There is a wonderful thread that is pretty deep right now, going on at WebmasterWorld talking about the 2014 trends in search, and what people expect to see in search in 2015 - mostly on the organic side.
To me, the big scare are more and more knowledge graph and quick answers showing up in Google's search results. This is a trend that is not slowing down at all and seems to be replacing the need for the ten blue links. Of course, mobile growth is massive. Matt Cutts being away from Google so long and the issues of transparency between webmasters and Google on the algorithm side is upsetting. This is evident in the latest Penguin updates that have shocked and hurt more than it helped. Of course, sites still are being hit by Panda, that clearly should not be - despite Google's efforts.
Here is just a short list of some of what is being discussed in the thread:
- Matt Cutts Leaves Google Temporarily, Where It Outreach?
- Bing Fires and Rehires Duane Forrester
- Panda Algorithm rolls out without much softening for those impacted
- Penguin was a mess this year and not getting any better.
- Mobile search growing beyond desktop search
- Social growth and traffic increases
- Schema more of a role
- Knowledge Graph and Quick Answers eating up search traffic
- Link networks and devaluing links
- Keyword density issue
- More user intent metrics
- Geo-specific ranking changes
- Personalization changes or less personalized results?
- More ads in place or organic results
- Will SSL make much of a dent?
- More mobile ranking factors?
What do you think will be the biggest trend in SEO in 2015?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for SEO words
