Google algorithm changes and how it affects SEO

Google always tweaks and changes their search algorithms and their end goal is to offer their users the most relevant search results possible. Therefore, through its list of iterations and different incarnations, so did SEO optimization shift its focus?

So what is the trend for 2015 SEO?

To hopefully put everyone’s minds at ease, the world of SEO won’t change dramatically in 2015. The lessons learned in 2014, which were relevant and relatively the same from 2013 are pretty much the same. If any buzz-word is uttered by specialists in the field, it’s amplification. What that means is that Google continues to improve their algorithms to map out and target the quality of links as well as content quality. As always, the importance that your website be linked to relevant websites and that your content be more valuable were at the core of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, and only micro changes and adjustments are expected to be implemented.

Smart marketing of a website is still a question of linking, good profiles and also, auditing of inbound linking that have been created unnaturally is what Google is more interested in more than ever. Critical for a successful website in 2014 and for the following year is high quality content.

Content Marketing

2014 has been the year of content marketing, without a question; in short what it entailed was the use of regular, helpful for the user content targeting, combined with a smart usage of social networking, where sharing and engagement of the users was vital.

Also, Google developed ways to be more highly connected to websites that communicated well within social networks, and also, it put a lot of pressure on authors, on connecting authors to their body of work.

Social Media is the new kingpin

Social media is in many ways what makes the major difference between well SEO-ed websites and their competition. Therefore, taking social media seriously will continue to be very important in 2015. Embedding social media sharing and increasing the ease of dissemination of your content within social networks is also going to continue.

Depending on the nature of your website, becoming an authoritative voice in your field on platforms that matter to that particular industry has also become more important and will only continue to grow. What this means is that SEO in 2015, if anything, is going to look a lot more like real life, where creating an image of connectedness and of authority is going to be the most important aspect.

Also, becoming more active on social networks that matter to search engines is also going to continue to increase. In ways Google is beginning to make a more heavy transition from ranking based on numerical, quantitative signals, and to put the decisions in the hands of the user base, by means of ”reading” the signals from social network.

Google+

The Google+ social networking and authorship tool/platform is also going to become more important. The +es that one gets for their content is also going to matter a lot more when considering the larger picture and so “social signals” from within Google itself are going to garner a more important role in the overall picture.