The Stupidly Simple Guide to SEO in 2015

Think back to a decade ago and every self-proclaimed SEO guru would tell you to stuff every single page you can with keywords and ensure your metadata was all intact. But do these strategies still hold water in 2015? The answer is no, but we've got a whole bunch of SEO techniques that really do work. So let's get started. 

It's all about the quality

The SEO industry used to be something of the Wild West. Google was still quite young, search algorithms were always changing, and opportunities for page 1 success were rife. But now that things have settled down a little, what's used to work simply doesn't -- including keyword stuffing. This is the process of filling your on-site content with as many mentions of your target keywords as possible. Google used to go by keyword density, so this tactic worked well, but now it's more about quality. Keyword stuffing can actually get your site demoted in the rankings, so avoid it at all costs. Instead, focus on creating high quality, readable content that people really want to read. Through social sharing and back-linking from other sites, you can see a significant SEO boost.

Think semantically

One of the buzzwords of SEO in 2015 is ‘semantic search’. This ties in nicely to our previous point, in the sense that semantic terms are those that are linked closely, but not synonyms. For example, a company selling golf shoes may include terms like ‘golf clubs’, ‘putters’, ‘tees’ and so on; as well as long-tail keywords such as ‘best shoes for golfing’. By including terms like these naturally in both static page content (like your home page and about page), as well as blog posts, you can see a decent SEO improvement. Just so long as you follow the golden rule: write for the human reader first, not the search engine!

Does metadata matter?

Another off-site SEO (i.e. not based in text content) tactic that was often touted in the past was metadata. This is information that sits in the source code of your site and gives the search engines info about you. For example, meta keywords were always recommended. These days, it’s not really that important. Just so long as you have relevant titles for each page, and a meta description that will appear in the results, you’re good to go! Metadata does still matter, but nowhere near as much as it used to.

Your focus areas

So where should you be focussing your efforts to see SEO gains in 2015? Well, primarily you want to: publish quality content tailored to the reader, share your content socially (Facebook and Twitter, etc.) so it gets natural traffic, try to generate real links back to your site by creating content that matters, and ensure you think semantically.

Once your SEO strategy has netted you some new customers, you’ll want to make sure they’re treated perfectly. That’s where the AutoVu CRM system comes in very handy. Check out the site today for more info about how it could help your business.