SEO Trends Heading Into 2014

SEO Trends Heading Into 2014

This year was more than significant in terms of organic SEO ranking perception due to the Google algorithm change – probably the largest in a decade. It is also the year obnoxious critics proclaimed the death of SEO on a large scale, while others stood strong in the midst of it. Here’s a breakdown of what happened and how you can stay on top despite all occurring changes.

Organic SEO Will Get Harder In Every Way

If your traffic sources aren’t diversified, you’ll more than likely find SEO difficult. In addition, it’s no longer possible to brag about ranking for certain keywords as people’s search results are becoming more personalized, and this is based upon their individual interests, social presence, history of searches and similar applicable metrics.

Some marketers might feel as if targeting keywords has been effectively rendered useless by Google, especially considering how much they’ve gone out of their way to remove what was once the most important piece of SEO information – keyword referrals. If you try to check your Google Analytics you’ll notice how you won’t be provided information on keywords which led people to your website.

Not Only Is Value In Content Prioritized, But It Will Require More Detail

If your main aim is to achieve an authority status with a brand website, you’ll have to forget about putting up thousands of short valueless content articles. Even though shorter pieces of content that are high in value will eventually lead to results, you might want to focus your attention upon longer pieces and try to address problems your target audience is facing thoroughly/in depth.

Author Authority Is Increasingly Important

Even though you have some valuable pieces of content that people have responded to and ones that matter, Google will eventually want to weigh in on your entire portfolio of work. They tend to rely upon Google Authorship in addition to their backend techniques, but the thing to remember is that Google’s aim is to develop a mechanism which helps people learn about the things you’re already addressing on your site. This will help them understand what you’re about in a better way, thus qualifying you for certain subjects more than others.

Some of the things you’ll have to pay attention to include social signals your content is generating, the frequency of your updates as well as the sites your content leads readers to. These are the things which will hold the most influence upon your SERPs and to establish yourself as the authority on a certain subject, make sure you’re utilizing Google Authorship for not only regular content, but guests post within your industry. Google Authorship is the last thing you want to miss out on.

Organic SEO Goes Hand In Hand With Social Media

Some of the biggest changes in organic SEO include the loss of keyword data and enhancing the factor of influence which social media already possesses. Google is focused on social shares and similar types of influence; hence they’re able to provide users with a calculated result. For instance, if a user searches for a generic keyword they’ll most likely encounter an article written by a friend of theirs or some content that was initially shared by a contact of theirs.

Influence levels will also majorly impact search results as established brands throughout the years known for producing quality content are going to find it easier to get organic rankings in the first place. To give you an example, Business Insider or Yahoo News will rank easier, not only because they’ve been around for years, but because their articles are shared by hundreds of thousands of visitors – notifying Google of how valuable their content is. This makes it harder for an average business to receive a certain kind of social response without making a serious effort in terms of branding.

Pay Lots Of Attention To Semantic Search

If you are a close follower of Google algorithm updates, you probably noticed how the Hummingbird update generalized a specific type of content to semantic search, meaning that long tail keywords will continue playing a role, but a diminished one at that. If you look for something very specific like a review of your favorite book written by your favorite author, or even something as simple as a recipe, you’ll notice how the top entries are basically sites with a higher number of links pointed toward their content and not entirely specific to the keyword you decided to look for in the first place.

This is a direct result of Google attempting to provide data relevant to their individual users interests. Google simply assesses what the user has commonly searched for and then proceeds to sort it out. Being that this is the case already, long tail keywords might not provide to be as effective as they did previously. What remains to be done about it? How do you stay on top of this?

Your Only Focus Should Be In Providing Substantial Core Value

Start by dropping any personal agenda of yours as far as rankings, and focus your attention to providing a good experience for visitors in addition to value in content. Having a readable design is a must. You’ll find that Google isn’t that complicated to understand as they’re only trying to retain users by providing meaningful results and having them use it frequently in addition to clicking on their ads.

Expect Google to try and weed out black-hat SEO from gaming their algorithm entirely in 2014. If your content is written for the sole purpose of obtaining a search result, you’re basically painting a target on your website’s head. This means that instead of having to write for the search engine, you should really write for the audience you’re trying to attract in the first place. Fact is, this is starting to become the same thing because when you write for an actual audience, you’re also writing for Google.

Your Website/Blog Has To Be Compatible With Tablets And Mobile Devices

Mobile is no longer an option as it’s rapidly taking over everything, and you’ll notice how a portion of your website visitors is entirely on mobile. More than half of America owns a smartphone, and a third of all internet users have tablets. In no-time we’ll see more internet users accessing the internet via their mobile devices rather than a desktop PC.

Making sure your website is compatible is the least you can do at this point. Trying to think about how to achieve productivity in terms of mobile will require some effort and a shift in mindset, but it will be worth it.

In addition to making your site compatible, you’ll have to ensure it loads fast across all devices as well. Being that people expect a speedy response now more than ever, patience is less common and can lead to frustration. Slow loading websites equal really bad customer experiences and website speeds are one of the most important factors to letting your audience get right to the value your brand stands for.

To Conclude

Things which you felt were important this year will more than likely continue to be important in 2014. Your main goal should be to diversify your traffic and remain on top of updates by providing as much value as you can and building a presence via social media outlets.

Finally, it’s worth noting that having a good content marketing strategy will almost always lead to attaining great organic rankings. Google’s changes aren’t something to be afraid of if you’re not the type to look for shortcuts as they already follow suit to what successful marketers have been doing for years: frequent posting, maintained social media presence, the initiation of social signals and a source of value for an audience.

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