New Year does not mark a new beginning for SEO, every day is a new beginning for SEO, for me though, 2015 is a new beginning for my company Seonaut, which provides SEO in Danish.

We all like lists and New Year brings loads of “Best of 2014″ and “Predictions for 2015″, so here we go…

1. Mobile SEO

Mobile views are, according to this study, taking over in 2015. This means you need Responsive Web Design (RWD) and probably some styling to do also to make your site perfect for mobile phones and tablets along with laptops and pcs.

2. Structured Data & Semantic Markup

Structured data will gain more importance in 2015 as it has done through the last 10 years, but as of the Google Hummingbird algorithm update in 2013, semantic markup is a must.

3. Content is King (again)

Google will keep on fighting spam using updates to Panda and Penguin and Google will be continuing to reward good unique and valuable content. Content which is useful shown on fast loading pages will be even more important.

4. Sharing is Caring

Social Media signals, at least from G+ and other Google services, also tells Google about a page worth visiting and so does User data like bounce rate and time on page.

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Bots are scanning the Internet for new domain registrations, DNS changes and similar signs of web activity, and the domain name is registered as an account at Twitter. This is what happened to me when I revived an old domain by changing the DNS and setting up a blog.

The solution to this is to go to the Twitter help center and file a support ticket request. If your claim is legitimate, you’ll get access to your Twitter name within a couple of days, maybe more if the case is complicated.

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“SEO + SMO = Amplified Findability” says Brian Solis, who in the article “Social Media Optimization: SMO is the New SEO – Part 1” argues that social search and hence SMO, will play an ever growing part of online marketing efforts of the coming years, SMO will be the SEO of the future.

SMO will undoubtedly become more important and probably hyped too, but it will not replace SEO, rather I think the two will melt into a new form of search marketing.

Search Marketing

Search marketing also includes advertising, so SEA (Search Engine Advertising) and SMA (Social Media Advertising) must be considered too. What interests me the most, though, is how to create synergy from SEO and SMO in terms of strategy and practical implementation of findability, how to amplify findability to a larger extend than the two parts, or how dynamic implementation and engagement will result in adding to the process.

Today Twitter search results hold prominent placements on Google result pages and no doubt, Google would love to give space to Facebook results too. Bing do have deals with both Twitter and Facebook but Bing don’t have the market share of Google.

Search engines do mix social and thus human based results with search results based on the Google search algorithm, which is a step toward the fusion of SEO and SMO. Also the search result page media mix of text (sometimes enhanced by rich snippets), images and video also form new challenges for SEO.

Search marketing strategy

The easy answer to the question of how to approach this development in search marketing is to say that you must think of everything. In a way, you must, but in practice this is impossible for most of us, even huge corporations don’t think of everything. So do some research and find out where exactly to put your effort.

The choice of one or two social media platforms, a blog, and SEO for your web site is required but the social media you will engage with must be the one where your customers are.

5 Dynamics of SEO and SMO

1. Keyword Research. In SEO, keyword research is to find the most searched words and phrases concerning your products. In SMO keyword research is to find out what your customers like to talk about, combine the two tasks.

2. Market Research. In SEO your focus is largely on your competitors, in SMO your focus is on your customers, these two can work in conjunction.

3. Reputation Intelligence. In SMO you must be informed of what others say about you, your company, your products and this knowledge is useful for SEO.

4. Link Building. The more popular a blog grows, the more links it will attract, the more quality comments you leave on other’s blogs or social profiles, the more recognition you get, and the more links you get (even if they are nofollow) which starts the ring over again.

5. Visibility Enhancement. Writing posts on your blog does have benefits for both SEO and SMO. The SMO part mainly results in social value for your Facebook, Twitter or whatever profiles. The SEO side benefits from more indexed pages, more articles (link bait), higher internal link value, etc.

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Online Marketing covers website and/or blogs, profiles on social media both on the web and via mobile devices like iPhone. Online marketing involves at least the following disciplines: seo, and ppc advertising, public relations, branding, conversion optimization plus tracking and analysis.

My point is that, by being properly prepared, one can create synergy between several disciplines, equivalent to letting the ball do the work.

Over the past years and months, search engine result pages (SERPS) have changed, especially Googles, and now shows the results from a variety of media on page 1; Twitter, YouTube, organic results, adwords ads and realtime search is now everyday and in conjunction, the views of search engine results pages vary depending on location, personalization and search patterns. SEO today, is a very broad term for the optimization of many types of media, video, audio, images and text. Last but not least, novelty and domain trust plays a big role too.

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others can also be used in online marketing. Not as sales channels, not as one-way channels, but to create dialogue and attention. Online marketing will be absurd without SEO and the opportunities offered by social media can boost both seo for your online shop, your blog or your company website, and related social profiles on Facebook, YouTube, etc.

The important point is that you include all factors in the overall strategy, that you write down all ideas appearing and break them into categories, eg. by the media, and present them as a “tone” that you find, a playing style that suits the players’ competencies and the ideas of the coach.

The Midfield

In soccer, you can play with a diamond constallation on the midfield, four players who constantly moves for each other when they have the ball and constantly backs each other when it comes to pressure. My suggestion is to start with four types of media and use them as a diamond, a blog, a facebook page, a twitter profile and a personal profile. It might be that whats to be promoted is a webshop, but it does not matter, a webshop is not a player, but a price.

A blog should address topics that are related to your store, your interest, your sales pages, or whatever it is you want to promote. I recommend WordPress as a blogging system, check out, that the theme you choose is SEO friendly (Thesis is cool).

A Facebook page will be your company’s presentation on Facebook, where many people spend lots of hours. Remember: “What Happens in Vegas, stays on YouTybe” as Erik Qualman says. There are a myriad of applications for Facebook, including Social RSS showing headlines from the last 5 blog posts to your blog. FBML which allows you to do a lot of changes and other applications which can be used to promote your company on Facebook.

The importance of a Twitter profile is of course dependent on how large a portion of your audience are active on Twitter. Nevertheless, a Twitter profile is good to have as it offers a quick oppertunity to find news and react quickly in both attack and defense, Twitter is a very agile player. Your Twitter profile is important because you here have input in real time, and because you have the opportunity to respond in real time.

Your personal profile is reflected in the other three players, the personal profile, is the routined player who can keep track of the situation, is the personal profile is skilled at predicting dangerous or favorable situations and react according to experience. It is the personal profile that goes out on other blogs and write comments, it is the personal profile which shines through in the language and choice of topics and is the personal profile that creates consensus.

The Defence

The talented goalkeeper can win games and a good goalkeeper is supporsed to shout. The goalkeeper directs the wall and must be of absolute authrity and have 100 percent trust from the defence players.

The Four-back chain must be able to act at the same time, pull the opponent players offsite, and thus get the opponent’s attack averted, hard fight, speed and offensive qualities also make a defense player better. Your defense is, as a starting point, to listen to what people say, and especially What they say about you. And then decide whether to initiate a dialogue by responding. With a tool such as Social Mention can see what trends for specific keywords (i.e. your name, company name, products, services, etc.) and Google Analytics is pretty good when it comes to statistics. Both services are free and web based.

The Attackers

Two men in fron does not sound of very much, but with support from the midfield and defense, it can be dangerous enough and as you know, the best defense is to attack.

The attacker’s primary role is to score the goals needed to win matches. And scoring goals can be achieved in many ways; Be first with something that makes a trend, start using different medias for old tasks, eg. by communicating new things out via Facebook or Twitter, take advantage of your Google Analytics analysis reports and explore the boundaries of marketing on social media.

The Team

Players play games and practice but to successeed, there must be a strong support base. Your base is good rankings in search engines achieved through SEO, Adwords ads, conversion optimized landing pages, good informational pages and articles, reasonable prices and good quality in your shop, etc. Your team also counts those people, who ensures a sound business.

Let the ball do the work

By having all these things work as one organism, both soccer and online marketing gets better. Use Facebook to tell about your newsletter, use Twitter to draw attention to a new blog post, use your blog to write about things your customers want to know more about. Comment on others’ entries on Facebook or Twitter, get more content on blog posts with user comments, use Twitter for customer support, use Facebook and Twitter to promote small YouTube videos, etc.

Make sure there are RSS feed on the blog, make sure that people can comment and use your “personal profile” when you reply.

In a small or medium sized company, it is important that all employees, everyone! Are involved and knows what is going on. It is important that the various employees are kept informed about issues affecting their field, but aggregation of data requires just a single employee who monitors the network. Bloglines RSS reader to follow news and article feeds, Google Reader to monitor alerts from Google, Social Mention to follow social media and Google Analytics to monitor web trends.

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Dan Zarella: The 8 Elements of Contagious Ideas

This article takes you by the hand and explains (the) 8 elements of what makes an idea go viral, not the method but the underlying strategies are discussed.

Kami Huyse: Who Owns the Social Media Play: Marketing, PR or Advertising?

Social media belongs to PR. Kami Huyse have some very strong arguments for why PR should “own” social media.

Rick Burnes: How @garyvee Builds Business Leverage Out of Passion

Gary Vaynerchuk expanded the family business from $4 million to $60 million by using social media. Passion can move the mountain.

John C. Havens: Augmented reality: What marketers need to know

Upcomming technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) will have it’s impact on the future of marketing. This article shows how AR will be implemented in every thing from X-Box to iPhone.

Olivier Blanchard: Defining Social Media R.O.I. Once And For All: It’s all about the Benjamins.

To successfully measure marketing on social media, one needs to be able to determine ROI. Oliver Blanchard shows how to measure social media ROI.

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Jeremiah Owyang: Video: What’s Next For Mobile, A Discussion on Augmented Reality, Custom Content, and Video Games

This article demonstrates what’s next in mobile marketing. The video is a must see and gives an excellent overview over future technological possibilities in mobile marketng.

Dean Sherwin: First Augmented Reality App – Metro Paris Subway

Augmentet Reality (AR) is on the move. Location based apps like the one in this article shows the way for mobile marketing.

Rimma Katz : Augmented reality is next big thing in mobile advertising: CTIA panel

Inspirational article on how AR is going to be incorporated in entertainment, games and education. New perspectives on how AR can help in community building.

PixPol: Why Smart Brands are Jumping Into Virtual World Marketing

The link between virtual worlds and mobile marketing is the incorporation of brands and marketing messages in mobile apps, i.e. augmented reality, all in one digital identity and cross platform avatars.

Giselle Tsirulnik: Five tips to get the most out of Google Buzz

Google Buzz is not (yet) as widespread as many other mobile applications, but it’s on the rise, this article gives you some good tips as to why and how.

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Jeremiah Owyang: The Three Spheres of Web Strategy –Updated for 2009

A very illustrative article explaining the three spheres, what they are and how they connect. An excellent study of web strategy.

Brian Solis: ROI: How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media

Brian Solis shows how to measure ROI on social media and both ROI and measuremet is explained so that these concepts can be incorporated in an over all web strategy.

Maki: Building Complementary Services: A Powerful Long-Term Social Media Marketing Strategy

An exellent article from DoshDosh on the art and science of attention grapping social media marketing strategy richly illustrated with cases and examples.

Tamsen McMahon: A scientific method to tame social media madness

Plan a social media marketing campaign by asking the right questions, defining goals, and everything in between. Find the in betweens by using scientific method research.

Adam Singer: Architecting A Social Web Marketing And PR Strategy

An excellent article explaining how to build a social web marketing strategy. Adam Singer covers areas like how to leverage your social presence, authenticity, and PR.

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Oh… and some content.

So bare with me, I have a full time job to handle too.

Did I mention links?

Well, a little update after 48 hours, the design part is in progress, but there are still some bugs…

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