SEO Marketing Trends in 2015 | Top3 Media

The first quarter of 2015 is almost up. Industry experts drew out their crystal balls towards the end of last year and made countless predictions for 2015, some of which have begun to take hold and others we are yet to see. No doubt staying current is critical to the brand marketer’s success if incremental wins will be realized for their brands.

Below is a list of important tips that should be at the forefront of your digital marketing campaign if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

1.      Improving natural link value

In-bound links have been around for a long time, but now that even more consideration is being directed at the value and quality of links, SEO marketers will need to dedicate more effort towards creating and promoting relevant and value adding content in order to earn branded citation from high-authority sites. Relevant citation from high-authority sites in related industries not only improves SEO, it increases brand awareness with the target market.

2.      Mobile, mobile, mobile

2014 was important for mobile-targeted digital marketing techniques, being the year that Internet access on mobile finally outdid desktop Internet access. This impacted consumer behavior drastically, which in turn led to a shift in SEO practices.

Mobile search algorithms have a different set of best practices therefore, it’s important to understand the nature of the mobile search scene to guide your SEO strategies for 2015. Your success as a brand will be highly dependent on your ability to deliver superior quality mobile experiences in an effective manner, coupled with mobile SEO strategies.

3.      Search fragmentation

The nature of search is shifting from the keywords we’ve known to long-tail phases, and these are also being fragmented depending on channel, device and platform. Mobile devices, software apps and Internet service providers are integrating their own search functions in devices to offer better service to their audiences, at the expense of search engines accessible via web browsers. Therefore, SEO will have to include brand optimization across different platforms and search applications apart from Google.

4.      Social engagement and thought leadership

It becomes increasingly important for brands to distinguish themselves as opinion leaders and experts in their own fields, and this has become a pivotal aspect of content marketing efforts for most brands. However, thought leadership cannot get very far apart from social engagement with relevant/target audiences. The two in combination will lead to greater and more sustainable success in search ranking optimization.

5.      Long-tail search traffic

As mentioned earlier, the demand for one- or two-word keywords is high, which makes SEO efforts very costly. Long-tail keywords have been shown to give higher relevance and greater conversion for traffic earned due to the increase in specificity. Brands which know how best to apply long-tail keywords will notice a shift for the better in their search traffic and conversion in 2015.

With search surveys revealing as much as 20% of never-before-seen keyword queries, long-tail keywords open up the playing field for smaller businesses to compete. This figure is expected to increase, especially with the increase in occurrence of mobile search over desktop search. Search engines too are becoming more knowledgeable in deciphering the intent of long-tail queries, which makes long-tail keyword focus an avenue worth pursuing in 2015 and thereafter.
SEO Marketing trends in 2015 presented by Top3 Media