What Matters in SEO for 2015 and Beyond?

bymarcusfei

101 followers

9 years ago

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is always a complicated topic. There are a variety of reasons for this. For one thing, SEO is always constantly changing. As Google has proved many, many times before, it only takes one major update to really change the rules of a game.

Ask anyone who used to game backlinks or once hired an army of English as a second language writers to churn out page after page of fluff with little value or depth. Those strategies could, at one time, help you jump to the top of the search engine rankings, but those days are long gone.

Google has become much better at separating the wheat from the chaff, and other search engines have followed their lead. If you're going to succeed in ranking your website higher up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), then you need to understand some of the most important factors for judging websites going forward from this moment on.

Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?

All you have to do is Google "Mobilegeddon" (yes, irony noted here) to see just how important having a mobile-friendly website is. This isn't just referring to having a mobile option, but looking at actual responsive web design where the site can change its shape, size, and design to fit any type of mobile device from smart phones to tablets. Being mobile used to be a strong positive for the SEO of a website, but now it's an absolute necessity.

If your website isn't responsive, you can expect to get back-handed down to the nether regions of Google and the other search engines. It's one of the single most important factors for making any website rank in any search engine now. If your website isn't mobile, it doesn't matter how solid the rest of your SEO program is, you're going to have a hard time finding that first page. In competitive niches it will be all but impossible.

How Clean Is Your Website Code?

This is another major factor with ranking in the world of modern SEO. Considering the sheer number of popular and well-made Content Management Systems (CMS), there really is no excuse not to have good clean code. While WordPress and Joomla might be two of the most well-known and most popular, there are literally dozens upon dozens of options that offer clean solid code.

This doesn't just go into the coding that creates a website's look or theme, but it also refers to making sure you don't keyword stuff alt tags or put in other coding that is meant to spam or manipulate the rankings. Go with clean code, it's a must in modern search engine optimization.

Local Business Sites Need Google Reviews

This tip is more for locally based businesses, or businesses that serve a specific targeted area. While Google has not confirmed that there is a direct correlation between positive Google reviews and where a local business ranks both in the map listings and organic listings underneath a local search term, there are hundreds of screenshots that can be found online that seem to show those businesses with the most positive Google reviews are not only ranked highest on a map displaying local businesses that relate to the search term, but also often correlate to the organic results underneath the map.

Whether or not there is a direct correlation between the rankings and the SEO, there's no question that a lot of positive reviews are good for the business. Not only that, but they seem to contribute to the social side of positive modern SEO, which means that local businesses who want that step up in the rankings are only going to be helped by several positive reviews.

Original High-Quality Content

Since the very first Google Panda update back in early 2011, high-quality and original content has become more and more important in searching highly in the SERPs. You can't rank with recycled PLR content, duplicate content, or poorly written fluff with a strong "English as a second language" vibe. In other words, you need to bring your "A-game" every single page and every single post. Great content is key to making sure you move on up.

In Conclusion

There are literally hundreds of factors that go into how final SEO rankings of a website, but by concentrating on these four you'll have a strong website that's not only built for now, but ready to rank high far into the future, as well!