It seems that everytime Google announces an algorithm update, every site owner and SEO marketer would clasp their hands together and hope that all the time and hard work spent at ranking their sites up wouldn’t go up in smoke overnight. And before the year 2014 ended, that very same search engine provider gave everyone a Christmas present, in the form of one of its famous algo updates.
So, as Google continues to enforce their 
hold in search engine superiority, the site owners should also try to do their best to make sure they don’t get on its bad side. That’s why with the dawn of the new year, it’s time to make some new SEO adaptations as well.
These are the things you should look out for in your SEO strategies for 2015.
Broad Keywords Don’t Cut It Anymore
Using general one-word keywords have resulted in great traffics for sites that have successfully opted for them, however, the strategy of using them is slowly getting unconventional. They rank slow and take a lot of time, effort and money to do so. Now, long-tail keyword phrases are becoming the favored ones as they get the attention of the right traffic for one’s site. Ranking up these keywords will be much easier as they will obviously have lesser competition compared to short-tailed keywords.
Doing your research for the best keyword phrase before picking one will always be the optimal marketing strategy. Plan your moves ahead and try to determine which keywords will your consumers likely use when searching for your business niche.
ROI Metrics > Keyword Rankings
While showing up on the top of the rankings for relevant search queries does sound nice for your business, it won’t do anything good unless you get some cash flowing in. Focusing your efforts solely on strengthening your keyword rankings is a foolhardy move – instead, you should avert your efforts to determining how your return on investments are going. If anything else, knowing how many inbound links, leads and sales you’ve gained on your latest marketing efforts would definitely be better than hearing a report on how you’re doing on your keyword rankings.
Trying Out Other Search Engines
When it comes to search engine providers, Google is King. However, that doesn’t mean the others should just be tossed aside. There’s Yahoo and Bing to name a few major players in this game as well. The decision of Firefox to use Yahoo instead of Google as their default search engine speaks volumes of how the search engine industry might be undergoing an upheaval – this is further followed by the expiration of Google’s contract with Safari as well.
So while Google should remain as your main search engine focus, making sure your site is also visible on other search engines would also be very beneficial for you.
Organic Link Building
One truth that remained unchanged ever since SEO was introduced was the importance of links. On the first stages, a lot marketers and site owners alike managed to exploit these links to put their sites to the top of Google’s SERPs, but that only made Google pissed. When they released Panda, these unethical and downright spammy linkbuilding strategies also made their exit. Blackhat SEO still utilize the use of this, but if you’re discovered by Google, consider your site ranking gone.
What one needs to do is to build links naturally. Create posts and post them on popular sites or create great content for your viewers to link back to you. There are a lot of methods out there that you can use to those links honestly without having to get on Google’s bad side
Social Media Application
Facebook and Twitter aren’t simply sites where people interact with one another. These platforms have also become quite efficient tools when it comes to marketing. However, most of these netizens have finally wised up to various marketing strategies in social media. What you need to do this time is to make your approaches up close and personal.
Try to get to know your viewers and readers and interact with them. Don’t just shoot up some random post from your site and expect them to read all about it. Your social media outlets aren’t just a means to share your content easily – it’s an effective tool to get to know your clients better by interacting with them.
Google will continue to apply the necessary changes it sees fit in order to provide the best experience for their users so that they, in turn, will continue using them. And along with those changes, how we see and apply SEO will constantly change as well.
About the author:
Ruben Licera Jr is a new media enthusiast and has written several articles on internet marketing specifically web design, search engine optimization and social media management. You can follow him via Google+ and Twitter .
