For digital marketers, Google is a force to be reckoned with – the final arbiter of your website’s success, the master holding the keys to the prestigious top three search rankings.
But remember, Google is on a never-ending mission to improve search results for users – that’s its sole purpose – helping people find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. As such it regularly changes and updates its algorithms which causes webmasters to fret, continually trying to keep their domains up to date and as search friendly as possible. Here are a few of the things we learnt last year that will only get more important in 2015.
1. You’d better be secure…
User security is a huge priority for Google. The search giant has now publicly stated that it counts https as a positive ranking signal. It’s also telling users in Chrome whether it thinks a domain is spammy which will ruin your click through rate!
2. …and fast
As far as Google is concerned good user experience is vital, which means that speed is a more important factor than ever before. If you have a sluggish website that doesn’t respond quickly then expect your keywords to suffer – Google’s way of warning visitors that time spent on your site might be a frustrating experience. Use the PageSpeed Insights tool to learn more about your site’s responsiveness and what you can work on this year to improve responsiveness.
3. Though shalt not spam
As I’m sure you’re aware, Google’s latest Penguin algorithm update punishes domains for spammy links. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “I don’t do spammy links!” You might not, but it’s worth double checking to make sure outmoded SEO habits aren’t coming back from the dead to bite you in the form of Google penalties. Check your link profile using Google’s own Webmaster Tools and other free tools like Moz’s Open Site Explorer and if necessary get to know Google’s disavow tool – although use with caution!
4. Quality content is non-negotiable
Yes, yes, I know, ‘content is king’ is one of digital marketing’s biggest clichés. But like most clichés, it exists because there’s truth in it. If you have duplicate content on your site (identical content on more than one page) or you’ve syndicated content with another site without indicating where the original lives then you risk falling foul of Google’s Panda algorithm that affected a lot of companies in September. Once again this is all about Google trying to improve the user experience and in all likelihood if you’ve been producing great content for your site then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. If you do suspect you’ve got a Panda sitting on you then use a free plagiarism tool like Copyscape to assess where else your content’s appearing
5. Links matter
Did you know that Google made a version of its search engine which didn’t rely on links to rank websites? You might not, because it didn’t work very well. As a result, links to your website are still important – but be warned: the type of link is even more important than the volume, so put some effort into getting quality links from reputable domains.
6. Search is mobile
More and more search is carried out on mobile devices. Google recognises this and is warning users in advance whether your site’s optimised for mobile use. Not only will this affect the number of people that visit your site from the search engine, but it could also start affecting your keyword rankings: “We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.” Be warned – get a dynamic site (or at least a mobile friendly sub-domain) – this is not a high cost exercise but will make a huge difference to your users!
Hopefully that list has helped you identify some of the areas you need to tackle as part of your SEO strategy in 2015. Just remember to think about the user first and the search engine second, and you’ll be in good shape to work your way up the rankings right through to 2016.
By Luke Budka, Director at TopLine Comms.
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