Top Three SEO Learnings of 2013

We have come a long way in terms of where the world of SEO stands today. Most dramatic changes and developments in the SEO world have been brought about by Google. This year in particular has been a great year for such changes. Now that we have already at the Halloween and soon be entering into the holiday season followed by the New Year, it is time to take a peek at the learnings of 2013 so that we can take these learnings to our future SEO efforts.

The first important learning is keep away from spam. In 2013 Google is busy cleaning up the web, trying to get rid of the spammy content and spammy ranking strategies. If you look at all the Google’s latest updates, this is what you will learn. Gone are days whereby you were able to put together some strange SEO campaign and were able to get into the top of the Google results. Google’s algorithm has now become very intelligent today and all such ploys are immediately recognized and action taken by Google. If at all you want to rank well in Google, you are going to use only legitimate SEO strategies and no short cuts what so ever. This has a very important inference for those who hire SEO and ranking services. You should choose your service providers very carefully and you should be 100% sure that you are working with a reputed company with straightforward dealings. You cannot point your fingers at your service provider when Google penalizes for the use of unauthorized ranking strategies.

The second important learning this year is that social media signals are very significant in your website’s ranking. You should have your presence in important social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn. Regardless of your niche industry, you are required to focus on social media marketing. You should make consistent social media marketing efforts and it is not a onetime ‘setup and forget’ kind of effort that we are talking about here. Your social media presence should be reinforced week after week.

Third and the most important learning is that Google has made its search more conversational like. Your website’s content and keyword optimization should now become more natural. You will have to create content that is meant for the users and not for the search engines. Google has been making this point all along but now it has made some specific developments to its search algorithm that makes the search more contextual and easy for the users.

Regardless of whether you are creating a new website or you are promoting your existing website, it is important that you pay attention to these factors. You will have to make sure that your website and your optimization efforts are matching Google’s latest algorithmic updates and that you are not using any shady practices. Always keep your eyes open for the changes that Google is making and the direction that Google is pointing to so that you can avoid unnecessary mistakes.

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