SEO in 2015 and the Future of SEO?

Very good article Tom and duly shared

Minor point, couldn't read the Rankings factor infographic, maybe have it as a clickable image that displays as a larger picture?

Only thing I'd agree to disagree on is HTTPS adoption. If you are starting a new site, then it's a no brainer to move to Googles recommendation of securing all webpages with a SSL certificate (assuming you are happy with the annual certificate cost, which knocks out most hobby and micro businesses).

But for an established business there all sorts of things to consider behind the headlines, for such a small potential advantage. A ranking signal bonus over https can be countered if it impacts your site speed, which is arguably a larger ranking signal.

If you are an adsense publisher, then you will only be allowed to serve ad's from https sources, rather than http and https, which could dramatically hinder earnings.

The big thing people flag is being able to see referral traffic in your analytics. If you are https enabled, you will see where referral traffic came from when getting traffic from http and https sites. Otherwise you won't be able to track any https referral data. Lets be honest, how many small business owners regularly analyse their analytics!

But until most websites do upgrade, then this isn't really a problem.

I can see some major websites upgrading over the next 6 months, but a lot will hold off for complexity reasons, with hassle versus reward equations.

I reckon your average small business website will remain http for the forseeable imho, unless webdesigners get savvy and do it by default. But then they have to sell the idea of an annual £100 certificate cost, which on top of a simple £500 website, is it worth it?

We use https on the sensitive parts of the site like login pages, but I can't see us taking the plunge within the next 12 - 18 months.

Obviously this post will come back and haunt me when we follow suit like sheep with everyone else!

Cheers Steve, 

Sorted that issue. 

As for HTTPS, I think the speed issue is a good point, but as long as you have decent hosting it shouldn't make a significant difference. 

HTTPS now is only a small ranking factor, but my thoughts are especially in the next 12 months, that Google is going to hugely increase the value of this. 

I won't create another money site without using HTTPS on it, but your right I'm not going to move all my non-earning sites over anytime soon. Saying that I think if you ever decide to change hosting / move servers / big redesigns or any of that its probably worth just getting the SSL. 2 birds and all....