Content marketing is well and truly Alive!
Go back just 1 year to 2013, and you will find that content marketing all the rage. All you needed to do was publish great content and hey presto, you are ranking. In 2014, companies no longer need to create an overwhelming amount of pages to get their message out there. They now need to have a strong mix between, the content and a strategy behind this. The evolution is slight, but random content produced en masse is not enough anymore. In a nutshell, you need to what people are actually looking for an d produce content that answers these questions. The content really needs to fill a void that was previously missing. Be specific and be on target with your copy. Search engines and online users are getting smarter – fooling them is no longer and option.
Is your Company and Industry Leader.
Let’s get real about content. So often I hear people say that they can get something written overseas for $10 an article or 500 words. Sure its cheap and sure it’s more economical than going to a local copywriter, but moving forward in 2014, this aint going to work. People will read what you write and if its not worth liking, sharing or making an inquiry, then the exercise is absolutely pointless. Not only won’t it rank, but it will not generate traffic – and we all know that SEO is about online traffic.
The User experience (UX) is more important than the number of page views.
So you are serious about your SEO. You have employed a company to start the process and you are happy when they tell you that you are getting so many pages views and so many clicks. They go over the analytics and you get excited when they tell you that this month you had 30% more page views than last month. Well, I have news for you. The user experience is far more important that the excessive amount of page hits. Conversion in 2014 is the name of the game and web pages, now need to be designed for both SEO and conversion. You want users to stay on the site and buy from you – if they are not immediately attracted by what they see and if they cannot locate what they are looking for then they will go to another website. Hence the UX is going to be of vital importance in 2014 and I would say over the next couple of years.
Guess What the Mobile Phone is here to stay.
Look for your website on your mobile phone and what can you see/ Is it responsive? That is, does it automatically resize the website based on the screen size? If not then you business is going to loose clients. Over 55% of all online searches are by the mobile. In so far as SEO is concerned we are going to see an huge increase in the reliance of mobile phone statistics. Your web design agency will need to wireframe from the beginning your mobile phone interface. On top of this, like a desktop, the design and coding need to be completely SEO friendly and search compliant. So now you need to consider all facets and ways in which the consumer searches.
Don’t Build Too Many Links STOP link building.
Links from 1 website to another is turns the internet world around. It keeps the wheels of the online environment spinning and helps sites rank. BUT, over link building can and WILL and I say this with 100% certainty – over optimisation will get your website penalised and your will incur a Google website penalty. 2014 is the year of cautious link building with the emphasis on your brand rather than keywords. This can get complicated and I do not want to get too into this now but lets just say, being over cautious, in 2014 and you will see the rewards. Speak to me about this before you do anything on 02 9360 8514 as I encounter so many companies that make the wrong choice and decisions when it comes to their links.
I am Social, are you?
Update profiles – get active on all your social media networks. Don’t just rely on your online ranking. Combine this with your social media to get customers. As the saying goes: ‘ don’t put al your eggs in 1 basket’ – spread your internet marketing across as many platforms as you can in 2014. Don’t let your profiles languish. Share your content and continue to interact with your fans and followers in 2014.
In Conclusion
The reason I love SEO is because it is always evolving and changing. It keeps me on my toes and it is always challenging, keeping our own website as well as our clients sites ranking. This is what we do best and this is why I get so excited about SEO – for those people who have come into the office for a design brief, will know what I am talking about.
The key message here is that in 2014, SEO is all about quality, honesty and integrity – break any of these rules and your site will go no-where. Being as natural as possible, is the best advice I can give you for your SEO in 2014.