Terrifying a thought as it may be, 2014 is almost a distant memory and 2015 is well and truly knocking on the door. So once again, web marketing groups of all shapes and sizes are being forced to accept that the newfound trends of this year will soon be history and instead replaced with the next big thing…or things.
Of course, predicting exactly what’s around the corner with any degree of certainty is tricky. After all, it takes just a single tech brand to catch us off-guard with a new piece of mobile technology to totally change the way web marketing must be approached. However, by taking into account the way things have progressed in 2014 in conjunction with the most realistic projects of industry analysts, there are certain trends that are guaranteed to be bigger business than ever before in 2015.
…and here’s an overview of the five biggest of all:
Mobile Search
It was predicted a while back that 2014 would be the biggest year in history for mobile search and mobile web access in general. Which of course turned out to be the case, but once again 2015 is expected to take the growth of mobile experienced in 2014 and blast it into oblivion. Mobile isn’t just a revolution-to-be, it’s a revolution that’s already happened across much of the world. As such, to overlook the importance of mobile or even to see it as a subsidiary to standard efforts is to immediately wipe the vast majority of any site’s potential off the face of the Earth. Those not already up to speed are in fact already dangerously behind the curve – next year such procrastination will likely prove fatal.
Social Media Diversity
Social media sites and services are popping up at record pace and while none have yet managed to replicate the success of Facebook or Twitter, times are changing. The reason being that more people than ever before are trying out new social media services for the sole purpose of getting away from the ‘sheep’ and carving their own path. What’s more, Facebook and Twitter have annoyed a fair few with their privacy policies and allowing of troll behaviour. All in all therefore, next year is likely to bring further growth for smaller social media platforms, which for marketing purposes in particular are ripe for the plucking.
Content Marketing
By the end of 2015, direct marketing will have taken an even humbler back seat to content marketing – aka the art of selling without selling. Consumers these days are no longer willing to even listen to/read hard sells or feel the slightest inclination to do business with those behind them. Instead, they’d much rather read into content that’s in tune with their interests and find themselves being slowly but surely driven in the direction of products in accordance with any given brand’s authority and relevance. For 2015 therefore, the hard sell is well and truly heading out of the picture while content marketing is in. A wonderful opportunity it may be, but at the same time global spending on content marketing is expected to spike quite spectacularly.
So Long Spam!
Google’s war on spam is to a large extent already won, but will nonetheless continue to be stepped up until not a single site that’s looking to get by using spam tactics is able to do so. During 2015, what’s most likely to change once again is the actual definition of what qualifies as spam and otherwise, which will concern things like keyword use, content depth, general relevance, backlink quality and so on. As such, those are right now hanging by the skin of their teeth having kept on using the SEO of five years ago will in all likelihood find that 2015 is the year they fall off the rankings completely.
Conversational SEO
Last but not least, Google has made no secret of its on-going commitment to making its own search experience more natural and conversational. Summed up in a nutshell, this refers to the way in which traditional keyword searches based on just one or two keywords are fast being replaced with more conversational key phrase searches and questions. The reason being that Google and others are now doing their utmost to deliver the most tailored search results to users ever, rather than just anything and everything that contains a given keyword. As such, now really is the time to begin the process or reexamining keyword choices and thinking about how longer phrases and terms could be implemented for the new 2015 SEO standard.