Which SEO techniques will you be focusing on in 2015?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an ever-changing, what’s-the-latest, keep-up-or-get-out business; this we know. Every year (and every week) seems to bring world-rocking changes to Google algorithms, what’s 'in', and what’s 'out' in terms of best SEO practices.While the core SEO success factors shown below remain constant, changes to Google's algorithms and webspam filters will mean that we should always be pushing the boundaries by testing new techniques. In this post I have picked five 'predictions' for SEO in 2015 that are not only already gaining momentum, but which I think will help online success.

1. Long-tail keyword searches will play an increasingly essential role in SEO.

Long-tail keywords offer the opportunity to give users content that is more specific based on their searches. Queries made by users are becoming much more accurate and focused. For example, what used…

Examples of developing your brand in 2015 by building your Digital Knowledge Centre

SEO technology provider, Searchmetrics, recently released a white paper: SEO Rank Correlations and Ranking Factors 2014 – Google U.S., evaluating factors impacting organic search results and an analysis of search engine algorithms. This post highlights some of the findings for organisations SEO brand strategy. I have condensed the 83 page document into some of the key factors brands need to be aware of. The searchmetrics report provides some good news for brands. Whether an established player or an emerging start-up, brands need to wake up to the opportunities the ever changing search landscape offers. There has been a fundamental shift in the types of brands monopolising the search landscape along with the rapid growth in content marketing, the brands winning this game are the brands that have re-defined their…

What are the biggest challenges for enterprise SEO?

Today's consumer buying process for many consumers starts with on-line activity - often involving search to find the relevant reviews or price comparisons. Since research has shown that across industries 'organic traffic accounts for 94% of clickthroughs' on the search results, it's clearly important for larger businesses with a complex product portfolio to compete through SEO. In this research conducted by Conductor with Ascend2, ROI from Enterprise SEO and the challenges and tactics considered are reviewed. 72% of respondents were positive about their ROI from SEO strategies, and 54% contributed this to content creation. So the majority of respondents were positive, but here we pick out the challenges of Enterprise SEO. As the graph shows, companies who were not seeing the benefits, felt that their challenges were around a lack of in-house SEO skills, limited budget and difficulty in optimizing content with keywords. …

Top takeaways from the content marketing/SEO workshop at Digital Impact

Earlier in September I attended Digital Impact - Smart Insights’ inaugural digital marketing conference at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London. And as expected, it was a festival of all things digital, with presentations and workshops on a variety of topics including ecommerce strategy, digital transformation, paid search best practices and mobile strategy. You can get an excellent summary/ review of the whole day.

For this post, I want focus on another key technique for Digital Impact and one that was the subject of a workshop in the afternoon hosted by ClickThrough. [slideshare id=39289618&doc=searchcontentmarketingsept2014v4-withoutpresenternotes-140919083858-phpapp01]

Where is SEO now?

Before delving into the workshop, a few facts were shared with the audience to confirm the current state of SEO: Google are continually fighting poor content and spam Google’s ranking criteria has…

A summary of SEO techniques you should focus on

Some basic SEO mistakes are all too easy to make. Here are some problems with the overall approach to SEO that I've seen. Do you recognise them? 1. Putting all your eggs in the SEO basket. SEO can be an extremely fruitful internet marketing strategy for any business, but depending solely on SEO is a dangerous game to play. Here’s why: Marketing is not 'one size fits all'. What works like gangbusters for one business may produce almost nothing for another. That’s why companies should use a multi-faceted marketing strategy to test the waters with a variety of tactics, and continue to evolve their strategy over time as results are produced. SEO is not instant. Results from SEO don’t come overnight. It takes time (sometimes lots of it!) and patience. Other marketing strategies can fill your pipeline in the meantime and help you reach your target audience through multiple…

SEO techniques and tools that support effective SEO for 2014 and beyond

Earlier in the month I attended the SMX search marketing event in London, and as with last year, SMX 2014 offered a huge amount of knowledge and insights from a wide variety of speakers from agencies, search engines, bloggers and brands. There was a lot a take in over the two days so for this post I’ve decided to highlight five topics that really stood out:

1. Focus on user experience and engagement as well as links

Whilst links are most certainly not dead as influencing ranking, it’s clear that search engines like Google have been attempting to look beyond links for some time. So, to show the relevance and quality of a website or piece of content and therefore webmasters and marketers alike need to consider not only their thinking around link-building but other emerging ranking factors, too. In a session on Long-Term SEO: How To…

SEO is.... alive!

In this post we're sharing this highly rated presentation to our Digital Marketing 2014 Summit from regular contributor and author of our SEO guide, James Gurd who explained how SEO has evolved and will continue to evolve. Despite the prenouncements by some that "SEO is dead", the evidence is that it still needs to be treated proactively and the latest best practices adopted. Key issues to consider in 2014 are: Content marketing, social and integration into SEO (of course!) More natural search queries prompted by Google's hummingbird and ad promotion of voice activated contextual search Author influence (through Google+ profiles and authorship markup) Specialist developments in technical SEO in particular for international domains Reporting SEO effectiveness given the Growth of Not provided / missing keywords This Slideshare was presented as a webinar by James Gurd, Digital Juggler at the Smart Insights Digital Marketing Priorities…

The best of BrightonSEO Conference 2013 in a Nutshell

The other week, the team and I ventured to Brighton for the annual SEO conference organised by the lovely folks at Site Visibility. Here, I’ve compiled my thoughts on the best speakers of the bunch and suggested how their insights might be implemented by brand owners.

[Editor's note. Readers interested in this article may also like to check out this post from Rhian Simm's on 5 key SEO takeaways from BrightonSEO].

This roundup is from the speakers who really stood out, dropping invaluable tips and drawing on fascinating case studies to illustrate how to get the most out of SEO which I thought would be most useful to share.

Speaker Oliver Snoddy on Real-Time Marketing for any Brand

Speaker: Oliver Snoddy - Head of Planning, Twitter UK

Mr…

Not a major update likely to impact rankings as the headlines suggest?

Importance: [rating=1] For commercial Purchase Intent Queries

Recommended link: Search Engine Land FAQ by Sullivan

Mainstream media such as the BBC have picked up on what they call a "Major Upgrade to Google’s Search Alogorithm". This sounded like something we should alert readers too particularly since it is said to affect 90% of users. However, it has been in place for one month already, so this suggests it won’t have a significant affect on rankings otherwise the impact would have been seen already.

It was announced in a slightly bizarre way, not through consumer-facing Google’s Inside Search blog which covers big announcements to the interface or consumer algorithm or Webmaster Central which alerts about algorithm changes limiting spam which have a major impact on rankings such as Panda and Penguin.

Instead it was announced at what the BBC called…

A summary of SEO approaches for 2014

Last Friday saw the latest installment in the bi-annually free SEO conference, BrightonSEO. Lots of ideas and content were discussed - far too many to cover in one post - but I thought it was worth putting together a short list of the top 5 cost-effective SEO snippets raised by the speakers.

1. Data for low cost link building

Link building is not just about hiring an agency, producing lots of inane content, or posting back-links from forums. Data is a key instrument in your link baiting toolbox (and it needn't mean big budgets). Use data to find a niche interest, tell a story, back it up with data, and create news. Readily available source suggestions: Surveys - ask a question and use the results to create content Analytics - spot a trend of interest and write about it Freedom of…