Interesting read: Looking to start webinar this year? Check out Webinarcare to learn more! Back in November last year, I shared 4 SEO tips you ever need in 2014 and I asked myself, how can I further enrich the information especially for my readers?
Just like you, I wanted more … I wanted to know more (in terms of opinions) on what SEO will be like. With Google algorithm changes faster than we can even cope up, I knew the best way was to seek assistance from various SEO experts.
The mission was launched late December 2013 and I started contacting over 80 experts to get their opinions. I was determined to get the mission rolling (bear in mind it is my first ‘experts share’) and I was willing to blackmail them for the godly information.
Okay, a little aggregation I would say!
Nonetheless, it took longer than expected to get it worked out but yes, finally it is all done. Out of 80 experts, 21 of them came back with positive response (which I highly blame myself for the bad timing plus the long holiday period).
Some say SEO in 2014 is changing and others say it just got much harder. What’s your take on this?
Basically, I tried to make it as simple as possible where only two questions were asked:
- How will SEO evolve in 2014?
- If there is one SEO technique they would recommend to both newbie and professionals, what would that be?
I am pretty sure that their answer would be great guidelines for you in the coming 12 months or so.
And without much delay, here are the industry experts who participated in this blog post.
Adam Connell
Founder of Blogging Wizard and probably the go-to man for all my marketing woes. Adam is also a guitarist and loves Chinese food.
Ammar Ali
Founder of All Blogging Tips and is one of those famous bloggers in Asia. Born in 1995, he is not your average blogger. Fascinated with web developments and he would basically die without Internet.
Brent Carnduff
The man behind Echelon SEO. Ex-elementary school teacher turned into a successful consultant. An active contributor for authority sites such as SteamFeed, Social Media Today, Business2Community and Search Engine Journal.
Brian Belfitt
Owner and founder of Blog Engage. He is one great man when it comes to business blogging.
Brian D Hawkins
Founder of Hot Blog Tips. He is passionate about blogging tips, social media and SEO to name a few. Running one of the most popular blogs when it comes to blogging resources for both novice and professional bloggers.
Brian Dean
The author and webmaster for Backlinko. To assume Brian is just your average SEO person is totally an understatement; he is the man behind popular SEO case studies while providing tons of link building strategies.
David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is a writer, a social media addict and an SEO specialist at http://www.seo-writer.com . Follow him on Twitter and Google Plus.
Eric T Tung
They call him, the social media guy. He is the named the #1 influential network by Forbes and currently, social media manager for BMC Software. He had previously worked with top companies such as Dell and Apple to name a few. He is extremely active on Twitter. Did I also mention that he is also in the social media consulting industry? EricTTung.com
Gazalla Gaya
Founder of Web Content Blog, she writes about content marketing, SEO and Internet Marketing. Her passion in helping businesses market their products online is showcased in her excellent writing and top notch tips.
Julie Joyce
Director of Operations for Link Fish Media and apart of SEO Chicks, Julie is probably one of those outstanding females in the SEO industry. Besides that, she is also an active contributor to Search Engine Land and Search Marketing Gurus.
Kristi Hines
Founder of Kikolani and an active contributor to authority sites such as Social Media Examiner and Search Engine Watch. She is also apart of Crazy Egg and she specializes in blogging, ghostwriting and social media. She also offers services to both novice and professional bloggers when it comes to marketing.
Kulwant Nagi
A successful entrepreneur and blogger from Asia. He blogs at Blogging Cage and focuses in multiple topics such as blogging, Internet marketing and SEO.
Matthew Woodward
A familiar name in the SEO industry. An Internet Marketer with deep knowledge in search engine optimization, this is one man you should and must know. With several awards (Technorati Top 100 Business Blogs, ProBlogger – Blogger To Watch 2013, 2012 Best of Search Engine Journal and Top 75 Marketing Blog – Unbounce) under his belt, it’s a no-brainer not to listen to him. See Matthew in action!
Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer is the author of the definitive book on social media strategy Maximize Your Social, global social media speaker and consultant, and founder of the leading social media for business blog Maximize Social Business. Neal also teaches as part of the Rutgers University Mini-Social Media MBA program.
Neil Patel
He is just one year older than me but he is miles ahead. Say hello to Neil Patel from Quick Sprout. Co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSMetrics, he is one of the most prominent figures in search engine marketing industry. Do you know that he was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations?
Niall Devitt
Co-founder of TweakYourBiz, The Ahain Group and Digital Training Camp. Niall has over 20 years experience in growing companies in the Irish, international and online marketplace. He also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Business Insider to name a few.
Renaud Gagne
Renaud’s blog is one of my go-to sites when it comes to affiliate marketing tips and extra-ordinary blogging techniques. What makes Renaud unique (that captivates me a lot) is the ability to transform a piece of information into a super-duper specular write up. Read more about Renaud Gagne.
Steve Morgan
A freelance SEO & online marketing consultant based in Cardiff, South Wales, UK. He runs SEOno and apart of the Morgan Online Marketing. He started in this SEO business since 2009. He also writes for Moz and loves speaking in events too!
Tadeusz Szewczyk (Tad Chef)
The man behind onReact. A simple check on his website and you will know that he is special. He specializes in blogs, social media and search marketing. He is very prominent in SEO industry and he consider himself as a serial blogger. He has articles published on Ahrefs, seo2.us and Squawk.im. Tadeusz is often known as “Tad Chef”. Connect with him on Twitter and Google Plus.
Tony Dimmock
Tony Dimmock runs Dimmock Web Marketing, an internet marketing and SEO company based in Hertfordshire, UK. Twitter: @Tony_DWM Website: www.dimmockwebmarketing.co.uk
Wade Harman
A full time blogger with Psychology degree (what?). This is one man you don’t want to mess around! He is a guru when it comes to social media marketing. He dedicated his life to Bloggers Make Money and his personal blog.
Of course, I would like to send my utmost appreciation for them (and the balance 59) who were kind enough to participate and even provided assistance with social shares etc. Thank you!
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1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
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2. If you are required to recommend an SEO technique to both novice and professional bloggers, what would that be?
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Adam Connell
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
I don’t think it’s going to be radically different to what we’re doing right now, although for some there will be a huge difference.
Those that will notice a big difference will only be those that are using outdated tactics in what they believe to be ‘˜fresh’ ways to stay under Google’s radar.
It will end badly for them and the unfortunate truth is that some of them will be leading their clients down a dark path that will cost them a lot of money to get out of (or they may not be able to at all).
So for the rest of us, do what we are doing – keep on adding value for our users with engaging and magnetic content along with more earning, but it’s important to remember that there is more to this content marketing thing than just clicking publish.
Understand your audience, solve a problem they are having and tell them about it – if you don’t have much reach then it means heavy promotion. Simply put going where your target audience is actually works – don’t rely on SEO, although it shouldn’t be ignored. Utilise social media, niche social bookmarking sites (not those ‘˜socialbookmarkingyoururlforseo.com’ type sites, I mean sites like BizSugar and Inbound.org – niche social networks that people read) along with online communities and niche forums.
If you have some budget then you can get some great results from content recommendation systems like Outbrain – forget Facebook ads or anything like that, get targeted traffic from sites like Fast Company and Rolling Stone Magazine for as little as 0.05$.
Remember that you need to spend a significant portion of time promoting your content and by putting in the time you will be able to get more eyeballs on your content without an established audience.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Influence marketing – a lot of experienced SEO’s will probably think of this as ‘˜ego baiting’.
Find people in your market sector or niche that have a big following and ‘˜influence’ – then find a way of tapping into their audience. You’ll find that a large chunk or even all of their audience will be interested in what you have to offer.
It’s all about relationships and here are a few ways to do it:
- Follow them on the social networks they are active on
- Comment on their status updates
- Comment on their blog
- Share their content (and tag/mention them)
- Link out to a blog post (and tell them about it)
- Help them out with something (nice guys/gals finish first, don’t let anyone tell you different)
- Involve them in your content (this exact blog post is a great example of it)
- Invite them to chat on Skype or a Google Hangout (you’ll need to have an existing relationship for this to work usually, so don’t open with this right out of the gate)
- Meet up with them at conferences
- Arrange 1 on 1 meetings
Daniel Cristo from Triberr recently wrote a great post on Marketing Land that I’d seriously recommend that you read.
Most importantly remember that it’s one thing to build up these relationships with market influencers, but you need to do what you can to maintain them.
Influencer marketing is a powerful tactic that will help you get some great results if you do it right.
Ammar Ali
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
In 2014, just like 2013 quality content will rule and it is the one of few points which I don’t think will ever be on less priority in Google’s algo.
Apart from site speed and responsive design, authorship will be something on which Google was not paying much attention and nor it was taking much part in website’s ranking but guys be ready for it.. Authorship will be one of few top points those will take important role in ranking during 2014.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Use some already proven SEO plugins for WordPress, which can make your on-page SEO easier and more beneficial and remember the title of famous story. Slow and steady wins the race. The moment you will start thinking to speed up the monetization of blog, you will get vulnerable to Google hit.
Google hates unnatural way of monetization and SEO techniques. So avoid it.
Brent Carnduff
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
2014 should be an interesting year for SEO. However, despite the Panda and Penguin updates, and the changes brought about by Hummingbird, the death of ‘traditional’ SEO has been greatly exaggerated. Keywords and title tags still matter – Google still needs to understand what your page is about – and backlinks will continue to be the most influential of all signals of relevance.
Content Marketing will continue to play a prominent role in SEO, however, there will be a movement towards in-depth quality article writing rather than a concern over frequency of posting.
Social media will continue to play an important indirect role in SEO in that it will continue to be the best way to share your content, and to meet and engage others that will help share (and maybe link to) it. I agree with many in the SEO industry that believe social signals will become an important influence over Search Engine ranking in the future, but from my own experience with my clients, and the research that I have read, I think that its importance as a direct SEO influence right now is often over stated.
Trends towards ‘local SEO’ and the importance of mobile search will continue to grow and play greater roles in the future.
2. Recommended SEO technique
From the perspective of the blogger, I would change my emphasis away from posting frequency, and focus more on high quality, in-depth articles; and implement a solid ‘promotional’ strategy to be sure that each article was being found and read (and shared and linked to) by your target audience.
Brian Belfit
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
As many SEO bloggers know nothing changes overnight when it comes to Google Algorithms or SEO. Perhaps to us it seems like overnight but a lot of work and thought goes into SEO and how Google ranks a bloggers content in search results. Because so much work goes into SEO you can always guarantee the changes that come will not be devastating or dramatically different than the current or previous standards. Yes some changes will be large but you are always given great advice on how to get ready for these changes on the Google Blog. I also recommend Matt Cutt’s blog as something to subscribe too.
The strangest thing about SEO if you haven’t noticed yet is it does all the hard work for you. When you create your blog and start publishing content you don’t even have to do any SEO work, Google and other search engines will actually find your blog naturally. WordPress also makes it’ extremely easy to index our blogs for all search engines it’s fantastic! I don’t recommend trying to purchase links or write guest posts for linking purposes only. In my honest professional opinion SEO is meant to be a natural process so do what you’re doing already without SEO in mind.
Guest blog, submit to social media websites and continue marketing your blog the way you currently are. Submitting your blog posts to social media sites such as Blog Engage will naturally create backlinks and increase your blog’s authority. Similar; guest blogging and mentioning your site within relevant area’s of the guest post via a link (URL) will also create authority. This is what I’m talking about when I say be yourself and be natural. Overall I don’t think SEO will change much, but again who am I to tell I am simply a social media marketer.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Obviously being natural when generating backlinks to a blog is of most importance. With that said it’s important to have a diverse range of incoming links to our websites or blogs. Guest Blogging, Social Media, Bookmarking, Twitter, Facebook and more should be used to create a diverse portfolio of backlinks. Using these sites naturally creates the trail it’s up to you to engage and start working hard. Make sure to do things right when trying to increase your blogs authority within the search engines. Ensure you’re process is always natural and within the Google standards and guidelines. Things to stay away from are link exchanges, purchasing links directly such as blog rolls guest posts, website footer or site wide links. These types of links are not natural and are not recommend if you wish to increase your search engine (SE) traffic.
I have never once worried about SEO. I’ve been told many times I should. I always reply with the same answer; Google is the most intelligent company in the world. Do you think something I can do will actually increase their performance or outcome ? Blog Engage has always been a do follow community with 142,553 outgoing links; yet we’ve always remained a PR4 with a ton of organic traffic as shown above in the image I’ve shared. So in closing my advice it to be natural and not to worry about SEO, with or without you, it’s doing what it needs too.
Brian D. Hawkins
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
No one can deny that SEO looks entirely different than it did just a couple of years ago. I believe 2014 will see continuing disadvantages in excessive guest posting, blog commenting, and blog directories. I also think the social sharing trend will continue and become even more relevant in search positioning. Google’s personalized search and the SEO power of Google Plus will also continue to strengthen.
2. Recommended SEO technique
If I could make just one recommendation for SEO in 2014, I’d recommend bloggers and site owners focus on solving problems for as many people as possible. Provide solutions for others and your content will be shared and linked to organically. There’s no secret pill, just build your community and put them above everything else.
Brian Dean
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
I think SEO in 2014 will be more of the same. Lots of people in the SEO space hype up things like Google authorship and social signals. But we’ve seen little to no influence from those things so far and there’s no sign from
Google that they’ll be a major part of the algorithm in 2014 (or beyond).
So I’d recommend focusing on creating a great site and building great links in 2014.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Email outreach.
David Leonhardt
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO is now and will continue to be in 2014 more about PR (public relations) than anything else. The on-site coding fundamentals will remain the same for the most part, still very important, but the old-fashioned link-building of the past will be much less important than ever before. In fact, link-building in 2014 might just be more about what links to avoid than how to get more.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Create something amazing and get the media fascinated by it. Pay for a survey and release the results in a press release, an Infographic, a slide show and a video, and hit the road with the information, taking it to every blogger and every publication you can find.
Eric T Tung
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO has always fallen within the realm of big data. Uncountable data points are used to determine rankings, and these data points are only getting more numerous. I think in 2014, this will take on even more of a social component, and specifically through Google+. Social signals are already used in many places to help determine ranks, and with more cross-authentication between social networks, this will only continue to increase in the future.
2. Recommended SEO technique
The biggest difference someone can make, professional or newbie is to blog. It shows search engines that your site is updated regularly, adds keywords to your site and gives social a place to source content. You can try to buy links, rewrite your web copy, but the biggest difference will be to blog consistently.
Gazalla Gaya
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO will be big in 2014. You will see brands finally getting the message on how important SEO is to their bottom line. Here’s what I foresee for 2014:
SEO’s everywhere will work more closely with the social media and content marketing teams. If they are working for a small company, they will need to be experts in all the 3 digital marketing spheres.
- Social shares will continue to be more important and will catch up with link-building as an essential SEO tactic.
- Google+ will grow even bigger in 2014
- Authors will create more in-depth articles that will increase their author rank.
- You will no longer be able to rely on keywords (especially single keywords) alone to rank well. You will need to use more focus terms plus related and contextual terms in your content.
2. Recommended SEO technique
I would advise everyone, newbies and professionals to increase their author rank. I believe that this is one trend that is going to stay with us. Google is serious about showing the most relevant, accurate and useful results to the user. Your content will always show up at the top if you are considered an authority in your field. You can build up your author rank by:
- writing in-depth articles
- guest blogging for the top blogs in your niche
- making sure you have Google authorship
- Increasing your presence on Google+
- Ensuring that you get plenty of feedback for every piece of content such as social shares and comments.
Julie Joyce
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
I think we’ll see it evolve into something where actual user interaction, whether through social media channels or comments on posts, will be the deciding factor into who does better online. I know we all have been talking about relationship building and content creation this past year, but I do think they will be the driving factors for a site’s success. I imagine that poor quality tactics will continue to get squashed but from what the past tells me, they’ll still work for some sites and niches.
2. Recommended SEO technique
I’m not sure if it’s really an SEO technique but I think doing social well is one of the most important ways that a site can do well online. If you aren’t ranking well for whatever reason (maybe your site is new or not well optimized yet) then getting a good social following and using it well can be a lifesaver.
Kristi Hines
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO in 2014 for some businesses will be more about tearing down than building up, specifically in the link arena. As a webmaster, I have noticed a growth in link removal requests and a decline in link addition requests, and I believe that will continue to trend throughout the following year.
2. Recommended SEO technique
I can’t just recommend one as these both go hand in hand, so quality content development and promotion. Combined, you will be able to gain likes and social mentions in a natural way that Google can’t complain about. Hopefully at least. 🙂
Kulwant Nagi
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO in 2014 is going to take big shift. As we have already seen that Google skipped too many months in PageRank update first time in its history. This simply means that something big is cooking in Google new algorithm. Back in the days people used to do article submission, too many spam comments, social bookmarking etc etc., but such things are no more working now.
Your website might see great growth in traffic for first 3-4 months but for long term these strategies are no more working.
As all SEO experts and experience bloggers are suggesting to write articles which actually solve people’s problems, so such articles are going to survive in next few years.
Here I would like to give you an example.
Let’s suppose I am searching on Google “How to grow taller fast?” and there are 5 sites in front of me (which I found via Google search) which are teaching tips to grow taller.
If I am opening one site and after reading the stuff I am not satisfied then I will move to another site.
If I am spending more time on second site as compared to first site then this simply means that content on second site is more valuable for me. In this case Google will came to know about the quality of first site’s stuff and in future its algorithm will keep in mind about the amount of time which previous visitor spent on first site. So chances are; Google is not going to give you good position again.
So writing quality as well as big articles is the only survival tips in 2014.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Don’t do any SEO if you want to survive for long term. 🙂
I am not saying to quit it completely but my point is; don’t try to over optimize your articles for SEO as Google knows what you are doing to get higher SERP.
In short – Write quality and big articles for getting better results.
Matthew Woodward
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO is continually evolving and the past 12 months have seen some significant changes and trends that will continue into 2014.
Google have released a huge amount of updates in the past year, we have had-
- 4 Panda updates
- 2 Penguin updates
- 2 unknown phantom updates
- Pay day loan update
- Knowledge graph update
- Hummingbird
Google are actually getting good at detecting spam now!
On top of that we have had some major changes to the search engine results design meanign the #1 position doesn’t offer the same value as it did a year ago.
SEO is no longer all about the links. Moving forward SEO needs to converge content, social, analytics, user experience & marketing into a much broader strategy.
If you want to learn more about SEO in 2014 I have a much more detailed post on my blog, but is essence it’s time to evolve or die.
2. Recommended SEO technique
There is only 1 SEO tactic that has stood the test of time and alogorithm updates. A tactic that I have been using for nearly a decade now with every single new site that I launch.
The tactic is so simple that many people overlook it in search for a more complex solution.
That tactic is replicating your competitors backlinks.
Sounds pretty boring, but with a bit of elbow grease and my free software it is easy to steal your competitors rankings!
A lot of people overlook this tactic, but it is the foundation of every single SEO campaign I have ever launched.
Neil Patel
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO in 2014 is going to revolve more on content marketing and social media than ever before. Sites that provide great content will get more natural links, more social shares, and rank higher. This is the one strategy that isn’t as replaceable by your competition as it isn’t easy to write great content.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Content marketing. It’s a long term strategy… that seems to work for any type of business. http://www.quicksprout.com/the-advanced-guide-to-content-marketing/
Neal Schaffer
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
Social media gives you a platform to create content to help you get found in search engines as well as gives search engines a way to rank your digital presence and influence of your content through analyzing social signals. Seeing that we’re all spending more time in social media and the amount of sheer data that is publically available can be analyzed for a variety of ranking objectives, it only makes sense that the relationship between social media and SEO will only deepen. That being said, the need to create original, high quality content that is relevant to your target audience is the single truth that unites both social media and SEO, and this truth is as relevant in 2013 as it will be in 2014.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Rather than focusing on frequency and adding to the noise that exists in social media, I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the “Go Big or Go Home” approach. For every piece of content that you create and publish, try to make it matter by sharing only your best ideas and/or visuals. Make each blog post or social media update count. I think over time this will help you get more bang for your social media investment of time, and more importantly will help you focus on creating better content and give you more time for engagement versus feeling that you have to publish x times a day on y platform.
Niall Devitt
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
Content marketing will be more important than ever with some emphasis moving to longer and more in-depth content. I suspect that the desirable length of text-based content has now shifted from around 500 words to 1000 words plus but mobile throws a set of additional challenges into this mix.
Creating content that will work well on multiple devices will become a big challenge in 2014. Social Media is already very important but I expect to see diversification on social media becoming more important in 2014 with marketers needing to maintain a presence on many platforms.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Guest blogging is one of the very best ways of building links, traffic and brands but many, who do it, do it carelessly. If you’re going to submit a guest post, do it carefully:
- Select a sensible target website.
- Write a post that really offers value to readers and demonstrates your expertise.
- Don’t do it simply to get links or spam – any reputable website won’t publish your content if that’s your motivation.
Renaud Gagne
I believe that the people who will have the best SEO in 2014 and beyond will
be the people who understand and learn more everyday about influence.
First come the audience. How do you build one?
Content is king as long as you can get people to consume it.
So getting people to consume your content without relying on google first is key.
When it comes down to building an audience I personally think that it is about
time for people in the social media space to learn and understand direct-response marketing.
Step 1:
Create or give something of great value that will help your target market(no sales pitch)
Step 2:
Create a Giveaway or a sweepstake promotion.
Step 3:
Use the power editor and boost your campaign with well executed advertising.
(getting the right people in front of the right message at just the right time.)
One of my client was blown away how we were able, with less than $100, to create a list
of 5000 subscribers and add 3000 highly responsive fans in less than 5 days. (I use Antavo app)
The autoresponder automatically bring people to certain blogpost that allow us to build a bound and
segment them in different lists to find out where the real fans are.
More traffic, more social shares, more comments and more links.(Google likes it)
Everything start with people not Google.
Steve Morgan
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
If Penguin’s taught us anything, it’s that you cannot over-optimise and you cannot unnaturally build links at all anymore – you shouldn’t have done anyway, but now there’s no excuse. Having worked on a number of unnatural link penalties this year, I’ve found that Google has a zero tolerance/forgiveness policy – in one example, I disavowed/removed c. 200 links and they still had a problem with the fact that I missed 2 or 3.
Therefore in 2014, I wouldn’t be surprised if Google cracks down even harder. I have a client that I’ve inherited from another SEO agency who already has a nasty amount of exact match anchor text, however he doesn’t (yet) have a penalty in Webmaster Tools. Even so, I’ve disavowed all the bad links. I think an SEO’s best bet would be to be proactive rather than reactive, and – of course – to never, ever, ever build a link that Google will have a problem with – not one.
2. Recommended SEO technique
A very quick thing to look into when you take on a new project (especially if it’s someone who’s never done SEO before) is to ask what other domains they own and check that they’re redirecting properly. It’s something that’s very easy to forget/overlook, which is why I mention it. I took on a new client recently who owned 10 other domains (variations of the main name as .com, .co.uk, etc.) and half of them were 302 redirects while the other half weren’t redirecting at all. It took 5 minutes to change them all to 301 redirects and – bearing in mind that some of them had been linked to of their own accord – I’m sure that the main site would’ve benefitted from it. Additionally, beyond SEO, it also helps with UX (user experience), say if someone tried to access one of the other domains but didn’t get through to the main site.
Tadeusz Szewczyk
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
SEO will be become more and more multi-faceted. There are already completely separate disciplines like local SEO for example. As organic SEO becomes more difficult.
I expect to see more optimization for social search (that is showing up for a certain group of people).
Just think of many niches where only a small number of people matter, like say a few thousand. These influencers and connectors search on Google while logged in as they are Web-savvy enough to use at least some Google services like YouTube, Gmail or Google Analytics. Now why would you want to optimize for the whole world, country or area when you want just to reach these people who matter?
SEO will also become more professional. The Google updates of recent years have weeded out many low quality SEO practicioners that for years have tainted the reputation of SEO as a whole. Also many of both successful and unsuccessful SEOs have rebranded as inbound marketers, content marketers or lumberjacks. I have considered rebranding myself as a dog walker too but I realized that after 10 years in the SEO business I’m really fond of all that jazz. So we lost many marketers for the brand of SEO. Now the remaining people can reform what SEO means. That’s actually a good thing.
I never really wanted to do marketing, advertising or clear forests so I stay with optimization.
Of course content has always been at the center of my efforts and they were inbound, I wasn’t really pushing people to link to me so that I don’t need to change my job description. I try to educate myself on things like responsive design, user experience, conversion optimization so I can help not only with blogs, social media and search. More people will embrace adjacent disciplines in my opinion. Those who have rebranded are gone so there’s less competition now. Being an SEO who also masters UX and CRO can be a competitive advantage now. Many clients do not seek generalist marketers but specialists with a few areas of expertise, not dozens of things they master a little.
2. Recommended SEO technique
Relationship building has been hyped to death last year but it still matters more than ever. You don’t build 100 relationships like you build 100 links but you can get thousands of links once you build those 100 relationships. Making sure that people in your industry know who you are is crucial.
People rarely link to sites or share their content when they don’t know them.
You need relationships with people who trust you to get traction on the Web. So look out after your peers and band together. Do not just focus on influencer ass kissing as I like to call it. The few high profile a-list bloggers can’t help everybody. They barely manage to cope with their own tasks.
Tony Dimmock
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
For agencies: I’d like to see firms really helping their clients transfer offline subject-matter-expertise and product / service concepts online, using well-researched, engaging content that answers target customer questions, resolves sales-cycle challenges and objections and proves their online industry authority.
For businesses: Business owners becoming educated on internet marketing and taking their online brands and web assets more seriously is a must. If hiring help externally, work with those who really know what they’re doing, especially content planning, link acquisition and outreach. For those using in-house expertise, make sure they understand semantic search, entities and have a fundamental understanding of marketing (over and above coding) – your future online success depends on it!
From a search engine perspective, Google will continue their relentless pursuit of webspam with brands heavily penalised and rogue link networks de-indexed. I also expect to see updated algorithm’s that do a far better job of tracking and rewarding online interaction (site behaviour), social sharing and local online sentiment (reviews and ratings).
2. Recommended SEO technique
Newbies:
More a process than a technique, I’d recommend planning ideal website visitor outcomes and journey experiences (site navigation, conversion strategies and content architecture) well before designing (or re-designing) a website.
The book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ says it best: ‘start with the end in mind..’ Once the ‘journey and outcome’ has been clearly defined, landing pages can be optimised for conversions and visibility.
SEO Pro’s:
SEO has changed dramatically over the last few years. Google’s Knowledge Graph and semantic search transition from ‘keyword strings to people, places and things’ has resulted in an almighty shift in how professional SEO’s must now think, process information and work with clients.
So, my biggest recommendation for SEO’s finding this shift challenging would be to read, re-read, learn and understand from the following posts, written by SEO’s who’ve made the big step up:
- http://moz.com/blog/semantic-SEO-questions (@MatthewJBrown)
- http://www.slideshare.net/MatthewBrownPDX/strings-to-things-the-move-to-semantic-seo-mozcon-2013 (@MatthewJBrown)
- http://www.seobythesea.com/2013/11/concept-based-web-search/ (@Bill_Slawski)
- http://moz.com/blog/topics-people-over-keywords-rankings-whiteboard-friday (@moz)
- http://www.seoskeptic.com/deciphering-googles-semantic-search-intentions/ (@aaranged)
- http://www.seoskeptic.com/semantic-seo-making-shift-strings-things/ (@aaranged)
- http://davidamerland.com/seo-tips/921-semantic-search-and-what-it-means-to-businesses.html (@DavidAmerland)
- http://searchengineland.com/5-ways-to-unlock-the-benefits-of-semantic-search-hummingbird-175634 (@sengineland)
- (@Ammon_Johns)
- http://moz.com/blog/hummingbird-unleashed (@gfiorelli1)
Wade Harman
1. How will SEO evolve in 2014?
My strategy for SEO in 2014 is this: I’m not going to actively build links, I’m not going to comment on someone’s blog with the link in mind, I’m going to create relationships because when an army of people are sharing your content, that’s better than months of building links.
2. Recommended SEO technique
In 2014, I’m going to write some of the best stuff I’ve ever written and it’s not going to have a single keyword in it (not on purpose anyway). Stop chasing something that is going to change. Control your blog with helpful content.
Wow, that’s long isn’t it?
I hope you enjoyed this experts share on SEO tips 2014 as much as I do. I believe there are abundance tips on SEO here itself and I highly recommend you to check on their websites for even more information.
Again, a huge thank you for all the contributors and even supporters for this project. I have learned a lot on both collecting data and as well as learning more on SEO itself!
Tell me what you think using the comment form below and feel free to discuss it over!
