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The
New Year is all about making resolutions and improving things from the past;
however, for those in the marketing space hoping to improve their SEO this
year, it’s important not to forget the new things that will need
some work over the next few months.
There
were quite a few problems as well as new updates that were introduced in 2013,
so it’s important to consider them now before more new updates start popping up
in the SEO world. Moral of the story: They’re unfamiliar, you’ve probably never
heard of them before, they haven’t always been on your radar when thinking
about improvements, but they’re not going anywhere.
I talked with Scott Langdon, managing partner of the nationally recognized SEO
firm higher visibility, about this very subject. He explained that 2014 is
going to force many SEOs to think outside of the box and work with subjects
they didn’t dealt with in the past.
According
to Langdon these are the 5 unfamiliar SEO tasks marketers will have to
conquer in 2014:
1.
Semantic SEO
Semantic SEO is a strategy that adapts to Google’s new way of thinking about
search results. In 2013, Google worked to bring up results on SERPs based on
related terms as opposed to exact keyword or keyword phrase matches. We’ve seen
Google move toward this idea before, but it was the Hummingbird Update that
really sent a clear message to marketers. The update changed the algorithm to
work better with the way people search today, which is more conversational.
How to Respond: An example of a semantic
search system would be pulling up things that are related, much like you see in
the Knowledge Graph on the right hand side of many SERP. For example, if
someone types in “car,” Google will pull up results about renting an
automobile, mechanic shops, etc. even if the word “car” does not appear in the
actual result. Similar topics are enough. As a small business, it’s a good idea
to keep this in mind when creating content or optimizing for a page. It’s not as
much about keywords anymore—it’s more about relevance.
2.
Cocitation Practices. On a similar
note, cocitation refers to what is around a link as opposed to the anchor text
of the actual link. This is not to say that anchor text is not important, it
just means that linking specific keywords isn’t going to be as important.
How to Respond: An example of focusing on
cocitation might look like this: Instead of saying “For more information about
entrepreneurship visit Forbes,” you might be better off saying “For more
information about entrepreneurship, visit Forbes.com” This point is slightly
different than the others because this method has been encouraged in the past,
but it’s important nonetheless and it will be more important in 2014 as Google
starts to move away from keyword importance
3. No Keyword Data.
Google encrypted the keyword data that you once saw for your WebPages claiming
that it will help create extra protection for searches. Losing this data meant
that marketers could no longer see what keywords users were using to find and
land on their website. Therefore, optimization was made more difficult and the
announcement left many in a panic.
How to Respond: There are quite a few things you
can do to respond to this change. AdWords still offers data, which you can use
to see which pages are earning the most traffic, and Google does still offer
some organic keyword data. You can also still see which landing pages are
getting the most attention (I recommend setting up a filter for all “not
provided” traffic to see where those people landed) as well as where you’re
getting your organic traffic. This might not give you the exact keywords people
are using, but it will give you a pretty good idea about which optimization
tactics are working and which is not. Finally, don’t forget that Bing and Yahoo
haven’t
encrypted their data.
4. Google+ Integrates with YouTube. At the very end of the year
Google decided to have all of your Google+ information synced with YouTube.
This means that if a user wanted to leave a comment they have to have their
account synced to a Google+ account. Comments are not being sorted by relevance
(those in your Google+ circles will appear at the top) and users can start a
conversation on YouTube through their Google+ circles. YouTube creators are
also able to better moderate comments with the new integration.
How
to Respond: Users did not take this change positively, which you can read about,
but for small businesses the show must go regardless of opinion. Because people
can start conversations and now leaving comments is more meaningful
(particularly in a business setting), businesses should be focusing on a video
strategy that will appear on YouTube. Create “how to” videos or post interviews
so that people start to share them with their circles. This step should also
make it easier for Google to gather data for ad targeting, so creating and
working with a YouTube account now is a good bet for the future.
5.
Google Review Extensions and Shared
Endorsements. Both of these new features center around reviews. With review
extensions, advertisers can now add a 67 character review for users to see
right on the SERP before they even click the ad. With shared endorsements,
Google will bring up items that you were searching for before and then, if
available, will pull up a review from someone in your Google+ circles (side
note: you can easily opt-out of the feature).
How to Respond: These changes make it clear
that reviews are going to be incredibly important in 2014, and this is
something that many weren’t used to in the past. Sure you cared about reviews,
and the Knowledge Graph design did make them more important, but now people are
going to have yet another place to see what people are saying about your
company. Shift your priorities a little bit in 2014 and put reviews at the top.
Why It Matters
and What All the Changes Mean
As
you can see, there is a trend with the way Google changed in 2013 and the way
Google will surely move this New Year—keywords just aren’t as important. They
still matter, and building links and optimizing for keywords is great, but it’s
obvious that Google is trying to make this less of a priority for marketers.
Langdon’s advice is to take this trend and run with it. If Google wants
your priorities on quality content and reviews so much so that they are making
these changes, by all means, go for it.
Hopefully
tweaking your strategy won’t be too drastic, but either way, these new and
unfamiliar tips for the New Year should help set you on the right path.
Image
Source: Google Images
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