Last year was an incredibly eventful year for
Google when talking about updates. After Google destroyed any black hat
SEO technique with its Panda, Penguin and Humming Bird algorithms, in 2014
we are going to watch the change of the SEO definition.
Prior to 2011, SEO was all about ‘link building’ and ‘keyword
stuffing’, afterwards Google came with updates that valued more the content and
the originality. Now, in order to remain in Google’s results, you
must offer a great user experience. In other terms, natural
link building is highly encouraged.
Next, we will
try to answer 2 questions that each and every online business owner is
interested in:
1) What does
Google prepares us for 2014?
2) What online marketing strategy should we have, how can we be
prepared for these Google updates?
Ok, let’s start with a few things expected any day now.
1
Google Helpouts
Google Helpouts results will start
appearing on the top of organic search results. If you haven’t heard of this
project before, it’s a new way to help users with web problems. It’s like a
community where you can sign up to help others. Google won’t display links anymore,
but will get you in touch with professionals from all over the world
through scheduled video conversation.
You will have the ability to communicate directly with experts
in your area of concern and get the best answers in the shortest time.
2
The king is dead, long live the king! Content.
Focusing on content it’s going to be more and more important. As
told before, Google will value more the user’s experience and valuable content
will place you on top of its results. The best thing to do is having fresh and
quality content that sounds more and more real. Also, you should be careful
with the spelling and grammar. Content Driven SEO will take its place in top
SEO strategies.
3
Mobile optimization. Responsive web design.
As mobile devices’ popularity grows, the websites need to adapt.
Not only that you won’t get the best of your website, but Google is estimate to
penalize websites that aren’t mobile friendly or load slow on mobile devices.
In 2014 mobile site speed will become an independent SEO factor, so if the
website is not built right it will not rank high in smartphones search engine
results.
Get in touch with a team of highly experienced online marketers
who can help your online business grow in 2014.
4
Google Plus and Google +1
Even though
Google Plus isn’t as popular as Facebook or Twitter, its importance to SEO is
already well known. Beside that, in 2014 we will see a higher value added to
the content that has Google Plus reviews and +1′s. Even more, a great SEO
factor is to tie up your blog to your Google Plus account and establish
Google authorship on your content. Maybe Facebook and Twitter will generate
more traffic, but Google Plus will place you higher in Search Engine Results
Pages(SERP).
5
Smaller organic search results space
AdWords is soon expected to start using “Visual Search Ads”
in order to achieve a higher click through rate. Due to this fact the
space of organic search results is going to shrink so the first and most wanted
position on the SERP is going to be lower on the screen.
6
Blogging and guest blogging
Google wants us to share more and more information of any type
(text, image, video), so original and engaging blog posts will
gain more importance and will bring authority to your website. The
optimal length of an article is still disputable, it’s really about the
subject. On a research made on the most viral news in 2013, we discovered that
short stories have up to 500 words and a more-in-depth article has more than
800 words but includes analytical features and case studies. Basically it’s a V
line with the lowest point in the 500-800 interval, which is to avoid.
7
Social Media Moderation
Social Media is probably the latest most important SEO factor
and everyone wants a piece of it. You probably noticed new websites that have
all the social media pages possible with thousands of fake followers and
less than 20 posts. Google will do its best to disconsider the websites linked
to those pages. Why? User experience! How could hundreds of
fake reviews help you buy the product you need or give you the right answer?
8
Improved semantic searches
If you don’t know that yet, since Hummingbird, Google wants to
understand your needs. The results are based on your latest activities, places
you visited, current location so the semantic searches will be optimized
probably to prepare the growth of voice search. It aims to change words
into entities, that have both a meaning and attributes.
9
The future is based on Knowledge Graph
Google is permanently making improvements to the Knowledge Graph.
Your website must be well structured and prepared with rich snippets so you can
stand out of the crowd and take your place in the Knowledge Graph. This could
be one of the most significant improvement brought by Google that will boost your
business. Although it was launched in 2012 it had a subtle appearance and it’s
expected to rise this year. On a local term, having good reviews and ratings
from trusted sources will bring you on top. Imagine how could that benefit your
business. Anyway, it is a rumor that Google will insert Ads into the
Knowledge Graph so we can expect that in 2014.
10
What you’ve learned in 2013 is still applicable, you just need
to update
You must prepare your new SEO Strategies for 2014 because
although Google seems harmless , its updates will have a major role in SERP’s.
The best thing to do is to hire professionals to keep you safe and updated all
the time. You should not try to trick Google, it may work at the beginning, but
it surely won’t last because of the permanent changes they bring.
Here are some tips you should consider for your online marketing
strategy in 2014:
·
- Refresh your content, write genuine and engaging articles, use
pictures and videos to keep the user interested.
·
- Optimize the website for mobile searches, in 2013 the mobile
searches had a growth of 125% when desktop searches had only 15%.
·
- Try to stay updated to the Google news, you may have an
opportunity to get highlighted on the SERP.
·
- Invest more money in SEO and PPC activities because they will
have a major role in your business.
·
- Do not try gathering a great number of backlinks from
untrusted domains. Fewer and better is the right way to do it.
·
- Stay active on your social media pages, especially on Google
Plus, but keep it natural.
Looking back, we can all see which directions the trends are
heading to, so we can adjust our strategies for the years to come. Hopefully,
with white hat strategies and proper attention to our priorities we can improve
our online visibility for 2014 and maybe further.
