6 ESSENTIAL SEO TIPS FOR 2015
Jan 02, 2015
A new year is the perfect time to look at your SEO strategies, identifying what to stick with and what to leave behind.
We’ve been monitoring the changes in search engine optimisation, and with 2015 upon us we thought it would be a good time to look at the best practices moving forward.
So, whether you’re just starting out as a business online, or you’ve been on the web for years, we hope these tips will help you get noticed online in 2015!
1. PERSONALISATION
With search engine algorithms becoming more advanced than ever, the days for simple SEO “tricks” are over. There’s no “one size fits all” way to approach SEO; it’s all about what makes you different to everyone else. What do you offer your clients and customers that no one else can? This should be the starting point for any of your SEO endeavours in 2015.
2. DON’T IGNORE MOBILE
According to recent statistics, 68% of the UK population now browse the internet “on the go”. That’s over half of the UK looking things up when they are out and about, probably at a time when they are in a hurry and need information quickly. For this reason, in 2015 it is more important than ever to make sure your website is optimised for mobile devices.
3. CONTEXT, NOT KEYWORDS
There was a time when SEO was largely about keyword density, meaning that if your content and meta tags had the right keywords in them, your website would do better in search engines. Nowadays, however, it is obvious that Google wants website owners to move away from keywords and focus more on the context of their content instead. Your website content needs to be completely unique to you, and it needs to be valuable, helpful and relevant to what someone may search for in Google. Keywords still play a part, but they aren’t at the forefront any more.
4. USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO AMPLIFY YOUR CONTENT
It’s easy to think that posting frequently on social media will automatically get your company higher up in Google, when in fact social media doesn’t directly affect SEO. Instead, you should be thinking of social media as a tool to driving more traffic to your website, whether it’s through tweeting a blog post you have written, talking about your latest stock on Facebook, or pinning an image from your website on Pinterest. If you can get more visitors to your website in this way, this may then affect your search engine rankings.
5. FOCUS ON BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO GAIN LINKS
Search engines are now so adept at spotting webspam that you really can’t afford to be buying backlinks. In 2015, shift your focus onto building relationships with other businesses that may put your website link on their own website or social media profile. Why not start by mentioning a local business in a blog post? You can then post the blog post on social media, mentioning the company. Chances are the company will share the blog post too!
6. FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS
Ten years ago, SEO was made up of link building and targeting keywords. Today, there are so many different components to making a difference online (blogging, links, social media, email marketing, mobile optimisation, video, and so on), that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Our final tip would be to focus on the things your company is good at, and what fits with your brand. For example, choose one social media site and make your business really stand out, rather than having a half-hearted presence on all platforms.
Do what you can for SEO, but don’t worry too much about the mechanics and focus more on having a fantastic online presence that represents your business well.
We hope this has been helpful for understanding a little more about SEO in 2015, and you feel well equipped for the year ahead. If you need any extra help, get in touch in the comments and we’ll do our best to answer your questions!