Google has announced through many of its updates directly and indirectly that search engine optimization will take a shift towards something else in 2014. While a few of the elements that described the SEO scene in 2013 and before will still be valid in 2014, there are going to be some changes that will have a deep impact on how businesses market their products, how they get those natural looking link profiles and the way they feed their data to the search engines. With that in mind, below this article will expand on some of the main changes to affect SEO in the new year and see what online marketers and businesses need to do to maintain and also increase their visibility and ranking.
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Social, Local and Mobile
The last few years have been spent by many online marketers preaching and practicing the importance of being local, mobile and of course, social. Everyone was concerned of how well they ranked for certain keywords and how those keywords affected the search engine results potential customers saw. At the same time though, came the convergence of social and local websites that molded into Google local results. The importance of mobile became more and more important and a lot of people made their websites mobile friendly and optimized them properly so they can get more traffic and here is where 2014 is at as well. Without a website that is well optimized and designed, businesses should not expect any major increases in sales.
The Mobile User Experience is Vital
One of the most important factors online marketers need to keep in mind is that in 2014 the mobile user experience is so important that it’s a vital factor for achieving success. If a website offers excellent user experience, then that website has a much higher ability to engage users than one which isn’t mobile friendly. Even more, it directly affects a website’s potential of generating conversions. According to the latest statistics, traffic from mobile devices has increased by more than one hundred and twenty five percent compared to desktop users, which only had an increase of twelve percent.
This doesn’t mean though that desktop search engine optimization is not that important anymore. The same study discovered that mobile users had a conversion rate that was three times poorer than that of a desktop user and that is because of the poor mobile user experience. That is why anyone who has a website they want to make money with should definitely focus on first of all offering an excellent mobile experience.
OAO Will Become Mainstream
Online audience optimization or OAO is something that some experts believe can have the power to replace the good old SEO everyone knows. For those who don’t know what OAO is all about, well, it involves the optimization of online content with the visitor in mind, rather than just meddling with the factors which affect the rankings on the search engine. OAO is currently a new form of marketing that consists mainly of user friendly search engine optimization practices and high quality content coupled with branding, social media and similar methods for optimizing a certain audience. Even though OAO is new and not so well known, experts believe it’s the future of SEO.
Linkbuilding Needs To Be Done Right
When it comes to linkbuilding search engine optimization quickly becomes foggy, since there are a lot of websites that have been penalized by Google’s updates because they got links from suspicions sources. In 2014, Google will once again update their algorithms in order for these websites to be yet again penalized and ranked lower.
Content Engagement
The content displayed on a website is one of the most vital aspects of success, since it has the power of drawing the attention of visitors and convincing them to read on and eventually convert them into customers. In order for this to be possible though, the content needs to be meaningful, relevant and create impact so that users are urged to take action after reading it.
However, engagement is also about web design and not only content. Words also need to look good, not only flow and read well. This means that the letter line spacing, font selection and page layout need to be harmoniously combined to create a webpage that immediately attracts the visitor’s attention. As a result, users will spend more time on the website and bounce rates will greatly decrease.
According to http://neueseocanada.com Search Engine Optimization in 2014 will still hold on to the majority of its core elements, but some of the changes will force online marketers to reconsider their marketing strategies if they want to still remain relevant in their industry. While they won’t be monumental, these changes are going to be impactful.
Author Bio:
This post is written by Larry Smith, the Director of Internet Marketing at Neueseo, who is an expert in Web Development, Online Advertising, SEO and a specialist in the management of Google AdWords Advertising Campaigns.
