5 SEO Trends to Look Forward to in 2015

If you are hearing that "SEO is dead" then you are wrong, my amigo. While search engine optimization is constantly changing, it is far from dead. SEO is a beautiful mix of SEO techniques, content marketing, and social media marketing. 

In the coming year, we can expect to see several things happen, when it comes to SEO. 

1. Better semantic search. When Google released its Hummingbird update in September of 2013, it was a rebuild of the algorithm to favor semantic search. Semantic search attempts to understand why someone searches for something via analyzing possible meanings and intent. Hummingbird looks at each word of the query to hopefully grasp the whole meaning. 
1. This means more conversational style queries will be made. Instead of searching solely for, "Chicago SEO firm", we might search for, "Who is the best SEO firm in Chicago?" This also means more long tail keywords. So, instead of keywords that are only one or two words, keywords will be more in the range of 3-6 words. 
2. LSI keywords- LSI keywords are "latent semantic indexing" keywords, which means that they utilize synonyms and plurals of your main keywords.
2. SEO for mobile search.  According to Google, half of searches made by someone on a smartphone are made with the intent of making an in-store purchase. However, not every mobile search has local intent:
1. 17 percent of mobile searches are in the store but complete the sale online. 
2. 44 percent research online & complete the sale online. 
3. Over 75 percent happen at home or work. 
4. 17 percent are done while in motion. 
5. 81 percent of smartphone owners research products on their smartphones. 
6. 50 percent of smartphone owners purchase via their phones. 
7. 66 percent of all the time in 2014 that was spend with online retail was done so via smartphones instead of computers. 
1. Mobile search is growing; by the end of 2015, mobile search is expected to be more powerful than computer. Everyone has a personal computer right in their pocket, these days. 
1. 43 percent of US adults use their phones & tablets as primary search tools. 
2. 46 percent of adults don't use their laptops or desktops for pre-purchase research. 
3. 33 percent of online shoppers used their phones & tablets for the whole purchase process. 
4. 58 percent of US adults researched prices of prices of a product while in-store for that item. 
3. Social signals will lose power. While retweets, shares, and +1s have power in rankings, their power is not what we likely believe them to be. The confusion here is that there is a difference between correlation and causation. While a high ranking social media profile may have lots of these social signals, it may be something on the page (something deeper) that is causing the page to rank well. Some studies have shown that when a company gains 100 Google+ followers, they tend to increase in rankings by 14 percent. 
1. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are high authority sites, this means that your company's profile on these sites can outrank your website. As a Chicago SEO firm, we have seen this actually happen, many times. 
4. Earned links will be even more important. Earned links are in contrast to paid links. Earned links are going out and placing your links places, writing blogs, and social media. Paid links are a sure-fire way to get your site penalized. 
1. This means that content marketing is still king. 
5. Getting brand mentions and citations. A citation is mentioning your business name, address, and number on a website that is not your own website. There are three types of citations to recognize:
1. Local- Local businesses such as dentists, attorneys, restaurants  being listed in places like internet Yellow Pages, Yelp, Google Business, Google+ , etc. 
2. Industry- Being listed with industry-specific citations. 
3. Niche- Get brand mentions and citations on industry websites that appeal to their target markets. 

To be successful in local SEO and SEO as a whole, an SEO company needs to be able to see ahead. If your business wants to be found on the internet, then hire an SEO company that knows what to look for. Talk with Integraphix. 

Why Use Google Analytics

If your company does search engine optimization then you should be using Google Analytics. Now, this post is not a push or plug for Google but rather helpful advice for how you can understand if your SEO is working, how well, and what you can do to make it better.

When you use the analytics, you can see how many people visited your site for a specific period of time , how long they visited for, how many pages they viewed, how many got to your site through organic means or through directly putting your URL into their web browser. These are great tools to see how how well your SEO is working.

However, another great reason to actually analyze your efforts is to see how people are getting to your website. Are they getting to your site through the keywords that you have been using? If so, which ones? These are questions that get answered if you use Analytics.

Are people getting to your site via computer or are they looking at it through a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet? If they are using mobile devices more, then your site will have to be mobile-responsive so mobile users are able to view your site effectively; otherwise, they may scoot away from your site quickly, raising your bounce rate.

Are people in the area your targeting with your SEO looking at your site? You can find that out with a look at your analytics.

The bottom line is that if you are going to do search engine optimization, then it would be foolish to not monitor that and see how things are working out. Blindly hoping the efforts are paying off could be a waste of time and money.

Don't Rush to Change Keywords

If you do search engine optimization, you know about keywords. Keywords are your backbone for search engine optimization. They are what get you noticed by the world on the internet. Keywords are the things that people type into the search engines and why your material on the internet and your website become relevant to the people using those keywords. The only problem is that many people are eager to change the keywords and try to be innovative.

The thing about keywords is that they have to establish themselves in reference to your website. So, for example, you use "Dentist in Chicagoland" as a keyword for your dentist office, this keyword has to become associated with your website, according to the search engines. If you change your keywords too often, then the search engines don't like it and your rankings will suffer.

Keywords can stick around for a few months or even longer so you don't really have to worry about them having a short expiration date, they aren't like milk. Think of them more like juice.

If you do not know how to choose a keyword, well there is a science to that. Keywords are often 2-3 words long. one word phrases are called short-tail keywords and they make up less than 30% of searches on the web. Phrases longer than 3 words are called long-tail keywords and make up gets fewer uses with each additional word. The longer and more precise the keywords are, the sooner you will get increased traffic. It is easier to optimize a site and rank for a unique phrase with little competition. The longer and more precise your keyword is, the fewer visitors you will get, but the more targeted your traffic is. The narrower the search term you target, the greater part of visitors convert to actual customers.

When choosing keywords, you want to make a list of keywords to choose from. They must pertain to what you offer or sell. To help you, you can use the Google Keyword Planner tool. You can use more general keywords or more specific like "Chicago Instrument Shop". What makes it more specific is the addition of "Chicago".

How do you pick the best keywords? Good question. You will need to calculate the Keyword Efficiency Index, or KEI. This index show you how good a keyword is for bringing traffic to your site. You will want keywords with high KEI. There are three components to KEI and they are: relevance ( how closely your keyword is related to what you offer to your customers. You can rank the relevance in terms of excellent, good, or poor). Another component of KEI is the search volume (this is how many queries are made for a keyword per month). The third component is competition (how many websites try to rank for this keyword- generally, all sites that have the same keyword as you are your online competition. The fewer websites that are optimized for the same keyword, the better KEI).

As a Chicago marketing company, we do all sorts of internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, blogs, web design, and more. We know all about keywords and how they work and how to use them to someone's advantage.

Local SEO Tips and Tricks

As many of you know, Local SEO is just as important as Organic National SEO is to your business. Since gaining rankings nationally for more generic keywords can take months, if not years based on competition and keyword strength, harnessing the power of Local SEO is terribly important for ranking fast. The top ways to rank locally is to employ some keyword research on the local level.

Do your Keyword Research
Keyword research on the local level of search engine optimization is just as important as doing it for a national program. Take into account local slang and word choice, and what the locals call your particular service. Also - pay attention to your long-tail keyword phrases; if you're not going to get specific, you're not going to rank highly for several different keywords across the board. Example: If you're a florist, don't just try to rank for Chicago Florist. Try to rank for Rose Shop in Chicago or Wedding flowers in Chicago. The key is the city you choose. Choose several cities around your area if you live in a suburban city, and don't just go for the big city if your service can be easily accessed in the city itself.

Keep your Google Place Page Updated
If you've ever searched for a service or product 'in' a city, you've probably seen a Google Map pop up with several places indicated on them with letters. These are Place Pages that companies have claimed and optimized. Make sure you claim your business so you can take advantage of the local business you can get through it.

Your Physical Address is Crawlable
If your website is Flash or the only place your address is listed is in an image, you can't take advantage of this. Google's spider bots will crawl your website and find your address - if it matches the address you've put on your Place Page, it will get ranked higher - so make sure text is not in an image.

Reviews!
Have your clients review your business on Google! Reviews help your page to rank higher - but make sure they're real reviews - fake reviews can get your place page AND your website banned from Google's search index.

Website Homepage Authority
The Page Rank and Relevancy of your website is important for any SEO campaign, especially local seo. In order to show up in Google's local results, you have to have a strong website and an optimized place page.

Traditional Backlinks/Inbound Links
As with any SEO campaign, inbound links to your website are important to rank Locally. Make sure you're using the correct anchor text as found with your keyword research rather than linking using your URL.

Local Directories
Submit your website to local website directories including Yahoo Local, Yelp, Judys Book, Urban Spoon (for restaurants), Insider Pages and more. You'll reap the benefits of better brand recognition and the backlink you get from it.

There you have it! Seven great ways to get started on your Local SEO campaign. If you need help, or if you'd like to talk about how we can help you with your Local SEO program, give us a call at 847.537.0067 or email us directly.