What can you do to stay ahead of the pack in 2014?
Ok, so January is over with. The post-festive glow has well and truly worn off, and it’s time to put into place all those big ideas you’ve been having over the last few weeks. 
When it comes to SEO, what can you do to make sure you stay ahead of the curve?
Here’s a list of some of the most popular predictions for 2014.
Google will be announcing Google Hummingbird. This most recent Google update will force marketers to write in a more conversational style. Flooding web copy with forced in keywords, in order to rise to the top of the rankings, has not worked for a while now, but Google Hummingbird is going to make sure it stays dead and buried. A more conversational style in blogs & web copy, that is much more tailored towards your reader, is going to be encouraged and rewarded. Those still trying to shoehorn unwieldy key words in, as if they were writing for a robot, will find themselves slapped with a penalty pretty quickly. This also applies to buying links and those who steal content – so be warned!
Increased Mobile Marketing. MCommerce is is outstripping eCommerce by 200% at the moment, and 63 percent of consumers say they will shop on their phone more frequently in the next few years. By the tail-end of 2013, sales made on mobile phones and tablets accounted for $4.7 billion. How can your website be tailored for the mobile market?
Location-based content marketing. Targeting consumers through their GPS-enabled smartphones is expected to become mainstream by the end of 2014. This content marketing strategy allows businesses to identify each shopper’s preferences and location. When a consumer is near the store, the system simply sends them a deal based on the stored demographic information.
Bite-sized updates. Social Media, from Twitter’s 140-character limit, to Vine’s 6-second video limit, is recognising our desire for short, sharp snippets of information. Those who are able to concentrate their message into manageable chunks will find their content much more popular. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can neglect your longer content – there’ll always be someone waiting out there to fill your place if you let your content slip.
Interact with your followers. Most businesses know now that, if they’re not interacting with their customers on Social Media, they’re going to lose popularity pretty quickly. People today aren’t shy about sharing reviews, both good and bad. If you ignore either type of post, your brand is going to come across as uncaring or inattentive, neither of which will build your reputation.
Guest blogging is on the way out. Google’s recent crusade against poor-quality content means it’s on the lookout for serial spammers. Guest bloggers who use email sites to publish their content, or flog the same content over and over again, will seriously damage a site’s SEO rank.
Further Information
If you need help creating content, finding your Social Media voice, or creating a SEO strategy, then Footprint Web Design can help. We’ve been at the forefront of SEO for years, and are well-equipped at tailoring our SEO options to businesses of all sizes.
Give us a call on 01883 372488, or email us at info@footprint.co.uk and see what we can do to get your business to the top.
