2013 was an eventful year for all SEO professionals. Google made major updates of its two algorithms – Panda and Penguin. Hummingbird also came flying this year. What Google wants us to pay attention to is creating quality content and quality links.
As we know, the periodic updates of Google algorithms have brought a heavy blow to millions of websites lowering their organic search engine ranking drastically. The sites that previously enjoyed a top position on Google became invisible soon after the search engine giant updated Panda and Penguin algorithms. SEO professionals realized the fact that to survive in this digital world you need high-quality content and high-quality linking.
It is worth remembering that SEO trends will not change that much in 2014 as it is in 2013. The only difference being you have to have a deeper understanding of Google algorithms and you have to think ahead of Google as far as the SEO content and online marketing is concerned.
Quality Content is All that Matters
You should give more emphasis on writing quality content. Quality will rule over quantity in the SEO sphere. Google has started giving credibility to websites that has user-friendly, informative content and not keyword-rich content.
Creation of Quality Links
Linking is an essential part of search engine optimization. However, with the algorithm updates, linking needs to be more meaningful and not just for the sake of getting a high ranking organically. For example, paying 500 dollars for 1000 links no longer holds true and useful now. What you need to do is linking to quality content.
Hummingbird and Semantic Search
Hummingbird has brought a paradigm shift from keywords to entity. For example, if you type “How far is Dominos?”, Google will provide you not only the address of the nearest Dominos shops but also the direction to reach there. Hummingbird actually uses the Google Knowledge Graph to “better understand the relationship between concepts instead of individual keywords by categorizing relationships between “entities” meaning people, places, and objects.”
Increased Emphasize on Social Media
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest will become more important giving global exposure to your brand and products. You can reach out to millions and billions of people in real-time and get connected with them via interesting, informative posts, images, videos, and website links. Besides, social media users will always have the chance to engage, interact, like, comment, and share your posts with their extended network.
Mobile SEO
In 2014, every site owner should have a mobile version of their website. The number of people using mobile devices (Smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc.) will rise and thus there is a need to create a mobile version of your site for increased visibility.
Google+
Companies should start investing in Google+. As Google has started paying heed to quality content, there is a need to establish a “Google Authorship of your content” via Google+. This social media site allows you to open a Google account and link high-quality content to your name thereby making it easier for you to claim an authority in your domain.
This aspect will play an important role in putting up your site on a top position on Google’s natural search results.
To conclude, 2014 will be a busy year for the SEO professionals. However, the good news is that we already know the route where SEO market is heading. It is thus easier for us to find out and implement strategies that would help a site achieve a top spot on Google and in all other leading search engines.
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