What Internet Marketing Will Be Like in 2015?
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 23, 2015
2014 was an eventful year for SEO. The diminishing importance of Google+, increased focus on security after the Heartbleed incident, and a newfound emphasis on local search were three big trends that were nowhere on the radar of prognosticators when the year began. The changes came out of the blue and affected a millions of search queries. Some websites, mainly content farms, saw their rankings take a dive while others witnessed an increased traffic after Google announced Penguin, Panda, and stressed the importance of reviews of Yelp and other such online places with focus on local.
It is impossible to say what 2015 will have in store. Yet webmasters, SEO professionals, and internet marketeers can learn much from last year and alter their strategies accordingly to make them more effective.
Google+ is not important, from the perspective of SEO.
Do not get it wrong. Google+ remains important if you are a social media marketeer. No one is saying you to abandon your communities there cold turkey. Keep the website a part of your local internet marketing strategy but harbor no illusions about it. After the resign of Gundotra, the brains behind Google+, the company does not seem to be as keen on promoting its own social network as it was two years ago. Google Authorship does not carry as weight in 2015 as marketeers imagined it would. So if you are confined with limited resources, focus your efforts on things that produce results.
HTTPS is the future.
After Heartbleed’s widely publicized damage on Apple’s iCloud in April and the recent attack on Sony Pictures, search engines have recognized the importance of security. Google, for instance, is starting to prefer websites with SSL encryption. All things equal, a website with “https” will have a higher rank than a website that starts with “http.” It is time security be a vital part of global and local internet marketing.
Localization is more than a passing fad.
Localization still invites acrimonious debates. Given how secretive Google is about its algorithm, the SEO world was divided in two camps before October, 2014. While some claimed targeting local audiences was the way of the future, other claimed going global was the best strategy. Then somewhere around the last quarter, Google started emphasizing Yelp and similar websites. It has been a boon to businesses with local clientele and positive reviews.
While we are no futurologists, we think intensive localization, improved security and less emphasis on Google+ will be the driving trends of SEO in 2015.
