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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Everything you need to know about SEO, delivered every Thursday.
It's tough being an SEO practitioner. Every time you think you've got the best practices down, some new development comes along that forces you to change your tactics or adjust your strategy. From algorithm updates to SERP layout adjustments to new search features, optimizing a website for organic search can often feel like trying to hit a moving target.
That's where our All Things SEO columnists come in. By sharing their insights and advice, columnists were able to help SEO newbies and veterans alike navigate the fast-changing organic search landscape throughout the year.
As with previous years, 2015 saw its fair share of major developments in the organic search world, each of which presented challenges as well as opportunities to search marketers.
In particular, we saw a huge shift in focus towards mobile this past year. On April 21, 2015, a day known within the tech world as "Mobilegeddon," Google released an algorithm update which gave a rankings boost to "mobile friendly" pages in Google's mobile search results. The mobile friendly update also gave greater visibility to app content within search results, which left search marketers eager to learn more about app indexing. Columns related to mobile search captured three of our top 10 spots this year.
Readers were also interested in "big picture" articles about Google. Two excellent thought pieces by Nate Dame, which focused largely on Google's evolving relationship with the SEO community, each garnered enough page views to break into the top five All Things SEO columns for 2015. Both are essential reading for those who want to gain a broader perspective on the state of the industry.
Top honors went to Adam Audette's piece, which explored how Google crawls and indexes JavaScript. Based on original research done by Merkle | RKG, this column offered concrete information on a topic which had previously been shrouded in mystery.
For these columns and more, check out our top 10 All Things SEO columns of 2015:
Methodology: Columns published in 2015 are ranked in order of pageviews measured by Google Analytics. Data includes all columns published through November 30, 2015. Social data provided by SharedCount.
About The Author Jessica Thompson is Associate Features Editor at Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. She is a well-rounded digital media enthusiast with a keen interest in all things Internet marketing. Jessica earned her B.A. in English from Drew University and has since gone on to fill a wide variety of roles over the course of her career, including web designer, copywriter, editor, SEO consultant, online marketing specialist and marketing manager. Most recently, she worked at Advance Digital, where she conducted digital optimization training for journalists and provided high-level SEO and social media recommendations for 12 major regional news websites, including NJ.com. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)Buy AutoTrafficRSS script now for $27 only!
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Search engine optimization is a strategy most of us can get behind, in theory--we know practically everyone uses Google and other search engines to find what they need, so having your business website rank highly in organic search results is a smart idea. But what separates the industry experts from the would-be-nice crowd (and what prevents many entrepreneurs from acting on SEO in the first place) is the value of return on investment as the ultimate priority. ROI informs whether your marketing strategy earns more money than it costs to produce or is just a waste of time and effort.
In your SEO campaign, if you're currently experiencing a negative or neutral ROI, consider these 10 mistakes and scenarios that could be decreasing it:
1. You're only "half in." SEO isn't a strategy to tack on to an existing list of marketing efforts. You can't put in 15 minutes a day and expect to see results. The more time and effort you put into SEO, the better results you'll see, and there's a minimum amount of effort required before you see any results--for example, if your onsite SEO isn't in order, it won't matter how much you allocate to other tactics like blogging and link building. Half-in strategies will make it impossible for you to achieve a positive ROI, so if you're going to pursue SEO, fully commit to it.
2. You're working with the wrong person or agency. While it's tempting to look at results as your biggest indicator of ROI, don't forget the importance of your cost basis. If you're paying too much for SEO, even exemplary inbound traffic results won't be able to secure a positive return for your campaign. Be prudent in your investment decisions; you can hire an agency or a full-time expert or work with freelancers to plan and execute your campaign. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
3. Your inbound links suck. Link building is important, but links have varying degrees of quality depending on their sources, contexts, and structures. One bad link in your inbound link profile probably won't hurt your rankings, but a pattern of spammy, manipulative inbound links can earn you a manual or algorithmic penalty, which can temporarily or even permanently remove your website from organic search results. Check your inbound link profile using a tool like Moz's Open Site Explorer to look for any links that could be holding you back--then remove or disavow them. To get good inbound links that build your brand and your rankings, start a guest blogging strategy.
4. Your content sucks. "Bad" content can refer to hastily written, poorly researched, unoriginal, or otherwise uninteresting content for your followers. If you post too much of it, Google will take notice, and you could earn an algorithmic penalty owing to the Panda algorithm, which is designed to detect spammy, "thin" content and penalize sites for having too much of it. It isn't enough to write blogs regularly; you have to offer audiences something valuable.
5. You're paying attention to the wrong metrics. I use the term vanity metrics to describe numerical metrics that don't especially matter to your bottom line. For example, having lots of followers on Twitter might seem important, but a follower count can't tell you how engaged your audience is with your brand. If you spend too much time trying to achieve these numbers, rather than building relationships that matter, your campaign will never take off. For help deciding what to measure, see What to Measure Weekly, Monthly, and Annually in an SEO Campaign.
6. Your priorities are wrong. There are many priorities for an SEO campaign--ensuring onsite optimization, producing regular content, building inbound links, and engaging socially are just a few of them. If you're spending too much time on a low-priority segment of your strategy (like posting news updates on social media) and not enough on a high-priority segment (like establishing relationships with relevant publishers in your niche), your results will suffer.
7. You're not targeting the right audience. It's not enough to rank highly in Google--you have to rank highly for search queries that actually matter. If you're a car dealership and you're ranking for keywords and phrases that have to do with class-action litigation, it won't matter how high you rank or how much traffic you get from those rankings. Make sure you're targeting the right segments of your demographics and updating your strategies accordingly. For help with that, see How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords for Your SEO Campaign.
8. Your conversion rates are poor. Conversion rates are the last gateway that could prevent an agnostic visitor from becoming a full-fledged customer. You might be getting thousands of visitors from search engine results pages, but if your conversion rates are low, none of that traffic will translate into meaningful revenue. Optimize your site for conversions with concise, compelling copy; simple, visible calls to action; and trust signals.
9. You have tunnel vision. Of course, it's possible that you're already earning a positive ROI and you just haven't realized it yet. Organic traffic and conversions are important for calculating the value of an SEO campaign, but they aren't everything. Think of the intangible and less-measurable factors that your SEO efforts have produced, such as increased brand exposure and an improved overall reputation. Be sure to consider these in your calculations.
10. You're impatient. Finally, remember that SEO is a strategy that pays off in compounding returns. During your first few months, it's normal and expected for you to see a negative ROI. As you start investing more time into the strategy, your ROI will increase, so don't be concerned unless you're already several months into a strategy with no clear results. For more information on how long SEO takes to start working, and what your expectations should be, see What ROI Can I Expect From SEO? and How to Set Realistic Expectations for Your SEO Campaign.
If you're just getting started in SEO, these are all things to avoid, and if you're already in the thick of a strategy, these are things to correct or resolve. Don't be surprised if it takes some fine-tuning; there's no guarantee or secret formula for success. Instead, your success will rely on a series of adjustments and evaluations that gradually get you closer to your intended goals.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.It's been a tumultuous 2015 for search, perhaps more so than any other year.
With mobile optimisation becoming a 'do-or-die' component of your web presence, a massive shift in focus towards the user and Google letting many cats out of the bag when it comes to the ranking signals it uses, marketers have been faced with some major upheavals this year.
To help me unpick this tangled web of news-stories and trends are a selection of expert contributors, who will expand further on the biggest events on the year and perhaps shine a light on what may come in 2016
Google opens up, reveals more than it ever has done beforeThe once reticent search engine… uh… hmm, my new year's resolution is to find a synonym for 'giant'… has spent much of 2015 being more open about its algorithms than in previous years.
Related articlesHere's Rohan Ayyar from E2M with the skinny…
"I think the fact that Google has taken to publicizing and discussing its algorithm changes in the mainstream media represents – here comes the dirty phrase – a 'paradigm shift' in the business of search engine optimization.
Take Mobilegeddon. While Google didn't exactly reveal this directly to a business or tech publication, they turned their practice of letting others discover algorithm updates after they were implemented on its head and pre-announced their intention of using a specific ranking signal. (HTTPS was already tested and in operation when they made it known.)
Possibly encouraged by the BBC and WSJ's coverage of Mobilegeddon, Google chose to directly reveal the deployment of RankBrain to Bloomberg. They didn't do that even with Hummingbird, which was a virtual overhaul of the core algorithm.
Taking the 50,000-foot view, you can see that Google, which puts the "SE" in SEO, has stopped talking to webmasters (bye, Matt Cutts) and started talking to journalists.
Neither Mobilegeddon nor RankBrain caused a radical shake up in search results. However, they were rolled out around the same time, arguably at the expense of traditional updates such as Penguin and Panda. This leads me to speculate that Google has a proactive, business-focused strategy in place to make big picture changes to their flagship product – the search engine."
The rise of the machinesAs mentioned above, RankBrain is an artificial intelligence system developed by Google that helps process its search results using machine learning. Google stated that RankBrain has now become the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.
This is pretty significant and you can understand the ensuing interest from anyone with even a passing interest in search.
Here is Rob Kerry, Chief Strategy Officer at Ayima, on Google's announcement…
"Google's RankBrain announcement came as a surprise to some, but the use of 'machine learning' is a logical step for Google's newly renamed Alphabet parent company, already heavily invested in AI for self-driving cars and automated homes.
RankBrain makes Google more efficient at its job of interpreting and ranking web pages for the 3bn searches made every day. Humans alas are the least efficient and most fault prone part of any tech company, Google certainly isn't the exception to that rule. A growing sophistication in search spam techniques over the past few years has seen a panicked Google, hiring poorly qualified Search Quality Raters and junior staff, to manually vet SERPs and penalise websites.
These fake Googlers have caused more harm than good in my opinion and are now flooding the SEO marketplace, with pseudo Google experts for hire. I for one welcome our RankBrain overlords, with a measured and fact based approach to ranking, interpreting and rating pages."
Mobilegeddon outta here!And while we're on the subject, let's devote a few words to perhaps the most widely publicised event in search from 2015, Mobilegeddon.
As Cory Collins, content marketing manager for Page One Power explains, "the mobile update made it very loud and clear that Google's deeply investing in mobile and we all better get on board. If you were running a site in 2015 that offers a terrible mobile experience you're behind."
Collins adds. "I also hope SEOs learn from adding "geddon" to such events, and that we stop with the sky-is-falling mentality."
Rob Kerry continues…
"Mobilegeddon must have been released on a slow news day, as it was the first time that I've seen SEO mentioned so prominently in the national news.
The ranking algorithm separation made complete sense for Google, with the method, intent and behaviour of searchers on a mobile device differing immensely to desktop.
Whilst the announcement was an anti-climax to most, it was a shot of adrenaline in the arm of many large brands that I know, who had neglected or pushed back on Mobile improvements to their sites up until now."
Google releases search quality guidelinesNovember saw the release of 160 pages of search quality guidelines from Google.
While we're sure there's plenty that Google is keeping under its hat, the guidelines do provide some insight into Google's decision making processes.
The sections on content qualiy are interesting, as Google tells us more about what it considers to be low quality content.
"We will consider content to be Low quality if it is created without adequate time, effort, expertise, or talent/skill. Pages with low quality MC (main content) do not achieve their purpose well."
What Google didn't doDespite Google making official announcements regarding RankBrain and Mobilegeddon, perhaps it's more telling to think about what Google didn't do. Cory Collins speculates…
"No update of Penguin across all of 2015 is a big deal. To me this signals Google isn't in a place where they have great/fine control over their machine learning algorithms. It's a very complex issue, but I believe if Google could have refreshed the data, they would have. This is significant in terms of Google's algorithms moving forward, particularly if they continue to invest in machine learning (which it appears they will)."
Stephen Kenwright, the director of search at Branded3, echoes this sentiment and its 'unknowability'.
"Arguably the biggest development in 2015 has been the approach of the Search Quality team. No Penguin update and little publicity around Panda has meant that the goalposts have been moved.
The biggest shakeups have been around 'core' algorithm updates – which have only been dissected only briefly and in only a couple of sources (with Glenn Gabe leading the charge) – so the specific pitfalls are unknown and as an industry we largely have to assume it's business as usual. The most publicised update – Mobile Friendly on 21st April – arguably had a negligible impact."
App indexingGoogle has been showing app-only content in search results for the last couple of years, but only content that matches the same pages on the web. However starting from last month, Google began showing some 'app-first' content and will also allow searchers to stream 'trial previews' of some apps they don't already have installed.
Here's Stephen Kenwright on how SEOs can take advantage of this:
"2015 has been the first year this decade where the biggest changes in the SERPs have not come from the Search Quality team but from other teams – local in particular, and the developers working on app indexing – who have been taking up more real estate than before and really refining the algorithms powering their sections of the search results to an extent that it's no longer guesswork.
SEOs can now influence mobile app and local rankings more tangibly than before."
Customer MatchPerhaps the biggest PPC feature added in 2015 was Google AdWords' Customer Match, which gives advertisers the ability to upload a batch of email addresses to Google, ultimately providing targeting capabilities to specific customers that were previously unavailable.
Jamie Smith, Vice President of iSpionage, elaborates:
"Not only can you advertise to those people but Adwords creates a "similar audience" list that to get in front of NEW potential customers that match the criteria of your current email list."
Jamie also talks about further paid search shake-ups:
"The second biggest change in PPC was that you MUST invest in CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) or landing page testing in order to improve conversion as the cost per click (CPC) keeps going up. The only way to maintain profit if CPC continues to rise is to increase your conversion rate."
Changes in content distribution and consumptionJames Perrott, stategy director at Zazzle Media, has this to say on how content was delivered in 2015:
"I believe content has changed this year more than any other with the introduction of a broader implementation of Google Answer Boxes, the increased consumption of content on mobile and the evolution of bloggers/vloggers.
The shift hasn't made links redundant, they're still very important, but we're beginning to move further and further away from them being the most important.
How content is being distributed and consumed is changing also, with digital PR, programmatic and social becoming a much more integral part of content distribution. A concrete distribution plan is the key to successful content marketing campaigns now. Hosting content with bloggers and posting it on your social feed just isn't enough anymore."
The dominance of the Knowledge GraphMags Sikora, co-founder of Period Box, charts the negative impact of Google striving to answer every question itself.
"While we focused on the creation of quality content, the constant growth of Knowledge Graph within the search results space, hasn't passed unnoticed. In 2015, Google Knowledge Graph started causing strong traffic drops across more types of websites, with the most worrying being Local Knowledge Graph for mobile users.
Companies invest a lot into research and content creation to provide best answers to search queries, while Google pulls it out to show it directly on their search results pages. That reduces the need for users to click on the source of that information and as a result, reduces the amount of traffic coming through.
Since Google continues the development of Knowledge Graph, this negative traffic trend may be seen across the larger amount of industries and websites in 2016."
Are we closer to a seamless marketing experience?Shreya Kushari, SVP of Search Marketing at DigitasLBi, North America, seems to think so…
"Search is not about the active hand-raiser alone; it is about being there for the moments that matter. 2015 has been the perfect year to help facilitate this as publishers have improved technology and targeting to help create a seamless marketing experience.
Whether it is search automatically targeting based on TV ads or search publishers tying remarketing lists to Brand DMPs, the conversation is about precision.
In 2016, it will be interesting to see if Search publishers allow us to retarget based on DMP data and not necessarily connected to site visits. That will be the next biggest turning point in search."
Google became less 'withholding'Rob Kerry reflects on better times, and whether we will ever see our full referral keyword data again…
"It's almost four years since Google started withholding referral keyword data from website owners, as a whimsical nod to the plethora of privacy lawsuits and government enquiries that were mostly focused on the data collection practices of the search giant themselves. Like cake crumbs dropped from Alphabet's table, Google opened up its Search Console API to enable the download of keyword data in 2015.
Whilst this won't tell us what an individual user searched for, it offers us the ability to match referring keywords to pages and harvest the related traffic data quite easily.
I've yet to see any evidence that the general public were concerned about a website knowing what they searched for to find a page in the first place, but at least this API release gives webmasters better visibility over which keywords are driving traffic."
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy most of us can get behind, in theory--we know practically everyone uses Google and other search engines to find what they need, so having your business website rank highly in organic search results is a smart idea. But what separates the industry experts from the would-be-nice crowd (and what prevents many entrepreneurs from acting on SEO in the first place) is the value of ROI as the ultimate priority. ROI, your return on investment, informs whether your marketing strategy earns more money than it costs to produce or is just a waste of time and effort.
If you're currently experiencing a negative or neutral ROI in your SEO campaign, consider these 10 mistakes and scenarios that could be decreasing your ROI:
1. You're only "half-in". SEO isn't a strategy to "tack on" to an existing list of marketing efforts. You can't put in 15 minutes a day and expect to see results. The more time and effort you put into SEO, the better results you'll see, and there's a minimum amount of effort required before you see any results--for example, if your on-site SEO isn't in order, it won't matter how much you allocate to other tactics like blogging and link building. "Half-in" strategies will make it impossible for you to achieve a positive ROI, so if you're going to pursue SEO, fully commit to it.
2. You're working with the wrong person or agency. While it's tempting to look at results as your biggest indicator of ROI, don't forget the importance of your cost basis. If you're paying too much for SEO, even exemplary inbound traffic results won't be able to secure a positive return for your campaign. Be prudent in your investment decisions; you can hire an agency, hire a full-time expert, or work with freelancers to plan and execute your campaign. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
3. Your inbound links suck. Link building is important, but links have varying degrees of quality based on your link sources, contexts, and structures. One bad link in your inbound link profile probably won't hurt your rankings, but a pattern of spammy, manipulative inbound links can earn you a manual or algorithmic penalty, which can temporarily or even permanently remove your website from organic search results. Check your inbound link profile using a tool like Moz's Open Site Explorer to look for any inbound links that could be holding you back -- then remove them or disavow them. To get good inbound links that build your brand and your rankings, start a guest blogging strategy.
4. Your content sucks. "Bad" content can refer to hastily written, poorly researched, unoriginal, or otherwise uninteresting content for your followers. If you post too much of it, Google will take notice, and you could earn an algorithmic penalty due to the Panda algorithm, which is designed to detect spammy, "thin" content and penalize sites for having too much of it. It isn't enough to write blogs regularly; you have to offer audiences something valuable.
5. You're paying attention to the wrong metrics. I use the term "vanity metrics" to describe numerical metrics that don't especially matter to your bottom line. For example, having lots of followers on Twitter might seem important, but a follower count can't tell you how engaged your audience is with your brand. If you spend too much time trying to achieve these numbers, and not on building relationships that matter, your campaign will never take off. For help deciding what to measure, see What to Measure Weekly, Monthly, and Annually in an SEO Campaign.
6. Your priorities are wrong. There are many priorities for an SEO campaign--ensuring on-site optimization, producing regular content, building inbound links, and engaging socially are just a few of them. If you're spending too much time on a low-priority segment of your strategy (like posting news updates on social media) and not enough on a high-priority segment (like establishing publishing relationships with relevant publishers in your niche), your results will suffer.
7. You're not targeting the right audience. It's not enough to rank highly in Google--you have to rank highly for search queries that actually matter. If you're a car dealership and you're ranking for keywords and phrases that have to do with class-action litigation, it won't matter how high you rank or how much traffic you get from those rankings. Make sure you're targeting the right segments of your demographics and updating your strategies accordingly. For help with that, see How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords for Your SEO Campaign.
8. Your conversion rates are poor. Conversion rates are the last gateway that could prevent an agnostic visitor from becoming a full-fledged customer. You might be getting thousands of visitors from search engine results pages (SERPs), but if your conversion rates are low, none of that traffic will translate into meaningful revenue. Optimize your site for conversions with concise, compelling copy, simple, visible calls to action, and trust signals.
9. You have tunnel vision. Of course, it's possible that you're already earning a positive ROI and you just haven't realized it yet. Organic traffic and conversions are important to calculate the value of an SEO campaign, but they aren't everything. Think of the intangible, less measurable factors that your SEO efforts have produced, such as increased brand exposure and an improved overall reputation. Be sure to consider these in your calculations.
10. You're impatient. Finally, remember that SEO is a strategy that pays off in compounding returns. During your first few months, it's normal and expected for you to see a negative ROI. As you start investing more time into the strategy, your ROI will increase, so don't be concerned unless you're already several months into a strategy with no clear results. For more information on how long SEO takes to start working, and what your expectations should be, see What ROI Can I Expect from SEO? and How to Set Realistic Expectations For Your SEO Campaign.
If you're just getting started in SEO, these are all things to avoid, and if you're already in the thick of a strategy, these are things to correct or resolve. Don't be surprised if it takes some fine-tuning; there's no guarantee or secret formula for success. Instead, your success will rely on a series of adjustments and evaluations that gradually get you closer to your intended goals.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Posted by Jonathan on Dec 17, 2015 | Tags: opinion
Once again it's that time of the year when we gaze into the future and come up with our SEO predictions. Last year we got mobile Armageddon right so hopefully we can do the same this year!
Accelerating the Mobile WebAfter a busy year that included huge mobile search changes and now with Google announcing that it expects to be sending traffic to Accelerated Mobile Pages early next year, we're expecting mobile user experience and page speed to become more of a focus. With the New York Times calculating that more than half of data on news sites comes from advertising, mobile page load speed will become more important than ever.
Google's recently released Search Quality Guidelines state:
Mobile smartphones should make tasks easy, even for mobile users with a small screen device (i.e. size of smartphone, not a tablet). Users want results right away, at that moment, and may not be able to spend a lot of time to find what they are looking for.
Publishers like the New York Times have already signed up to accelerated mobile pages and Facebook is launching its own initiative called Instant Articles. Apple is also getting on the bandwagon with its new news app which is available on iOS 9 and Snapchat's discover feature has been around for almost a year.
Whilst AMP and Instant Articles might not be suitable for all sites and clients, it does expose a wider trend where the focus is on fast, useable, well designed articles that don't require a toolbar to navigate.
App IndexingApp indexing promises to open up content to users already loyal to your brand and to help increase the number of installs. There are over 120 featured Android Apps that have already taken the plunge. We're expecting App indexing to become even more of a hot topic in 2016 publishers and brands with big budgets will look to take advantage of this opportunity to gain even more mobile SERP real estate. Personally I'm not convinced that SMEs should try and leverage this; however I do foresee savvy marketers recognising this trend and understanding the impact an app touch point will have on the purchase decision journey.
Your Money or Your Life PagesSEO as an industry is already well known for being full of jargon and buzzwords. Google's latest Search Quality Guidelines include: "Your Money or Your Life Pages" or YMYL. Google defines YMYL pages as "pages that could potentially impact the future happiness, health or wealth of users".
For the retail, financial services and charity sectors this is particularly important because Google is communicating that specific information and advice on YMYL subjects "demand a high degree of trust and need satisfying website information".
For SEOs the whole 160 page document is a real treat and a goldmine of advice and insight. It contains lots of practical examples of which sites exhibit the highest and lowest quality characteristics, with detailed explanations for each.
Any serious SEO should have already downloaded this guide and understand that this glimpse of Google's inner thinking is an opportunity to be savoured.
User Intent and Quick Answer BoxesQuick answer boxes are already making a big impact on results and smart SEOs are already getting ahead of the competition by researching the types of queries that trigger these results and factoring it in their planning.
In the Search Quality Guidelines, Google introduces another new abbreviation to explain the concept.
SCRB - "Special Content Result Block":
Special Content Result Blocks are designed to show content directly to users on the search results page.
Because mobile phones can be difficult to use, SCRBs can help mobile phone users accomplish their tasks very quickly, especially for certain Know Simple, Visit-in-Person, and Do queries.
Again Google is giving us details about the type of use cases that trigger SCRBs and defines a Know Simple query as a "simple fact that can be answered correctly and completely in a small amount of space".
To take advantage of this opportunity I'm expecting more brands with high trust and authority signals to start doing more longtail keyword research to understand the type of Know Simple queries that their target audience is likely to make. They should be setting up the necessary structured data and optimising landing pages to directly answer users' questions. Again this ties up with my earlier point about smart brands recognising these long tail queries as an important touchpoint in leveraging the opportunity to create brand awareness and influence.
Conversion Rate OptimisationIn 2016 we're expecting to see closer collaboration between SEO and CRO (Conversion Rate optimisation) teams. Relevance and positive user experience have always been core considerations to both disciplines.
I'm sure many of you are already familiar with how the generic rankings can jump around a bit and it feels like Google is testing you when it moves you into the top 5 one day, only to move you back onto page two a day later. Whilst Google may not directly acknowledge that it is testing SERPs, we should recognise that they do have access to a lot of data points, such as the number of query refinements and time stamps between searches, to get a very good understanding about which results are driving positive engagement.
Again to take advantage of this, and not to waste the opportunity in higher search ranking positions, I think SEOs should look to move one step further than just ticking all the appropriate on page boxes and start looking at how they can improve user experience, using conversion rate optimisation and usability best practice. There's a whole plethora of CRO and usability knowledge that SEOs can start taking advantage of, and I'm expecting a diversification of skills in this area in 2016.
Well that's it. If you got this far, thanks for reading. Let us know if you agree or disagree with our predictions!
JonathanJonathan is SEO group head at equimedia and when he is not working on SEO he is normally working on Analytics. He spends his spare time playing hockey and cleaning. Read more about Jonathan
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2015 is nearly at an end - what a year it's been!