It has been an incredibly eventful year in terms of updates from
Google. Major 2013 changes included further releases of Penguin and
Panda, Hummingbird taking flight, and the shift away from providing
keyword data thanks to encrypted search.
Many have gone so far as to ask whether SEO as a profession is dead: for one interesting perspective, see my recent Forbes
interview with Sam Roberts of VUDU Marketing. My own take is less
alarmist: Google has taken major spam-fighting steps that have shifted
the playing field for SEO professionals and anyone trying to get their
site on the map in the year ahead.
At the same time, the need for an online presence has never been
stronger, while the landscape has never been more competitive. The
potential to make a real ROI impact with your company's online marketing
initiative is greater than ever. But defaulting to so-called "gray hat"
tactics no longer works. Instead, SEO professionals need to step up and
embrace a more robust vision of our area of expertise.
You might call it a move from tactician to strategist: the best and
most successful players in our space will work to anticipate Google's
next moves and respond to them with laser focus. In a sense, the
infinite digital game of chess that is SEO will continue, but the rules
of the game have become more complex.
Through a mix of what I'm observing and reading and what I'm seeing
working out in the field today for my clients, here are some suggestions
for companies and SEO professionals that are thinking ahead to 2014 for
their digital strategies.
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