SEO Techniques and Best Practices for 2014

SEO Techniques and Best Practices for 2014

SEO techniques once thought of best practices within the trade are currently cripplingly ineffective, and will even serve to break overall on-line visibility. Meta-keyword tags, anchor text over-reliance and article syndication, for instance, have fallen from grace and are currently ways that should be avoided. Now that we've stirred into a brand new year, we have set to replicate on however SEO has modified and what SEO techniques and practices can facilitate drive traffic to your web site in 2014.

How SEO Has Changed

Given that Google is the most well liked program that changes its algorithmic rule upwards of 550 times per annum, it does not return as a surprise that SEO techniques and best practices also are in a very constant state of flux. It's tough to remain up-to-date once things will amendment at the drop of a dime.

However, there's one issue that may be aforesaid with absolute certainty: Google strives to supply the foremost helpful, relevant search leads to regard to its users search queries. The foremost impact of Google's formula changes, updates and modifications over the past few years – caffeine, Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird were all enforced to attain this goal. As a result, high-quality content creation and awe-inspiring user expertise became preponderant to sensible web site performance.

So whereas it's going to not be clear however Google can modification and update its formula within the future, it's clear that you just should EARN your position on program results pages.

Best SEO Practices for 2014

In the current landscape, achieving a strong on-line presence needs implementing a varied, cohesive and integrated SEO strategy. The subsequent are the areas we tend to advocate you specialize in so as to work up your SEO efforts and guarantee your complete encompasses a killer on-line presence.

Content Creation and Promotion

When it comes all the way down to the wire, Google ranks content, not corporations. Primarily, once users conduct a hunt on the search engine, they're craving for a solution to a selected question, and Google needs to produce them with the simplest, most relevant answer potential. The lot of elaborated that answer is, and also the lot of superior it's in relevancy different similar answers, the a lot of helpful it'll be to Google's users. If you manufacture content that Google perceives as helpful and relevant, then it'll rank higher in search results, plain and straightforward.

The content you produce cannot exist on an island; so as for it to achieve a lot of exposure and create a lot of impact, it should be promoted. Within the current landscape, the subsequent area unit the simplest strategies you'll use so as to push your content:

Social Media – Use your social reach on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. to expand the reach of your content. Encourage social sharing, commenting and different types of engagement so as to amplify its impact.

Outreach – Reach resolute distinguished bloggers and different influencers in your business together with your content offerings. If you have got however to spot who these people/sites could also be, reference web log directories or attempt services like Buzzstream or BlogDash that assist you realize relevant influencers.

Public relations – whereas stretch are often a extremely effective endeavor, good typical PR placements in trade and general interest publications area unit a good thanks to promote your content (and by association your brand).

Paid advertising – There are a unit a spread of paid advertising choices which will be wont to produce exposure for your content: Paid search, promoted tweets, Outbrain, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon Paid Discovery, and more. Better of all, putting cash into paid advertising will elicit robust results, typically at an affordable value.

Conversion Optimization

Conversion optimization is vital as a result of it will increase the come on your current SEO investment, and changing the next share of your traffic is way additional value effective than attracting additional guests. It focuses not on attracting additional guests to your web site; however on capitalizing on already existing traffic by obtaining guests to require a desired action once they need arrived.

Among alternative aspects, conversion optimization involves:

• Clear messaging therefore customers perceive the worth you're providing
• Eliminating problematic options (poor navigation, ineffective CTAs, etc)
• Creating a simple path through your sales funnel
• Offering the correct content at the correct time
• Measuring the correct aspects to realize insight into any enhancements which will be made It can assist you secures the correct reasonably customers, maximize your profits, and considerably lower you cost-per-acquisition. Moreover, as a result of conversion optimization does not need paying additional to accumulate conversions; you'll be able to assign additional promoting dollars so as to accumulate additional traffic to your web site.

Provide Best User Experience 

Website usability and user expertise are vital as a result of search engines like Google use data to see however individuals move with websites, and this provides them an inspiration of the standard of the location. These 2 aspects act as indirect influences on search engine ranking success, as a result of guests who have a positive expertise on your web site area unit additional seemingly to share, marker and come back your web site, all of which may serve to spice up performance on SERPs.

Focus on increase your web site in order that it is easy to use, navigate and perceive, provides direct and relevant info, and delivers outstanding content.

While we have a tendency to might not be ready to confirm what quite changes Google and alternative search engines can create to their algorithms, we will bolster our SEO efforts by understanding their finish goal – providing users with the simplest, most relevant answers to their queries. increase a stream of outstanding content associate degreed providing associate degree awe-inspiring user expertise on your web site whereas not an complete list are 2 SEO techniques which will assist you drive traffic to your web site and insulate it from future rule updates.

 

 

Paid Links – How Google determines the Paid Link

Google head of search spam Matt Cutts released a reasonably careful video discussing the Google webspam team’s criteria for deciding whether or not a link is taken into account a paid link or not.

There are 5 basic criteria Google uses during this determination. The primary is that the most evident, is that the link a particular link for sale; then, the others area unit less obvious. The others include: however shut is that the price to cash, is it a present or a loan, what's the intent of the audience and is it a surprise or not.

Links that are expressly sold for cash are the foremost obvious. A webmaster sells a link to a different webmaster in exchange for a particular dollar payment. That’s clearly a paid link, and Matt Cutts said that's the foremost common paid link example, by far.

The next determination Google uses is to ascertain however close that is the price to cash. For instance, a present card is pretty near cash therein it usual will be is may be often changed for a dollar price. However if you provide somebody a free pen that's valued at $1, the possibilities are that the worth of that $1 pen won’t influence the user. However, a free brew or free trial to software is a smaller amount price to users than a $600 gift card.

If you provide somebody a laptop versus disposition them a portable computer or gift somebody a automotive versus loaning them a car, those are vast distinctions. Often, corporations can loan a school reviewer a tool or automotive or one thing so as for them to properly review the item. However if you provide them the item forever and not raise them to come back it, that's nearer to a paid link then a loan.

When conferences expose stuff, the intent of the audience is commonly to not link to the conference as a many thanks. For instance, once you attend a Sales Force conference and acquire a free trial of the computer code, that's usually not in exchange for a link. Additionally, once Google provides away a free Nexus seven, the intent isn't concerning links however concerning developers functioning on apps for the device. However if you expose laptops at events and expect bloggers to link to you in exchange, that's a nasty intent.

The final criteria is would the newsperson or blogger be surprised? For instance, if you're a picture show blogger and you're given free access to a picture show to review, that will not surprise the blogger. However if you're given a free car or laptop in exchange for writing concerning it, that will be a surprise.