2014 has been a turbulent year in SEO, there have been a record number of changes, the SERP’s have changed in every vertical and the most recent updates have been some of the most discussed updates across social media and forums. The following article asks six questions to some of the best minds in organic marketing and SEO, the article provides insights into what happened in 2014 and what they predict will happen in 2015 including a number of recommendations for you to consider or implement in the coming months. The article contains views from agency heads, directors / heads of marketing and search departments and freelance consultants.

1. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
Going
into
2015
2014
has
been
a
turbulent
year
in
SEO,
there
have
been
a
record
number
of
changes,
the
SERP’s
have
changed
in
every
vertical
and
the
most
recent
updates
have
been
some
of
the
most
discussed
updates
across
social
media
and
forums.
The
following
article
asks
six
questions
to
some
of
the
best
minds
in
organic
marketing
and
SEO,
the
article
provides
insights
into
what
happened
in
2014
and
what
they
predict
will
happen
in
2015
including
a
number
of
recommendations
for
you
to
consider
or
implement
in
the
coming
months.

2. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Who
Was
Involved:
Agency
Heads
Simon
Penson
-­‐
Founder
and
MD
Zazzle
Media
|
@simonpenson
......................................
3
Kevin
Gibbons
-­‐
MD
of
Blueglass
|
@kevgibbo
.....................................................................
4
Barry
Adams
-­‐
Founder
@
Polemic
Digital
|
@badams
.......................................................
6
Matt
Beswick
-­‐
Director
of
Hidden
Pixel
|
@mattbeswick
...................................................
8
Heads
of
Departments
Paddy
Moogan
-­‐
paddymoogan.com
|
@paddymoogan
....................................................
10
Stacey
Cavanagh
MacNaught
-­‐
Search
Director
@
Techmark,
http://blogsession.co.uk/
|
@staceycav
...........................................................
11
Justin
Butcher
-­‐
Head
of
Digital
Marketing
at
Return
On
Digital
|
@justin_butcher
..........
12
Paul
Rogers
-­‐
Founder
of
http://www.paulnrogers.com/
|
@paulnrogers
........................
15
Michael
Briggs
-­‐
Head
of
SEO
at
Skyscanner
|
@michaelkbriggs
.......................................
16
Stephen
Kenwright
-­‐
Head
of
Search
at
Branded3
|
@stekenwright
.................................
18
Independent
Consultant
Carl
Hendy
-­‐
Digital
Consultant
|
http://www.carlhendy.com
|
@carlhendy
....................
20
SEO
Tool
Manufactures
Dan
Sharp
-­‐
Founder
of
Screaming
Frog
|
@screamingfrog
...............................................
22
Patrick
Hathaway
-­‐
Director
URL
Profiler
|
@HathawayP
.................................................
23
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
2

3. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Agency
Heads
Simon
Penson
-­‐
Founder
and
MD
Zazzle
Media
|
@simonpenson
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
It’s
a
cliche
but
‘good
marketing.’
The
web
is
now
a
mature
mass
media
channel
and
the
only
way
to
truly
build
for
the
long
term
is
to
get
the
entire
marketing
mix
right
and
create
real
value
for
your
audience.
Do
that
and
they
will
follow
you.
Content,
clearly,
sits
at
the
heart
of
all
of
that.
Forget
chasing
the
algorithm,
find,
understand
and
help
your
clients,
customers
or
audience.
the
rest
follows.
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
Education.
Helping
marketing
teams
to
understand
the
above
and
stop
measuring
purely
Cost
per
Acquisition
metrics.
That
kind
of
KPI
drives
the
wrong,
short-­‐termist,
behaviour
from
search
agencies.
It
is
about
working
together
on
a
long
term
plan
that
measures
a
host
of
different
metrics
to
build
an
audience
and
digital
brand
presence
of
real
value.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Plan
early
and
in
detail.
Put
content
at
the
heart
of
your
strategy
and
use
data
to
inform
what
that
looks
like.
I
spoke
about
this
recently
at
Searchlove
in
San
Diego
and
you
can
see
one
of
our
processes
for
doing
that
here.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
A
move
away
from
pure
head
term
focus
is
going
to
be
difficult
to
‘sell’
in
but
is
critical.
Hummingbird
is
changing
the
way
results
are
delivered
and
we
see
much
more
success
in
long
tail
traffic
now.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Probably
the
above!
More
traffic
for
those
with
great
domains
that
put
content
front
and
centre
and
ensure
it
is
aligned
to
search
opportunity.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
Improve
the
consistency
of
results
in
different
niches.
Some
are
much
better
than
others
and
no
one
likes
inconsistency!
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
3

4. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
There's
been
more
changes
over
the
last
12-­‐18
months,
than
I
can
probably
remember
over
the
previous
10
years!
Whether
that's
pandas,
penguins,
pigeons
or
hummingbirds
-­‐
they've
all
had
a
common
theme
of
fighting
manipulation
and
anything
which
looks
like
an
SEO
footprint.
It
was
never
going
to
be
a
smooth
ride
for
Google,
but
that
doesn't
mean
it
isn't
the
right
way
forward.
One
good
thing
that's
come
out
of
this
is
that
we
no
longer
have
to
ask
the
question
of
whether
content
is
the
right
way
to
go
or
not,
we
have
no
choice
but
to
build
real
brands
in
order
to
succeed.
Where
we're
focusing
at
BlueGlass
and
believe
will
be
most
important
aspect
towards
success
in
2015
is
in
data-­‐driven
content
-­‐
I'll
explain
more
in
the
next
answer!
The
challenge
for
many
has
been
because
SEO
has
become
too
broad
for
one
person
now,
and
in
the
traditional
sense
I
see
the
role
being
SEO
strategists
-­‐
supported
by
content
production
and
outreach/promotion
specialists.
We've
structured
our
team
in
this
way
for
a
while
now
-­‐
as
the
client
lifecycle
demands
that
you
are
good
in
each
of
these
key
areas
(strategy,
production
and
promotion)
-­‐
but
they're
all
completely
different
skillsets
and
people.
I've
also
trained
a
lot
of
large
brands
over
the
last
12
months
on
content
marketing
-­‐
and
the
one
common
theme
is
that
they
are
growing
their
digital
teams
rapidly,
but
there's
a
lack
of
structure
behind
where
they
are
recruiting.
Having
the
right
mix
of
people
in
the
team
will
be
essential
for
anyone,
brands
or
agencies,
to
get
results
in
2015.
Otherwise
they
risk
being
over-­‐taken
by
more
agile
and
lean/nimble
teams
who
can
move
quicker.
The
key
starting
point
for
all
of
this,
as
I
mentioned
in
my
last
answer,
is
data.
Strategy
should
always
start
with
data,
without
this
you
can't
analyse
past
performance,
marketplace
trends,
or
link
profiles
etc
-­‐
and
more
importantly
you
can't
make
key
business
decisions
on
how
to
best
move
forward.
Data
isn't
just
about
being
measurable
either
-­‐
it's
no
co-­‐incidence
that
data-­‐driven
content
is
where
I
always
see
the
best
success.
Brands
are
now
story-­‐tellers
and
to
be
credible/trusted
they
need
to
based
this
on
fact,
data
and
insight
that
hasn't
been
seen
before.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
My
advice
would
be
to
build
an
audience
and
don't
rely
on
Google.
If
you
look
at
the
sites
that
are
winning
in
Google,
they
are
the
ones
who
are
often
the
biggest
brands
-­‐
look
at
Tripadvisor
or
MoneySuperMarket
as
an
example.
They
want
to
capture
as
much
traffic
as
possible
from
organic
search,
of
course,
and
are
very
good
at
doing
so
-­‐
but
once
you're
on
their
site,
they'd
rather
you
remembered
them
and
came
back
directly
next
time.
That
avoids
the
risk
of
you
finding
another
competitor
along
the
way,
so
I
would
advise
you
setup
your
call-­‐to-­‐actions
around
signing
up
for
a
newsletter,
following
on
Twitter,
becoming
a
fan
on
Facebook,
downloading
an
app
etc..
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Kevin
Gibbons
-­‐
MD
of
Blueglass
|
@kevgibbo
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
4

5. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
That
way
rather
than
going
to
Google
to
find
your
next
holiday,
you
go
straight
to
TripAdvisor
-­‐
likewise
for
MoneySupermarket
with
insurance.
From
a
content
perspective
this
is
hugely
important
too.
You
want
to
make
your
biggest
link
building
tool
your
publish
button,
so
if
you're
continually
adding
to
your
readership
and
subscriber
base
the
audience
is
always
growing.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
Dealing
with
ever-­‐changing
algorithm
changes
has
been
the
biggest
theme
of
2014.
But
one
thing
I
wrote
about
earlier
in
the
year
was
the
influence
of
Google
vertical
search
and
marketers
now
have
to
consider
how
Google
may
be
a
more
direct
competitor
with
their
own
properties
taking
traffic
away
from
them
in
the
future.
This
is
becoming
an
increasingly
important
threat
towards
a
lot
of
brands
-­‐
it's
worth
ensuring
that
you
can
set
your
brand
up
to
a)
maximise
as
much
of
this
as
you
can
via
schemas,
rich
snippet
markups
and
the
knowledge
graph,
and
b)
build
a
brand
that
your
customers
will
prefer
to
visit
rather
than
typing
in
a
query
into
Google!
Other
key
areas
to
look
out
for
include,
continued
rollout
of
SSL
on
domains,
mobile
search
experience
optimisation,
increase
in
importance
of
wearable
tech
and
notifications,
semantic
search
and
sentiment
analysis
-­‐
each
could
be
a
new
topic
in
itself!
Plus
I'm
sure
they'll
be
new
penguins,
pandas,
platypuses
etc
to
keep
us
on
our
toes.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing,
is
probably
for
greater
integration
with
paid.
Paid
search
has
always
been
much
more
measurable
than
organic,
but
the
growth
of
social
advertising
is
huge
-­‐
especially
given
the
targeting
options
available
to
marketers.
Likewise
content
distribution
channels
provide
a
great
reach
to
really
push
content
much
further
-­‐
so
as
content
become
bigger
and
more
creative,
I'd
expect/hope
to
see
the
paid
budgets
shift
more
towards
the
promotion
of
campaigns.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
I
do
believe
Google
are
on
a
good
track
with
improving
the
quality
of
search
results
-­‐
it's
an
unenviable
task
being
a
referee
in
any
sport,
that's
essentially
what
Google
is
to
businesses
online.
But
SEO
is
now
very
much
about
building
a
strong
user
experience
for
people.
That
may
sound
obvious,
but
it
hasn't
always
been
that
way
-­‐
and
search
engines
are
now
secondary
towards
engaging
with
and
building
your
audience,
which
is
how
it
absolutely
should
be.
I
wrote
an
article
18
months
ago
on
how
I
saw
human
engagement
becoming
Google's
biggest
ranking
factor
-­‐
this
is
something
I'd
certainly
expect
to
see
improve
in
more
so
over
the
next
12
months.
You
can
learn
a
lot,
if
not
more,
from
Google's
failures
too
-­‐
and
authorship
would
have
to
be
placed
in
that
category.
However,
it
does
show
you
what
Google
are
trying
to
achieve,
by
ranking
content
by
popularity
and
author
authority,
not
just
where
it
was
published.
So
authorship
might
be
dead,
but
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
5

6. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
publishing
high
quality
content
from
authority
writers
certainly
isn't
-­‐
and
if
you
were
only
doing
this
for
SEO
in
the
first
place,
you
were
doing
it
wrong
anyway.
Barry
Adams
-­‐
Founder
@
Polemic
Digital
|
@badams
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
First
of
all
you
need
to
have
a
product
or
service
that
Google
can't
(easily)
steal
or
copy.
Increasingly
we
see
Google
wanting
to
be
the
end-­‐destination,
rather
than
the
gateway,
which
is
why
they're
using
websites'
content
to
provide
answers
directly
in
their
search
results
(knowledge
graph),
or
building
rival
services
of
their
own
(Google
Maps,
Flights,
Hotel
Finder,
Credit
Card
comparison,
etc).
So
make
sure
you
have
something
that
Google
can't
(yet)
take
over,
otherwise
you'll
find
yourself
out
of
business
very
quickly.
Secondly,
you
need
to
diversify
your
acquisition
channels.
Even
if
you
have
a
unique
product,
there's
no
guarantee
Google
will
show
you
in
its
search
results.
Organic
search
is
likely
to
be
your
biggest
traffic
driver
for
the
foreseeable
future,
but
if
Google
can't
take
over
what
you
do
they'll
damn
sure
try
to
force
you
to
buy
AdWords
ads.
So
don't
rely
too
much
on
a
single
traffic
source.
Diversify
your
digital
marketing
channels,
and
do
them
all
as
well
as
you
can.
Aside
from
preventing
yourself
from
becoming
obsolete
when
Google
tries
to
move
in
to
your
niche,
your
biggest
challenge
is
to
do
effective
SEO
whilst
steering
clear
of
Google
penalties
and
algorithmic
filters.
There
has
always
been
a
conflict
between
what
works
to
drive
organic
visiblity,
and
what
Google
recommends
you
do.
In
recent
years
this
conflict
ignited
into
full-­‐on
war
when
Google
started
putting
the
onus
of
cleaning
up
its
search
results
firmly
on
webmasters
rather
than
on
its
own
webspam
team,
and
they've
been
liberally
handing
out
penalties
ever
since.
The
problem
is
of
course
that
effective
SEO
often
breaks
Google's
guidelines.
So,
to
avoid
getting
penalised,
you
have
to
be
smart
about
what
you
do,
how
you
do
it,
and
the
tracks
that
you
leave
for
Google
to
discover.
That'll
be
your
biggest
challenge.
I
also
expect
Google
will
keep
shifting
the
goalposts,
and
tactics
that
work
fine
now
will
be
re-­‐
designated
as
spam
at
some
point
down
the
line.
Preparing
for
that
can
also
be
quite
challenging,
and
you'll
need
contingency
plans
for
when
that
happens.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
6

7. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
As
per
the
first
point,
diversification
is
key.
I'm
a
SEO
guy
through
and
through,
and
I'm
advising
my
clients
to
not
rely
purely
on
SEO.
Yes,
organic
search
is
and
will
remain
the
strongest
driver
of
growth
for
nearly
all
websites
out
there,
but
due
to
the
increasingly
adversarial
attitude
Google
is
adopting
towards
the
web,
you
can't
rely
on
organic
search
indefinitely.
Google
wants
you
to
buy
ads,
so
you
better
suck
it
up
and
start
an
AdWords
campaign.
When
those
paid
visits
arrive
on
your
website,
work
hard
to
convert
them
into
customers;
use
CRO
and
UX
to
make
your
website
deliver
tangible
results
for
your
business.
And
when
you've
won
a
customer,
do
whatever
you
can
to
keep
them:
use
email
marketing
and
social
media
effectively
to
retain
business
so
you
don't
have
to
keep
paying
Google
for
the
privilege
of
sending
you
new
customers.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
in
2015?
I'm
not
sure
if
2015
is
the
year,
but
I'm
convinced
that
in
the
near
future
Google
will
start
using
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
7
brand
sentiment
as
an
alternative
to
link-­‐based
metrics
for
its
ranking
algorithms.
A
positive
brand
sentiment,
as
evidenced
through
positive
customer
reviews
and
mentions
online,
will
become
a
crucial
factor
for
businesses
that
want
to
gain
visibility
in
search.
If
and
when
this
is
rolled
out,
expect
to
see
a
massive
shift
in
search
visibility
for
some
major
brands,
as
well
as
for
many
smaller
players.
Sentiment
analysis
is
however
a
notoriously
difficult
nut
to
crack,
but
I'm
seeing
all
kinds
of
interesting
technologies
appear
in
this
space,
so
it's
definitely
something
to
keep
an
eye
on
and
prepare
for.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
See
point
4.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
If
I
were
Google
I'd
make
damn
sure
I
recognised
my
place
in
the
online
ecosystem.
Google
has
broken
the
unofficial
agreement
they
had
with
the
web:
that
they
could
take
websites'
content
to
show
in
their
search
results,
and
in
return
they
would
send
relevant
traffic
back
to
those
websites.
Now
Google
believes
that
they
shouldn't
be
the
middleman,
but
instead
act
as
final
destination,
using
whatever
means
at
their
disposal
to
keep
people
on
their
own
sites
so
they
can
harvest
more
personal
data
and
show
more
ads.
Google
still
takes
all
your
content,
but
increasingly
it
doesn't
send
traffic
to
your
site
but
wants
you
to
pay
for
it
through
AdWords
advertising.
It's
a
destructive
development
for
the
rest
of
the
web,
causing
great
harm
to
the
online
businesses
whose
websites
Google
used
for
building
its
empire
the
first
place.
Google
needs
to
realise
its
position
in
the
ecosystem
and
stop
chasing
after
profit
maximisation
to
the
detriment
of
everything
and
everyone
else.

8. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Matt
Beswick
-­‐
Director
of
Hidden
Pixel
|
@mattbeswick
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
Although
the
changes
have
been
high
profile,
I
actually
think
that
2014
has
been
fairly
quiet
when
you
compare
it
to
the
previous
couple
of
years.
Panda
and
Penguin
pretty
much
changed
the
entire
landscape
over
a
couple
of
months
but
since
then
we’ve
seen
an
evolution,
and
I
think
that’s
going
to
continue.
The
‘bar’
is
lowering,
so
you
can’t
get
away
with
as
dodgy
now
as
you
could
even
at
the
start
of
last
year,
and
that’s
going
to
continue.
Quality
is
definitely
key
to
success
now
and
it’s
getting
far
more
difficult
to
fake
that.
I
also
think
we’re
going
to
see
Google
putting
much
more
focus
into
Mobile.
This
was
something
talked
about
at
length
at
SearchLove
this
year,
in
particular
by
Will
Critchlow
(slide
deck
here)
and
if
you
look
at
user
habits
there’s
definitely
an
accelerating
shift
away
from
desktop.
Technology.
More
specifically,
identifying
where
your
business
sits,
and
how
to
utilise
the
right
technology
to
get
your
message
to
the
right
audience.
Google
have
shown
over
the
last
few
years
that
their
problems
suddenly
become
ours,
even
if
it
should
really
be
their
job
to
implement
the
technical
solution.
Disavow
and
hreflang
are
just
a
couple
of
examples
of
this
-­‐
the
latter
being
incredibly
difficult
to
get
right
even
for
someone
who
knows
what
they’re
doing.
Add
multi
platform
into
the
mix
and
you’ve
got
a
bucket
of
rel
alternate
/
http
header
/
redirect
nightmares
before
you’ve
even
considered
whether
your
content
sits
on
desktop,
tablet,
mobile,
or
a
mixture
of
the
three.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
If
all
you’re
worrying
about
is
organic
traffic
you’re
doing
it
wrong.
I
honestly
believe
that
businesses
need
to
be
paying
for
traffic
in
one
form
or
another
(Adwords,
Social,
etc.)
and
should
be
putting
more
time
into
building
brand
equity
so
that
they’re
not
reliant
on
Google
magically
giving
them
sales.
Yes,
SEO
is
still
really
important
-­‐
and
will
continue
to
be
-­‐
but
whether
you’re
a
plumber
or
a
multi-­‐national
you
need
to
be
thinking
about
your
overall
marketing
strategy
and
not
just
Google.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
This
will
almost
certainly
come
back
to
bite
me
in
the
backside
but
I
don’t
think
there’ll
be
any
massive
shocks
in
2015.
Penguin
will
probably
go
the
way
of
Panda
and
be
built
into
the
continuously
updating
main
algorithm,
which
will
mix
things
up
a
bit,
but
other
than
that
I
think
we’re
in
for
evolution
not
revolution.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
8

9. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Spam
will
still
work,
but
not
for
as
long,
and
even
the
spammers
will
start
to
come
around
to
the
“content
marketing”
way
of
thinking!
The
focus
has
been
shifting
very
quickly
towards
“brand”,
and
that’s
going
to
continue
so
doing
everything
you
can
to
build
that
recognition
is
going
to
be
the
most
powerful
way
of
generating
traffic
over
the
long
term.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
Honestly,
I’d
hit
spam
harder.
There
are
still
too
many
SERPs
that
are
full
of
absolute
rubbish
that
doesn’t
deserve
to
be
there.
Yes,
sites
get
caught
in
the
crossfire
but
for
the
most
part
people
who
get
hit
by
Panda
and
Penguin
deserve
it.
There’s
been
talk
this
week
of
an
“algorithmic
penalty”
notice
appearing
in
WMT
so
if
that
rolls
out
and
site
owners
have
full
visibility
of
what’s
affecting
them
there
really
won’t
be
a
reason
for
Google
to
hold
back.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
9

10. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Paddy
Moogan
-­‐
paddymoogan.com
|
@paddymoogan
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
To
build
a
website
that
isn't
exposed
to
algorithm
changes
that
are
designed
to
clean
up
spam
or
low
quality
results.
Obviously
we
can't
predict
every
algorithm
update
from
Google
and
many
will
be
beyond
our
control,
but
when
it
comes
to
spam,
it
is
something
we
need
to
take
control
of.
With
all
the
UI
changes
to
Google
search
results
alongside
this,
the
most
important
thing
is
to
build
up
a
loyal
user
base
so
that
you're
not
as
reliant
on
Google.
This
is
easier
said
than
done,
but
it's
vital
for
businesses
who
operate
online.
I
think
we're
going
to
see
even
more
changes
to
the
design
of
search
results
and
we're
going
to
see
a
stronger
push
towards
predicting
what
users
want.
We're
seeing
things
like
Google
Now
and
Google
Inbox
which
are
a
clear
signal
of
where
Google
want
to
go.
This
leads
to
the
challenge
of
making
your
customers
want
to
see
your
brand.
If
customers
don't
even
notice
when
your
brand
isn't
in
search
results,
then
you
have
a
problem.
Your
customers
need
to
want
to
see
your
brand
and
content
so
much,
that
they
seek
it
out.
This
is
a
huge
challenge
for
many
businesses.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Don't
ignore
mobile.
Conversion
rates
from
mobile
devices
are
still
usually
lower
than
desktop
which
can
be
for
several
reasons,
one
of
which
being
a
bad
user
experience.
However
even
if
you
provide
a
good
user
experience,
you
may
still
see
lower
conversion
rates
on
mobile
devices
due
to
the
mindset
of
users
still
not
being
in
the
right
place
and
not
trusting
transactions
on
mobile
devices.
But
this
will
change
over
time.
Apply
Pay
is
still
in
it's
infancy,
but
it
will
grow
and
become
more
trusted
which
means
that
businesses
need
to
be
optimising
for
mobile
experiences.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
I
think
we
will
see
some
kind
of
an
update
targeted
at
retailers.
Google
will
move
shopping
results
into
even
more
prominent
positions
on
mobile
devices
and
I
think
they
will
also
try
to
weed
out
low
quality
retailers
and
integrate
more
trust
signals
into
rankings
that
have
commercial
intent.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Organic
results
on
a
mobile
will
be
focused
on
more
by
Google.
We
still
see
differing
results
on
mobile
vs.
desktop,
particularly
in
spammy
industries
and
I
think
Google
will
address
this
balance
-­‐
or
at
least
try
to!
This
is
important
due
to
the
sheer
number
of
people
using
their
mobile
device
to
search
rather
than
desktop.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Heads
of
Departments
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
10

11. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
I'd
reduce
the
impact
of
short-­‐term
link
velocity.
Some
spam
websites
only
need
to
rank
for
a
few
days
in
order
to
make
a
worthwhile
profit,
a
lot
of
this
is
driven
by
short
bursts
of
spammy
links
and
Google
are
still
quite
slow
at
detecting
the
links
and
taking
action.
I'd
try
to
take
an
approach
of
stopping
the
links
having
an
impact
first
rather
than
trying
to
clean
it
up
afterwards.
Easiest
way
to
do
this
is
to
turn
the
dial
down
on
big
surges
of
links
having
an
immediate
effect
on
rankings.
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
The
update
I
was
expecting
to
have
the
biggest
impact
in
2014
was
the
long
awaited
Penguin
update.
But
it
doesn’t
appear
to
have
had
the
far
reaching
impact
of
previous
iterations
and,
let’s
be
honest,
there’s
still
a
lot
of
sites
that
rank
for
some
massive
headline
terms
off
the
back
of
a
load
of
Spam.
But
it
was
a
clear
message
that
the
old
tactics
are
still
a
prime
target
for
Google
to
deal
with.
For
me
though,
the
biggest
statement
Google
made
in
2014,
however,
was
on
the
mobile
side
of
things.
Over
a
year
ago
at
Pubcon
2013,
Matt
Cutts
made
it
clear
that
non
mobile
sites
will
begin
to
receive
less
traffic
from
mobile
search.
Then
we
saw
mobile
UX
recommendations
appear
in
beta
(then
out
of
beta)
in
the
Page
Speed
Insights
tool.
And
in
the
past
couple
of
months,
we’ve
seen
Google
testing
various
icons
in
mobile
search,
designed
to
incentivise
the
clicks
on
the
mobile
ready
sites.
This
culminated,
just
a
couple
of
weeks
ago,
in
mobile
UX
being
added
to
Webmaster
Tools.
So
what’s
clear
is
that
mobile
UX
is
going
to
become
an
increasingly
significant
ranking
factor
in
mobile
search.
And
for
a
number
of
campaigns
I
work
on,
mobile
search
is
over
30%
of
their
organic
traffic
and
it’s
still
growing.
So
I
think
as
well
as
all
the
tactics
changes
we’ve
made
to
deal
with
algorithm
updates
in
the
past
few
years,
2015
will
also
see
a
greater
need
for
businesses
to
take
mobile
seriously
–
and
that
doesn’t
mean
just
having
a
mobile
site
of
any
sort!
It
means
investing
as
much
into
mobile
user
experience
and
speed
as
you
would
for
desktop.
I
think
2014’s
challenges
will
still
be
prevalent
in
2015.
The
only
sustainable
ways
to
acquire
the
links
we
all
still
need
to
succeed
in
SEO
now
requires
more
content
marketing
and
PR
skillset
and
that’s
a
challenge
we’ll
continue
to
face.
And
as
agencies
and
practitioners
get
better
and
better
at
it,
we’ll
see
the
competition
increase,
the
content
marketplace
get
fuller
and
we’ll
see
it
get
harder
to
get
even
the
most
spectacular
content
seen.
But
surely
it’s
the
challenges
that
keep
us
all
coming
back?
;-­‐
)
I
can’t
state
enough
how
big
a
deal
I
think
mobile
is
going
to
be
for
SEO
rankings,
traffic
and
therefore
leads
or
sales
in
2015
too.
It’s
not
“the
year
of
mobile.”
That
was
5
or
6
years
back!
But
what
we’ve
seen
is
Google
taking
a
real
stance
on
it
now.
I
would
go
as
far
as
to
call
it
a
definite
rankings
factor
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Stacey
Cavanagh
MacNaught
-­‐
Search
Director
@
Techmark,
http://blogsession.co.uk/
|
@staceycav
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
11

12. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
that
will
increase
in
importance
over
the
coming
year.
And
believe
it
or
not,
there
are
still
businesses
out
there
without
a
mobile
website.
And
there
are
businesses
who
think
they’ve
got
mobile
“boxed”
because
they
have
a
crappy
mobile
site.
Google’s
addition
of
“mobile
UX”
to
Webmaster
Tools
makes
a
statement.
It’s
not
about
crushing
more
content
onto
a
smaller
screen.
It’s
about
designing
and
delivering
the
same
simple
experience
you
would
deliver
to
desktop
users
across
smaller
screens
too.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
We’ve
already
educated
our
clients
on
Panda,
Penguin
and
Hummingbird
and
how
to
ensure
they’re
benefitting
from
that
rather
than
struggling
against
them.
I
think
most
people
in
our
industry
will
have
already
done
that.
So,
at
the
risk
of
sounding
like
a
broken
record,
it’s
back
to
mobile
UX
for
me.
If
a
third
of
your
organic
traffic
is
coming
from
mobile
and
you’ve
got
either
no
or
a
poor
mobile
site
(while
your
competitors
have
nice
slick
ones)
then
next
year
could
spell
trouble.
So
I’d
be
advising
clients
to
invest
there.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
The
mobile
situation,
I
think.
I
reckon
that
will
be
the
thing
least
people
expect
–
to
suddenly
potentially
lose
a
chunk
of
their
organic
traffic
because
their
mobile
offering
was
substandard.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Aside
from
Google
taking
a
more
serious
approach
to
mobile
usability
as
a
ranking
factor,
I
think
we’ll
be
seeing
even
more
competition
in
the
content
marketing
space.
And
ultimately,
I
think
that
will
mean
that
organic
search
and
content
marketing
teams
need
to
rely
more
upon
the
services
of
paid
media
teams
for
paid
content
discovery
through
dedicated
platforms
like
Zemanta
and
Outbrain
and
also
through
social
media.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
I’d
turn
the
dial
up
a
bit
on
that
last
Penguin
update,
that’s
for
sure.
It
was
great
to
see
people
who
had
worked
hard
to
clean
up
recover
some
of
their
visibility.
But
it
was
disappointing
to
see
so
many
sites
still
practicing
so
many
dodgy
tactics
not
see
any
detrimental
impact
at
all.
Justin
Butcher
-­‐
Head
of
Digital
Marketing
at
Return
On
Digital
|
@justin_butcher
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
12

13. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
In
my
view,
the
most
important
thing
you
need
to
do
to
be
successful
in
organic
search
marketing,
now
and
in
2015,
is
to
understand
the
importance
of
people
research
over
traditional
keyword
research.
Although
keyword
research
is
obviously
still
an
extremely
important
thing
to
be
doing,
these
days
it
is
only
one
small
part
of
an
increasingly
difficult
puzzle.
Panda
killed
thin
and
duplicate
content,
Penguin
has
killed
the
easy
link
and
Hummingbird
means
that
you
need
to
deal
with
user
intent
with
your
content
more
than
you
ever
had
to
before.
Google
is
also
increasingly
serving
people
results
based
on
what
they
know
about
the
user
before
they
have
even
typed
the
search.
Therefore
your
onsite
content
needs
to
be
remarkable,
your
links
need
to
be
earned,
not
built,
and
technically
your
site
needs
to
be
as
crawl
efficient
as
possible.
Nowadays,
it
sometimes
feels
like
the
way
to
win
at
SEO
is
to
not
do
SEO
at
all;
your
performance
in
organic
search
is
increasingly
becoming
a
barometer
of
your
other
marketing
efforts.
And
you
can’t
market
to
people
you
don’t
understand.
Over
the
last
couple
of
years
there
has
been
an
explosion
in
the
amount
of
truly
awful
content
being
released
in
the
name
of
“content
marketing”
or
“online
PR”
because
this
is
what
SEOs
are
being
told
they
need
to
do
to
get
links.
The
reason
why
the
vast
majority
of
this
stuff
fails
is
because
the
people
creating
it
have
a
very
superficial
understanding
of
the
people
they
are
trying
to
target,
or
the
channels
they
are
using
to
try
and
push
this
material
out
eg
social
or
PR.
Research
the
people
thoroughly
before
you
do
anything
else.
Yes,
look
at
search
volumes
and
the
search
language
that
they
use,
and
do
use
PPC
data
as
it
can
be
invaluable
now
that
organic
keyword
data
has
all
but
disappeared.
But
also
look
into
where
they
hang
out
online
and
offline,
who
influences
them,
what
motivates
them,
what
content
resonates
with
them,
where
they
would
share
it,
what
the
common
problems
are,
how
they
make
purchasing
decisions
etc.
Use
as
much
data
as
you
can
but
also
don’t
overlook
qualitative
research
methodology
to
help
you
understand
the
people
as
intimately
as
you
possibly
can.
I
think,
as
an
agency,
our
biggest
challenge
will
be
to
ensure
that
we
have
the
resource
in
the
right
areas.
This
means
being
able
to
anticipate
where
things
are
going
and
to
hire
accordingly.
For
example,
in
2014
we
brought
more
PR
expertise
in
house
as
we
anticipated
that
we
would
need
it
based
on
where
things
were
heading
in
2013.
The
way
things
currently
look,
for
us
I
think
2015
will
be
about
bringing
in
specialists
in
areas
we
haven’t
necessarily
invested
in
before.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Firstly,
I
know
that
every
year
is
touted
as
the
year
of
mobile
but
for
the
first
time
in
2014
we
have
seen
some
clients
starting
to
get
more
mobile
traffic
than
non-­‐mobile
traffic.
Make
sure
your
mobile
presence
is
as
useful
to
a
mobile
user
as
your
desktop
presence
is
to
a
desktop
user.
To
achieve
this,
you
need
to
understand
the
differences
between
how
your
mobile
and
desktop
users
differ
in
terms
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
There
are
two
bits
of
advice
I
would
give
here.
13

14. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
of
behaviour
and
overall
need.
Segment
mobile
and
non-­‐mobile
data
and
look
at
the
differences
in
search
behaviour
for
example,
is
there
a
specific
mobile
need
that
you’re
not
currently
catering
for?
Secondly,
I
don’t
think
any
vertical
is
safe
from
disruptive
innovation
in
the
current
climate.
From
our
experience
of
clients
in
industries
that
have
been
disrupted,
and
from
working
with
clients
that
are
themselves
the
disruptors,
I
would
say
that
you
really
do
need
to
nail
why
it
is
that
people
would
choose
you
over
the
competition.
As
I
said
above,
organic
search
results
are
now
a
reflection
of
the
attractiveness
of
your
brand
and
of
your
overall
marketing
efforts
so
having
a
totally
different
proposition
gives
you
a
massive
advantage.
Before
we
pitch
or
propose
to
a
client
we
get
them
to
fill
in
an
information
capture
sheet
and
one
of
the
questions
we
ask
is
“what
makes
you
different
from
your
competitors?”
I
shudder
every
time
I
see
“good
customer
service”
or
“competitively
priced”.
Today’s
empowered
consumer
takes
both
of
these
as
a
given.
These
days,
we
tend
to
be
involved
in
strategic
discussions
at
a
higher
level
than
we
would
have
been
previously;
digital
is
no
longer
the
after-­‐thought
that
it
used
to
be.
More
often
than
not
during
these
discussions,
we
discover
that
the
client
does
offer
value
that
nobody
else
can
replicate
but
they
don’t
play
on
it
as
much
as
they
should.
So
my
advice
would
be
to
do
some
comprehensive
work
in
this
area
to
insulate
yourselves
from
future
disruption.
If
you
do
it
right,
you
may
well
even
become
a
disruptive
influence
yourselves.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
I
may
be
guilty
of
speaking
too
soon
here,
but
we
saw
very
little
change
the
recent
Penguin
3.0
update.
The
vast
majority
of
our
clients
were
pretty
much
unaffected,
some
saw
a
slight
uplift
but
nothing
to
get
too
excited
about.
I
have
a
feeling
that
changes
in
Google’s
UI
will
be
just
as
important
in
2015
as
algorithmic
updates.
Matt
Cutts
recently
said
that
mobile
search
volume
would
exceed
desktop
volume
by
the
end
of
2014
so
I
think
we’ll
see
a
lot
of
changes
in
the
appearance
of
the
SERPS
that
will
be
motivated
by
mobile
considerations.
SEOs
will
need
to
start
thinking
much
more
about
winning
mobile
clicks.
I
can
also
see
there
being
a
lot
more
prime
search
real
estate
being
taken
up
by
new
paid
search
features,
knowledge
graph
elements
and
other
things
which
aren’t
the
traditional
“10
blue
links”.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
I
predict
that
organic
search
will
become
an
even
more
personalised
experience,
with
Google
serving
more
results
according
to
what
they
know
about
the
user’s
context
and
past
behaviour
than
they
do
currently.
For
example,
they
know
what
device
you
are
searching
on,
where
you
are
and
where
you
have
been
before
you
type
the
query
into
the
search
box
–
all
of
that
information
will
help
them
to
serve
you
better
results
for
your
query.
This
is
important
because
it
makes
it
vital
that
to
get
under
the
skin
of
your
audience
and
understand
how,
why,
where
and
on
what
devices
they
search
so
that
Google
sees
you
as
relevant
as
possible
for
as
many
search
queries
as
possible.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
14

15. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
There
is
a
massive
trend
towards
personalisation
in
digital
at
the
moment
and
in
my
view
this
is
improving
overall
online
experiences.
I
think
Google
will
go
further
down
the
personalised
search
route,
using
what
they
know
about
you
to
serve
more
tailored
search
results.
I
know
not
everyone
agrees
with
me
but
I
think
this
is
a
good
thing.
Paul
Rogers
-­‐
http://www.paulnrogers.com/
|
@paulnrogers
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
I
think
link
profile
maintenance
is
going
to
remain
key
for
existing
websites,
as
Google's
just
getting
better
at
targeting
websites
that
have
literally
anything
unnatural
left
in
their
profile.
Recently,
I've
seen
some
examples
of
very
clean
websites
being
hit
for
a
really
small
amount
of
low
quality
links
(~1-­‐
3%
of
total
links),
which
I
think
we'll
see
more
of
next
year.
For
websites
that
are
starting
out
now,
I
think
it's
going
to
be
more
and
more
about
brand
signals
-­‐
it's
been
a
while
since
I've
seen
any
real
correlation
between
links
obtained
and
direct
improvements
in
rankings.
Building
value
from
a
brand
perspective
is
the
only
real
way
to
sustain
long-­‐term
value
in
SEO.
I
don't
think
this
as
impactful
as
lots
of
people
say
it
is
right
now,
but
I
assume
it's
going
to
go
more
that
way
next
year
and
beyond.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
I
know
this
is
going
to
sound
really
scripted
and
generic,
but
look
at
SEO
from
a
broader
angle,
don't
just
silo
it
away
from
other
channels
and
marketing
activity
(and
palm
it
off
to
an
agency),
it
needs
to
be
more
of
a
facet
of
your
overall
marketing
strategy.
I
think
SEO
needs
to
act
as
the
nucleus
really
for
heavily
reliant
businesses,
with
other
channels
feeding
off
of
it.
In
the
vast
majority
of
cases,
SEO
is
going
to
be
your
lowest
cost
of
sale
channel,
and
for
that
reason,
overall
business
investment
is
key
and
a
no
brainer
really.
So
when
you're
spending
money
on
brand,
you
need
to
be
thinking
about
how
that
can
add
value
from
an
SEO
perspective.
When
you're
spending
money
on
paid
search
and
data,
you
need
to
think
about
how
that
can
inform
SEO
activity.
I
think
you
get
what
I'm
getting
at
-­‐
SEO
generally
has
a
COS
of
0.5%
-­‐
3%,
whereas
paid
acquisition
channels
are
generally
going
to
be
more
like
8%
-­‐
20%,
so,
unless
you're
really
struggling
with
volume,
I
don't
understand
why
you
wouldn't
do
this?
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
I
guess
just
more
iterations
of
penguin
and
panda
-­‐
although
I
do
think
Google
will
start
to
make
it
easier
for
businesses
to
avoid
and
recover
from
panda,
as
it's
one
of
the
main
reasons
why
SEOs
are
still
fundamental
for
large
websites
-­‐
putting
processes
in
place
to
avoid
this
at
a
higher
level,
would
help
them
to
reduce
the
need
for
SEOs,
which
is
ultimately
where
they're
trying
to
get
to
-­‐
well
eliminating
the
role
of
an
SEO.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
15

16. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
There
are
still
plenty
of
websites
that
possibly
should've
been
impacted
by
penguin
that
haven't
and
I
think
this
will
happen
next
year.
Also,
more
action
against
some
of
the
more
recently
scrutinised
tactics,
such
as
guest
posts
and
poorly
conceptualised
campaigns.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Exactly
what
I
said
earlier
-­‐
more
people
will
start
to
understand
the
value
of
organic
channels
in
terms
of
the
associated
brand
value
(particularly
around
social
and
content)
and
the
combined
COS
and
sustainability
against
the
paid
acquisition
channels.
I'm
speaking
to
more
and
more
businesses
(particularly
retailers),
that
are
starting
to
factor
this
into
their
activity
and
strategy.
I
think
there's
definitely
been
a
shift
in
companies
investing
in
in-­‐house
SEO
resource
of
late
too,
John
Lewis
and
House
of
Fraser
being
good
examples.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
I'd
probably
go
in
the
direction
they're
going
in
-­‐
more
focus
on
brand
and
signals
of
quality
results
(based
on
user
interaction).
This
is
clearly
where
they're
looking
and
I
think
it's
the
only
way
they
can
take
emphasis
away
from
links
without
blindly
looking
at
social
signals,
which,
in
my
opinion,
doesn't
actually
make
sense
in
a
lot
of
scenarios.
That
said,
I
definitely
wouldn't
move
away
from
links
-­‐
I'd
just
try
to
reduce
the
reliance
on
it
as
a
signal.
Michael
Briggs
-­‐
Head
of
SEO
at
Skyscanner
|
@michaelkbriggs
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
Truthfully
the
most
important
thing
that
is
needed
to
achieve
success
is
a
change
in
the
SEO
mind-­‐set
and
to
stop
playing
in
the
field
we
have
today
and
rather
start
looking
to
what
the
pitch
will
look
like
in
search
going
ahead.
Like
all
technology,
search
engines
have
got
faster,
the
gap
between
iterations
has
shortened
and
the
analysis
deeper.
This
is
not
going
to
stop,
if
anything
it
will
accelerate.
Aspects
such
as
Linked
Data
and
sites
becoming
a
reflection
of
their
own
knowledge
graph
and
becoming
in
themselves
a
knowledge
base
feel
more
the
way
sites
have
to
evolve
and
grow.
As
a
search
engine
ranking
in
no
longer
simply
a
response
to
an
explicit
query
(the
textual
input),
content
is
surfaced
by
increasingly
implicit
signals
(geography,
friendships,
technology
etc)
and
balanced
against
the
explicit
query
and
looking
to
return
dynamic
answers
to
fulfil
the
specific
needs
of
users.
This
change
needs
to
be
seized
upon,
understood
and
actioned
by
everyone
who
wants
to
be
a
success
in
the
coming
months/years.
Biggest
challenge
in
SEO
will
be
scale.
The
industry
has
struggled
with
this
for
a
long
time.
Content
is
becoming
more
important.
And
good
useful
editorial
is
the
back
bone
of
the
web
economy
–
search
engines
rank
content
so
having
useful,
authoritative,
valuable
content
has
always
been
necessary
but
with
the
link
graph
being
under
constant
review
valuable
content
becomes
the
factor
most
likely
to
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
16

17. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
impact
overall
value.
Scaled
content,
that
tackles
the
needs
of
users,
and
isn’t
just
content
farm
spam
feels
like
the
aspect
most
web
businesses
need
agency
support
to
tackle
and
solving
this
aspect
would
offer
a
benefit
on
both
sides
of
the
client/agency
relationship.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Build
a
better
website
that
actually
gives
users
a
reason
to
return
and
from
that
develop
a
brand
ecosystem
that
looks
to
not
only
rank
but
to
retain
visitors
in
a
longer
life
cycle.
And
think
of
marketing
channels
in
tandem
to
develop
a
visitor
to
a
customer
to
an
advocate
and
help
the
user
move
between
the
levels
of
interaction
with
the
brand.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
Biggest
change
will
be
that
the
SERP
layout
is
going
to
keep
changing.
And
position
1
won’t
be
position
1
for
click
through;
in
many
cases
it
hasn’t
been
for
a
while
but
the
ten
blue
links
mindset
often
seems
to
permeate
significant
portions
of
the
industry.
In
recent
weeks
knowledge
interceptions
in
result
sets
has
grown
fast
and
this
will
continue.
Sites
that
don’t
become
authorities
and
mark
up
the
answers
to
questions
effectively
will
see
that
their
visibility
in
search
decrease
without
any
simple
remedy.
This
will
also
mean
that
the
differential
between
visibility
and
click
will
change.
As
a
surfaced
answer
to
a
question
may
no
longer
result
in
click
through
and
instead
becomes
part
of
a
wider
brand
exercise;
as
if
a
search
engine
gives
an
answer
to
a
question
why
would
someone
need
to
visit
your
website?
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
Data
driven
journalism
as
the
basis
for
organic
marketing
will
grow
and
grow.
Companies
taking
the
data
that
they
have
to
create
stories
will
inevitably
grow
–
as
it’s
a
competitive
advantage
over
newer
companies
and
it
allows
large
companies
to
develop
an
agile
content
function.
Those
that
succeed
will
be
those
that
uncover
the
ways
to
move
from
big
data
storage
to
developing
big
data
insights.
Companies
who
are
willing
to
provide
this
information
and
create
touch
points
at
all
stages
of
the
user
journey
that
assist
users
and
search
engines
in
locating
and
understanding
value
will
be
those
who
are
able
to
deliver
something
of
value
to
the
internet.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
If
I
were
Google
and
wanted
to
improve
search
quality
I’d
keep
moving
from
being
a
list
of
documents
as
a
result
set
and
move
towards
a
question
and
answers
based
engine,
as
the
paradigm
for
query
input
is
changing.
We
went
from
desktop
to
mobile
and
this
changed
the
query
landscape
(shorter
queries
and
pages
that
load
faster
etc)
we
are
now
past
the
point
of
desktop
usage.
The
continued
move
into
alternative
interfaces;
Siri
and
Google
Now
systems
are
the
start
of
the
interface
from
user
to
search
engine
changing
and
this
requires
a
constant
testing
and
refinement
system
that
places
the
result
set
squarely
in
the
space
of
user
context
and
utility
not
simply
on
the
voice
of
the
crowd
mentality
of
link
based
ranking
factors.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
17

18. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Stephen
Kenwright
-­‐
Head
of
Search
at
Branded3
|
@stekenwright
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
Getting
things
done
is
always
going
to
be
difficult.
More
on-­‐site
work
is
required
to
get
results
–
it’s
no
longer
tweaks
or
adding
copy
to
pages
–
which
means
more
developer
time
is
required
and
we’re
competing
with
the
rest
of
the
business.
Realistically
the
answer
isn’t
usually
new
title
tags
anymore,
it’s
often
a
new
website,
and
that’s
a
lot
harder
to
get
actioned.
The
problem
for
SEOs
is
that
we
want
to
do
everything,
and
we
can’t.
More
ranking
factors
means
more
things
need
doing,
and
realistically,
an
SEO
isn’t
the
best
person
to
write
content.
I
think
we’re
OK
with
that…but
the
kicker
is
that
SEOs
aren’t
the
best
people
to
build
links
anymore
either.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
It’s
not
always
about
links.
I
know
from
experience
it
can
be
really
difficult
to
push
back
when
a
client
is
demanding
links
–
especially
because
links
are
essentially
the
only
deliverable
from
SEO,
everything
else
requires
attribution
–
but
in
many
cases
it’s
worth
it.
We
just
won
a
Search
Award
for
a
campaign
with
absolutely
0
links
built,
fingers
crossed
for
next
year
too.
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
I
think
the
days
of
hard-­‐hitting
algorithm
changes
are
over.
I
think
(hope!)
that
we
will
see
a
lot
more
manual
actions
from
Google
in
2015.
Algorithmically
we’ve
got
to
a
stage
where
if
you’ve
managed
to
avoid
a
penalty
so
far
you’re
probably
not
going
to
get
one…but
there
are
plenty
of
people
out
there
that
still
deserve
one.
This
is
something
that’s
going
to
hit
SEO
agencies
hard
in
2015
too
–
unless
Google
steps
up
there’s
not
going
to
be
a
lot
of
penalty
removal
work
coming
in
and
that
will
affect
the
bottom
line.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
The
prediction
I
made
last
year
was
that
content
marketing
was
going
to
become
much
more
visual,
and
though
it
didn’t
come
true
in
2014
(not
in
the
mainstream
anyway)
I
think
more
and
more
digital
marketing
agencies
will
be
moving
into
video
as
standard,
with
other
creative
being
high
on
the
list.
Realistically
it’s
hard
to
build
links
without
creative
now,
and
although
there
are
ways
to
build
links
without
designer/developer
input,
it’s
only
going
to
get
harder.
Secondly,
the
UK
will
have
to
get
on
board
with
local
SEO.
The
US
is
waaaay
ahead
in
local
thanks
to
Pigeon
and
the
requirements
that
their
massive
geography
raises,
and
that
aspect
of
the
algorithm
will
surely
be
updated
in
the
UK
next
year.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
18

19. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Manual
actions.
Give
up
with
Penguin
–
keep
it
running
so
businesses
who
put
the
work
in
can
recover
–
but
at
some
point
Google
will
have
to
accept
that
to
wipe
out
link
spam
they’re
going
to
have
to
do
it
manually.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
19

20. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Carl
Hendy
-­‐
Digital
Consultant
|
http://www.carlhendy.com
|
@carlhendy
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
Links
-­‐
boring
answer
I
know,
but
the
right
links
still
drive
authority
which
drives
traffic.
The
right
links
will
also
drive
traffic
through
those
links,
get
as
much
relevant
referral
traffic
as
possible.
How
do
you
create
links?
-­‐
you
build
content
that
differentiates
you
from
your
competitors,
useful
content
(drives
continuous
links),
content
that
is
mobile
/
tablet
friendly
and
easy
to
share.
Easier
said
than
done.
SEO
agencies
will
need
to
once
again
change
how
they
sell
SEO
to
clients.
For
the
last
few
years
it
was
"We
will
build
you
10
links
per
month".
SEO
agencies
will
now
need
to
sell
in
additional
cost
for
content
production,
prove
they
can
get
top
tier
links
and
have
the
contacts
to
do
that.
Links
are
more
expensive
than
ever
to
acquire
no
matter
what
route
you
take
to
acquisition.
Clients
that
are
on
link
based
contracts
will
need
to
be
changed
and
difficult
conversations
/
education
had
although
knowing
how
most
agencies
work
this
will
not
happen.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
Independent
Consultant
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
20
• Is
this
useful
for
the
visitor?
• Does
this
content
offer
value?
• Is
this
category
page
being
built
based
on
keyword
volume
or
visitor
demand?
• Does
this
content
really
warrant
acquiring
links?
• Does
3
blog
posts
and
10
tweets
a
day
return
ROI?
Another
conversation
I
seem
to
be
having
a
lot
is
"You
were
lucky
to
have
that
traffic,
the
game
has
changed",
this
is
usually
where
a
website
authority
was
artificially
inflated
by
cheap
and
aggressive
link
building,
however
on
the
back
of
recent
Google
algorithm
updates
rankings
have
tanked.
You
now
need
to
work
even
harder
to
earn
that
"free
traffic".
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
For
websites,
especially
ecommerce
websites
to
be
able
to
understand
that
less
is
more.
Websites
will
need
to
be
aggressive
in
trimming
the
fat
from
their
sites.
Website
content
strategy
/
planning
will
become
more
complicated,
more
man
power
required
and
big
changes
made
to
existing
digital
strategies.
A
blog
strategy
of
5
posts
a
week
will
no
longer
cut
it.

21. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
You
will
need
researchers,
data
analysts,
front
end
/
back
end
developers,
SEO,
social,
PR
all
involved
in
content
pieces
build
and
promotion
-­‐
digital
channels
should
no
longer
be
working
in
isolation.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
There
will
be
more
SEO
is
dead
post,
links
are
dead
posts
so
to
go
in
the
complete
opposite
direction
my
prediction
is
that
more
money
will
be
invested
into
SEO
than
ever
due
to
Google
killing
off
traffic
to
websites.
As
Google
focuses
on
website
authority,
user
experience
and
penalising
websites
who
do
not
conform.
Online
brands
will
look
to
SEOs
to
understand
where
this
traffic
has
gone,
although
if
they
had
employed
good
SEO's
this
could
have
been
avoided.
Digital
channels
will
need
to
work
closer
together
as
agencies
try
to
sell
in
the
"Omni-­‐channel"
which
in
reality
is
not
what
happens,
but
this
is
what
most
brands
want.
Marketing
managers
are
asking
"If
I
give
you
£800k
a
year,
where
should
I
spend
it?",
the
big
data
providers
are
scrambling
to
provide
this
data
but
its
proving
a
huge
challenge.
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
Provide
more
feedback
to
webmasters
especially
around
Panda
algorithm
update.
This
data
needs
to
be
more
bespoke
to
the
website
via
Google
Webmaster
Tools.
Webmasters
are
willing
to
make
changes
and
invest
if
they
have
a
little
push
in
the
right
direction.
Google
is
focussing
too
much
on
either
the
mega
brands
or
the
bad
guys
therefore
the
SMB's
are
missing
out.
SMB
clients
often
produce
much
better
content
than
mega
brands
as
they
are
usually
more
agile
and
have
little
red
tape
and
in
most
cases
they
offer
a
better
customer
experience
yet
the
content
is
not
rewarded
as
Google
prefers
to
promote
mega
brands
based
on
domain
authority
/
trust.
Google
should
come
out
and
be
more
transparent
about
"negativeSEO"
-­‐
I
have
seen
cases
where
it
works
and
cases
where
it
has
not
worked.
Google
claims
its
not
an
issue
yet
most
SEO's
disagree.
Website
owners
are
currently
in
limbo
on
negativeSEO
so
the
matter
should
cleared
up
by
Google
finally.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
21

22. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
Dan
Sharp
-­‐
Founder
of
Screaming
Frog
|
@screamingfrog
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
on
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
I
think
really
focusing
on
your
user,
their
experience
and
engaging
with
them
is
the
most
important
thing
you
can
do
online.
It’s
so
obvious,
but
this
seems
to
get
completely
lost
in
all
the
noise
at
times.
We
made
a
recommendation
to
a
new
client
last
week
to
remove
70%
of
their
website
as
it
had
been
built
more
for
search
engines,
rather
than
the
user
and
both
users
and
Google
Panda
were
not
happy.
It’s
also
more
important
than
ever
to
add
value,
stand
out
or
do
something
differently
to
be
sustainable
online
(or
offline
too!).
Businesses
which
don’t
do
these
things
will
be
easier
for
Google
or
the
competition
to
wipe
out.
I
believe
a
lot
of
businesses
(big
brands
included)
are
struggling
with
content
strategy,
understanding
exactly
why
they
are
producing
content,
its
true
purpose,
its
value
and
which
areas
in
their
customers’
journeys
they
should
be
prioritising.
It’s
something
I
have
heard
time
and
time
again
over
the
last
year.
I
think
it’s
quite
natural
though,
as
brands
and
agencies
all
started
to
take
content
(and
content
marketing)
more
seriously
and
refine
what
they
do.
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
First
of
all,
don’t
just
rely
on
organic
search.
Google
can
change
the
landscape
and
do
whatever
they
like,
so
your
business
needs
to
be
able
to
survive
in
the
real
world,
in
its
own
right,
regardless
of
ranking
in
Google.
For
example,
we
might
be
a
search
marketing
agency
which
is
pretty
visible
organically,
but
most
of
our
business
comes
from
referrals
from
existing
clients
or
people
we
have
worked
with
in
the
past.
After
that,
my
best
piece
of
advice
would
be
to
keep
improving
what
you
do,
brands
which
succeed
are
those
which
seem
to
have
an
almost
unhealthy
obsession
at
doing
things
better.
When
you
really
deserve
to
be
ranking
at
the
top
of
the
search
engines
and
users
expect
you
to
be
there
when
they
search,
it
makes
it
a
hell
of
a
lot
easier
to
achieve
it.
Oh
and
stop
creating
content
for
the
sake
of
it!
Content
must
have
a
purpose,
whether
it’s
for
the
user,
traffic,
conversion,
to
compel
sharing
(awareness,
links,
social
signals)
or
a
combination
of
all;
without
any
of
these,
what’s
the
point?
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
SEO
Tools
Manufactures
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
22

23. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
I
actually
don’t
think
there
will
be
a
huge
shift
from
where
we
are
now,
just
a
natural
evolution.
Google
have
been
pushing
businesses
to
focus
on
their
user
experience
and
quality
in
everything
that
they
do
(whether
it’s
content,
links
etc).
So
I
think
we
will
probably
finally
see
some
businesses
have
a
greater
realisation
that
they
may
need
to
consolidate,
before
they
can
move
forward.
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
We
all
know
that
every
year
is
the
year
of
mobile,
but
Google
will
take
this
even
more
seriously
in
2015.
They
already
reduce
visibility
of
websites
with
a
really
poor
mobile
user
experience
in
the
mobile
SERPs
(such
as
faulty
redirects
or
smartphone
only
404s
etc)
and
all
the
signs
are
Google
will
focus
more
here
as
users’
habits
evolve.
Their
PageSpeed
Insights
tool
has
for
some
time
offered
a
user
experience
score
for
mobile
(and
desktop),
while
they
started
deep
linking
to
mobile
apps
and
have
been
testing
Smartphone
friendly
icons.
Google
are
now
also
reporting
on
mobile
usability
in
Google
WMT
with
errors
such
as
small
font
size,
or
viewport
not
configured
etc.
I
expect
these
signals
to
play
a
larger
role
in
scoring
in
the
mobile
SERPs
and
potentially
in
overall
site
reputation
and
scoring
as
well.
If
you’re
not
taking
some
users
seriously
due
to
the
device
they
are
using,
what
does
that
say
about
your
business
and
what
you
think
of
your
users,
are
you
really
a
brand
etc?
We
are
seeing
even
small
businesses
(with
less
than
5
employees)
overhauling
their
websites
right
now
to
go
responsive
(or
another
mobile
friendly
set-­‐up).
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
I’d
consider
placing
a
little
more
weight
on
brand
search
volume
(for
transactional
queries
in
particular)
and
social
signals.
Patrick
Hathaway
-­‐
Director
URL
Profiler
|
@HathawayP
With
the
number
of
high
profile
changes
and
algorithm
updates
in
2014,
what
do
you
think
the
most
important
thing
will
be
to
achieve
success
in
2015?
As
much
has
changed
as
stayed
the
same
-­‐
consistently
building/earning
links
is
still
obviously
a
massive
factor,
so
I’ll
ignore
that
for
the
sake
of
argument.
I
don’t
see
any
reason
to
expect
Google
will
do
anything
radical
over
the
next
couple
of
years,
they
have
signaled
their
intent
with
both
Panda
and
Penguin
that
they
are
going
to
penalise
or
downgrade
sites
that
have
attempted
to
shortcut
content
production
or
attracting
links.
We
already
know
that
Panda
refreshes
roughly
every
month,
and
there
was
talk
that
they
are
trying
to
move
Penguin
is
this
direction
as
well.
We
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
23
know
these
things
are
out
there
and
can
hurt
us,
so
the
most
important
thing
to
remain
successful
is
to
put
measures
in
place
to
ensure
they
don’t
hurt
us.

24. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
In
practice
this
means
regularly
(every
quarter,
if
not
every
month)
auditing
your
link
profile,
and
proactively
disavowing
or
removing
links
that
look
unnatural.
Similarly,
it
means
regularly
auditing
site
content,
and
clearing
out
or
improving
pages
that
are
thin,
have
high
levels
of
duplicate
content
or
very
poor
engagement
metrics.
Content.
There’s
already
way
too
much
of
it,
and
most
of
it
is
sh*t.
It
seems
to
finally
be
accepted
that
the
only
white
hat
way
to
scale
linkbuilding
is
through
producing
content,
which
makes
the
challenge
‘how
to
stand
out
from
the
crowd.’
The
most
successful
campaigns
are
those
which
manage
to
produce
interesting
content
that
also
fits
with
their
product/offering.
And
this
is
not
easy
to
do!
Thinking
about
how
you
think
your
industry
or
clients
industries
are
going,
what's
the
best
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
all
clients
or
prospective
clients
in
coming
weeks/months?
As
per
my
answer
to
question
1,
auditing
both
your
site
and
your
links
is
the
most
important
thing
you
can
do
right
now
(and
fixing
any
problems
you
find,
obviously!).
In
terms
of
more
general
digital
marketing
advice,
I
advocate
experimenting
with
other
traffic
sources
such
as
paid
social
ads;
even
if
your
site
is
squeaky
clean
it
makes
no
sense
to
put
all
your
eggs
into
Google’s
basket.
We
have
also
been
doing
a
lot
of
CRO
audits
for
clients
recently,
and
I
think
this
is
an
area
that
every
commercial
site
should
be
taking
seriously
–
why
would
you
not
want
to
maximize
the
potential
revenue
of
your
hard
fought
users?
What
do
you
predict
will
be
the
biggest
change
/
or
hardest
hitting
change
will
in
2015?
I
think
Penguin
will
get
rolled
into
the
algorithm
at
a
more
fundamental
level,
so
they
will
be
able
to
put
out
monthly
rolling
refreshes
as
they
do
with
Panda.
Regular
Penguin
updates
will
mean
more
regular
winners/losers,
and
potentially
a
greater
ability
to
react
and
recover.
If
this
were
to
happen,
I
think
it
would
greatly
impact
SEOs’
attitude
to
risk/reward,
and
it
would
be
most
interesting
to
see
how
this
sort
of
thing
might
affect
black
hats,
and
how
they
would
need
to
change
to
stay
ahead
of
the
game
(if
at
all).
What's
your
biggest
prediction
for
organic
marketing
in
2015
and
why
is
it
important?
The
never-­‐ending
rise
of
mobile.
More
and
more
searches
are
being
done
on
mobile,
more
and
more
content
is
consumed
on
mobile,
and
more
and
more
content
is
being
shared
on
mobile.
Google
have
already
started
clamping
down
on
sites
that
offer
a
particularly
poor
mobile
experience,
and
I
can
only
see
that
continuing.
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
The
risk
of
not
doing
this
makes
it
a
no
brainer
in
my
opinion.
Where
or
what
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
will
be
in
2015?
24

25. The
State
Of
Organic
Search
2015
Created
By
Danny
Denhard
@dannydenhard
We’ll
need
to
start
thinking
‘mobile
first’
–
designing
content
and
websites
to
work
perfectly
on
mobile
first,
then
expanding
out
to
bigger
screens.
What’s
the
point
in
spending
£5000
on
a
fancy
interactive
infographic
if
everyone
views
it
on
mobile
and
it
doesn’t
work
properly?
Lastly,
if
you
were
Google
what
would
you
do
to
improve
quality
and
search
results?
More
and
more
we
are
hearing
that
Google
care
about,
and
act
upon,
engagement
metrics.
It
is
likely
that
Google
are
defining
some
sort
of
‘Quality
Score’
on
organic
results
as
they
do
for
Adwords.
I
think
this
is
a
good
thing,
but
I’d
like
to
see
more
of
it.
We
see
rankings
fluctuate
a
lot,
but
more
so
for
results
ranking
outside
the
top
3,
which
stay
much
more
consistent.
Assuming
there
is
some
sort
of
Quality
Score
being
implemented,
the
top
3
results
are
receiving
a
significant
bias
due
to
their
position.
Users
trust
Google’s
results,
so
the
top
3
results
are
much
more
likely
to
get
clicked,
and
the
user
is
naturally
more
likely
to
trust
the
page
that
they
land
on.
This
surely
skews
any
kind
of
Quality
Score
calculation,
as
it
does
(by
design)
with
Adwords.
If
it
were
up
to
me,
I’d
be
playing
around
with
this
and
testing
more
different
results
in
the
top
3
–
more
so
for
generic
results
than
branded
ones
–
so
you
can
get
a
more
accurate
measure
of
what
pages
are
Created
by
Danny
Denhard
|
@dannydenhard
25
worthy
of
high
rankings.
And
obviously
it
would
totally
piss
off
SEOs(!).