt to newer SEO strategies and tactics.
Industry experts have been analyzing and assessing the way in which SEO has impacted online business growth. Here are the top trends in 2015:
Mobile SEO
2015 has witnessed the rise in the mobile-only user percentage. Recent studies conducted in the United States observed that 25% of the American population uses only a mobile device to access the Internet. Based on a recent study, the younger population across the globe is expected to use only cellphones to access the web. It is found that more than 50 billion local searches are made using mobile devices.
Mobile SEO is essential to target mobile-only users. Mobile users use content differently and they usually use search to look for information ‘on the go’. Websites that don’t incorporate SEO techniques for the mobile platform will see a dip in search engine rankings. Google has provided an easy tool to check if a website is mobile-friendly. Trend Analysts recommend a responsive web page design that will address the mobile user needs. Businesses have to impact mobile SEO strategies into their growth plan to make their presence felt in this new platform.
Conversation based queries
Google trends show an increase in conversational queries. Website users are encouraged to type in keywords that are more like sentences used in conversation and human communication. Search engines utilize semantic searches which now use the intent, context and meaning in a search query instead of the keywords. Conversational or long-tail keyword phrases will continue to grow in importance for SEO rankings.
Infinite scrolling and its impact on SEO
Applications like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest use infinite scrolling. It’s considered an attractive feature and many websites have started implementing this technique. Google has challenges crawling web pages that have infinite content!! Hence it recommends some techniques. To name a few, it suggests that websites follow the below guidelines for better SEO.
- Pagination
- Individual URLs for each layer of content
- Adding rel=” next” and rel=” prev” within the head tag
Content is king!
Google’s latest search algorithm focuses on the quality of the content of a website. The search giant has taken this step towards the reduction of black hat SEO techniques and web spamming. As per Google’s 2012 Penguin update, the algorithmic changes made, any website that violates its guidelines will have a lower ranking. Content written on websites should focus on ‘topics’ than keywords. Google’s Hummingbird released in 2013 has changed the way organic search results are obtained. It focuses on obtaining the meaning of content in the query than the individual keywords in the query.
Negative SEO
Negative SEO is seen as a threat that is on the increasing trend. A few years earlier, popularity on the web was all about getting many inbound links as possible. This resulted in people creating more and more links. Clearly, this affected the quality of the search and users started complaining. Google introduced the Penguin algorithm which aimed at penalizing websites that used too many manipulative, spam-rich inbound links.
A negative SEO attack is bound to have catastrophic consequences for businesses. Of late, there are attempts aimed at lowering the rank of a website in search engine results by means of posting spammed links. Google has come up with a new tool called Disavow that helps site owners to be notified of unwanted or illegal inbound links.
