Learn how to do SEO in 2015 and beyond with what works now and what doesn't

1. SEO in 2015 Navneet'Kaushal'
CEO'
PageTraffic'

2. What'all'happened'in'2014'

3. WHAT’S CHANGED???
• Authorship Photo Drop — June 28, 2014
• John Mueller made a surprise announcement (on June 25th) that Google would be dropping all authorship photos from SERPs (after
heavily promoting authorship as a connection to Google+). The drop was complete around June 28th.
• Payday Loan 3.0 — June 12, 2014
• Less than a month after the Payday Loan 2.0 anti-spam update, Google launched another major iteration. Official statements
suggested that 2.0 targeted specific sites, while 3.0 targeted spammy queries.
• Panda 4.0 (#26) — May 19, 2014
• Google confirmed a major Panda update that likely included both an algorithm update and a data refresh. Officially, about 7.5% of
English-language queries were affected. While Matt Cutts said it began rolling out on 5/20, our data strongly suggests it started
earlier.
• Payday Loan 2.0 — May 16, 2014
• Just prior to Panda 4.0, Google updated it's "payday loan" algorithm, which targets especially spammy queries. The exact date of the
roll-out was unclear (Google said "this past weekend" on 5/20), and the back-to-back updates made the details difficult to sort out.
• Unnamed Update — March 24, 2014
• Major algorithm flux trackers and webmaster chatter spiked around 3/24-3/25, and some speculated that the new, "softer" Panda
update had arrived. Many sites reported ranking changes, but this update was never confirmed by Google.
• Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014
• Google "refreshed" their page layout algorithm, also known as "top heavy". Originally launched in January 2012, the page layout
algorithm penalizes sites with too many ads above the fold.

4. WHAT’S CHANGED???
• Pirate 2.0 — October 21, 2014
• More than two years after the original DMCA/"Pirate" update, Google launched another update to combat software and digital media piracy. This
update was highly targeted, causing dramatic drops in ranking to a relatively small group of sites.
• Penguin 3.0 — October 17, 2014
• More than a year after the previous Penguin update (2.1), Google launched a Penguin refresh. This update appeared to be smaller than expected
(<1% of US/English queries affected) and was probably data-only (not a new Penguin algorithm). The timing of the update was unclear, especially
internationally, and Google claimed it was spread out over "weeks".
• "In The News" Box — October 1, 2014
• Google made what looked like a display change to News-box results, but later announced that they had expanded news links to a much larger set
of potential sites. The presence of news results in SERPs also spiked, and major news sites reported substantial traffic changes.
• Panda 4.1 (#27) — September 23, 2014
• Google announced a significant Panda update, which included an algorithmic component. They estimated the impact at 3-5% of queries affected.
Given the "slow rollout," the exact timing was unclear.
• Authorship Removed — August 28, 2014
• Following up on the June 28th drop of authorship photos, Google announced that they would be completely removing authorship markup (and
would no longer process it). By the next morning, authorship bylines had disappeared from all SERPs.
• HTTPS/SSL Update — August 6, 2014
• After months of speculation, Google announced that they would be giving preference to secure sites, and that adding encryption would provide a
"lightweight" rankings boost. They stressed that this boost would start out small, but implied it might increase if the changed proved to be positive.
• Pigeon — July 24, 2014
• Google shook the local SEO world with an update that dramatically altered some local results and modified how they handle and interpret location
cues. Google claimed that Pigeon created closer ties between the local algorithm and core algorithm(s).

5. 2015 IS GOING TO BE
AMAZING.

8. What SEO is NOT in 2015

10. No More Keyword Stuffing

11. No More Article Spinning

12. No More Directory Submissions

13. No Press Releases Without Actual
News

14. What SEO Strategies Work in 2015

15. 1. Real, Helpful Content

16. aka Inbound Marketing

17. No Longer Just Looking for Words

18. Semantic Indexing

19. The Machines are Learning

20. 2. Consistent Content

21. Fresh Wins

22. Good Links Boost Visitor Value

23. Good Content Brings Links

24. Bad Links Dont Help

25. You Need to Remove Bad Links

26. 4. Make Your Site Function Well

27. Fast Site = Better Rankings
developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/

28. Designing for the User
Thinking objectively about your site layout
! Reinforce branding
! Consistency
• Color scheme, fonts, buttons, etc.
! Categorize products intuitively
! 3-click rule
! Company information at the bottom
! A balanced diet of images and text
• Images for the user, text for the search engines

29. An Image-Heavy Site
As seen by customers

30. An Image-Heavy Site
As seen by Google

31. A Balanced Site As seen by customers

32. A Balanced Site As seen by Google

33. 5. Mobile Friendly

34. IF YOUR PHONE DOESN’T
DISPLAY FLASH, GOOGLE WILL
NOT SHOW FLASH SITES IN
YOUR RESULTS.
Ma#$Cu#s$of$Google$at$Pubcon$in$October$2013$

35. IF YOUR WEBSITE ROUTES ALL
MOBILE TRAFFIC TO THE
HOMEPAGE RATHER THAN THE
INTERNAL PAGE THE USER
WAS ATTEMPTING TO VISIT, IT
WILL BE RANKED LOWER.
Ma#$Cu#s$of$Google$at$Pubcon$in$October$2013$

36. IF YOUR SITE IS SLOW ON
MOBILES, GOOGLE IS LESS
LIKELY TO RANK IT.
Ma#$Cu#s$of$Google$at$Pubcon$in$October$2013$

37. HAVING A MOBILE SITE IS JUST
THE START.

38. h#p://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights$$

39. MOBILE READY MEANS:
• Loading'quickly'on'mobile'
• Enabling'users'to'navigate'around'on'a'small'screen'
• Taking'mobile'users'to'the'content'they'expect'to'see'
• Enabling'users'to'read'without'pinching'and'zooming!'
'
'

40. UX From a Technical Standpoint
Bells and whistles behind the curtain
! Responsive design
• May factor into future algorithms
! Page speeds
• Consistent image sizes
• Limit products displayed per page
• Use HTML whenever possible, Javascript sparingly
! Broken links, 301s, 404s
• Address these in Webmaster Tools
• Redirect dead or migrated pages to related, active ones

41. Good Reviews Across Multiple Sites

42. 100% Secure HTTPS

43. Goodbye, Google Authorship
What to do now that Google Authorship is dead
ConfidenCal$and$Proprietary$InformaCon$$

44. Google Authorship Examples
As they appeared in search engine results pages

45. Google Authorship is Dead
What are authors to do?
! Don’t stop creating great content
• Quality, thought-provoking content is king
• Make it engaging and sharable
! Promote content where your customers congregate
! Repurpose your pieces across all channels
! Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

46. Ever Evolving Google’s Algorithm
ConfidenCal$and$Proprietary$InformaCon$$
The never-ending story

47. Pandas Eat Up Good Content
Creating original web copy
! Unique, original content is king
• Thought-leading
• Data-driven
• Penalties for duplicate content
! Consider videos infographics
! Keep on-page content!
• Should be unique to each page

48. Pigeons Fly Local
Catering to your neighborhood customer base
! Hyper-localized search results
! Develop consistent citations
! Create Google Places account
! Use neighborhood- and city-specific
language on-site

49. Penguins Pay Attention to Links
Earning links builds an interconnected reputation
! Paid links = no good!
! Consider link removal
! Network with industry bloggers
! SEO is like PR when earning
links
• Create content that contributes

50. Hummingbirds are Conversational
Answering a customer’s query-based search
! Content should be
conversational
• Written for human beings
• Ignore keyword density
• Answer questions your
customers are asking
! As search evolves, Hummingbird
will become more important
• Voice activated search

51. ORGANIC SEARCH
VISIBILITY IN 2015

52. CONTENT.

53. CONTENT. BRANDING.

54. CONTENT. BRANDING.
MOBILE.

55. CONTENT. BRANDING.
MOBILE. SOCIAL.

56. CONTENT. BRANDING.
MOBILE. SOCIAL.
USER EXPERIENCE.

57. SOME THINGS WON’T BE
MUCH DIFFERENT

58. GOOGLE WILL STILL
DOMINATE THE MARKET.

60. THE GOALS OF SEARCH
ENGINES WILL STILL BE
THE SAME.

61. LINK BUILDING
IS NOT DEAD.

62. GOOGLE NEEDS
LINK METRICS.

63. “We’ve'played'around'with'the'
idea'of'turning'off'back'link'
relevance'and,'at'least'for'now,'
back'link'relevance'sNll'really'helps'
in'terms'of'making'sure'that'we'
return'the'best,'most'relevant,'
most'topical'set'of'search'results.”''
h#ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCY30WhI2og$$

64. OFF PAGE IS (AND WILL BE
INCREASINGLY) MORE
THAN JUST LINKS
THOUGH

65. BRAND
SIGNALS

66. BRAND SEARCH VOLUME WILL
MATTER MORE

67. CITATIONS WILL
MATTER MORE

68. SENTIMENT WILL
MATTER MORE

69. Ma#$Cu#s$of$Google$
SXSW$2013$

70. POSITIVE SENTIMENT
• PosiCve$reviews$
• Google’s$own$systems$
• Trusted$3rd$parCes$
• PosiCve$citaCons$and$interacCons$on$Google$
Plus$
• PosiCve$citaCons$across$the$web$
$

71. AROUND 15% OF
QUERIES ARE NEW

74. Forget
keywords as
anchor texts

75. Build Links
WITH Your
Content to Win.

78. Pick Content Type

79. Build Content With High Search Link Intent
KEYWORD$“FACTS”$
KEYWORD$“INFORMATION”$
KEYWORD$“DATA”$

80. Learn the art of storytelling

81. Promote

83. THANK YOU!
Website: www.pagetraffic.com
Email: navneet@pagetraffic.com
Twitter: @navneetkaushal
Blog: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pagetraffic.in