2014 was an eventful year in the SEO world as significant updates were made by Google in its search engine algorithm in this year. It is a best practice to keep a tab on the dates when Google makes the updates for two reasons – Firstly, because Google owns 67% of the market share and secondly, because it helps to explain the reasons for the change in rankings of pages, organic website traffic and SEO. Some of the updates made in 2014 were as follows:

Google My Business was launched in June

It is a suite of tools for business owners that provide them a single dashboard to update information on their business details, add photos, read reviews and make use of Google+. With this update, one can access several apps on one screen – Apps such as Google+, Insights, Reviews, Google Analytics and Start a Hangout. Currently, Google My Business App is available on both Google Play and iTunes and is used by small businesses to engage with its audience from one location, interact with them and stay connected with them.

Pigeon Update in Google’s algorithm

On July 24th, Google introduced the Pigeon update which many believed was the biggest Google update to local search results and the greatest impact of this update has been that directories are now being favoured in the results over local businesses. Also, the importance of ranking factors has now changed. However, inspite of this update, experts still believe that businesses should still focus on matters that are of local importance – website, links, citations and reviews. Domains and location still continue to be important and businesses should not over-optimize their websites.

Carousel Feature for Desktop Searches

Google introduced the Carousel feature for desktop searches in June 2013. The search results used to be in the form of interactive horizontal listings and included images that one could scroll. Since users were clicking on the images it was suggested that businesses should use high quality images on their sites. However, all this has changed now and searches now bring up a “three-pack” of ads that users can click and proceed with. Some experts believe that this step will not only affect organic traffic ranking, but will also affect volume of traffic.

2015: Local SEO Tips

Below are some tips that will help local businesses stay on top in 2015:

Optimize the website for mobile devices

As the usage of mobile phones especially smartphones increases, businesses will need to ensure that their websites are accessible on mobile devices. Research also shows that more and more users are accessing the internet with the help of mobile devices. A mobile friendly site can improve the click-through rate and improve rankings of a website as well as bring in revenue.

Focus on Google My Business

As per experts, businesses should optimize their presence on Google My Business. For doing this, they must ensure that they enter their business details correctly on the map, mention their full address, phone numbers, hours of operation and payment types. Also adding the website on the local Google+ page helps.

Get listed on other websites also

There are hordes of other websites that are available and it is a good idea to get listed on them as well besides Google+. These include Yelp, Yellowpages.com, White Pages, Merchant Circle, Foursquare, Supermedia, Manta, CitySearch, MojoPages and others.

Optimize your website

Continuously keep your website updated and ensure that it has relevant and informative content on every page including the home page. Avoid using link farms or spammy keywords and follow Google webmaster guidelines to optimize your site.

Stay on top of the ball

Always keep your eyes and ears open for news and information about local blogs and forums and any other piece of news related to Google offerings on local businesses especially updates to Pigeon.