Download - Top 7 SEO Trends
www.clearskyseo.com
A look at what we’re seeing thus far in 2014
in SEO strategies, tasks and roles.
1. Google Authorship
• Google Authorship reduced by 15% at end of 2013
• Author Rank
• Tiered system for search results:
1. Some results include full authorship details
2. Others only have a byline
• Speculation around becoming irrelevant if Author rank is not
established.
2. Role of Social Media in website traffic
referrals and content dissemination
• Facebook continues to lead referral traffic.
• Shareaholic research ranks*:
1. Facebook – 21.25%
2. Pinterest – 7%
3. Twitter – 1%
Figures from
MARCH 2013
3. Content Marketing
Focus on creating high-quality content guided by solid
keyword research based on SEO competition and keyword
research, with a focus on topical and long-tail targeting.
Competition is too high. At least one other brand is doing it
better and spending a higher budget than you.
Content marketing strategy should employ SEO best practices
at its foundation.
4. Guest Blogging
• Tactic for
1. Building links
2. Brand authority
3. Credibility
4. Other benefits.
• Matt: “Stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done.”
Differentiating ‘good’ guest blogging from bad.
• Excellent strategy for building your audience, your brand and
your personal thought leadership plan.
5. Expense of SEO is higher
• Ranking becomes more difficult, marketers and business
owners are realizing the need to increase their investment in
content creation and link building in order to rank.
• Roles like Content Manager, Director of Content, and Content
Marketing Officer (CMO) are becoming increasingly
mainstream.
• Brands have to re-evaluate the types of content they’re
producing, and actively track whether that content is helping
them achieve their goals.
6. SEO’s become coordinators
• In-houses SEO professionals are increasingly being called on
to coordinate the fulfillment of work, based on their technical
knowledge, rather than completing it themselves.
• While in the past, SEOs would typically write and optimize
content and build relationships with other site owners for link
building purposes, these roles are now being outsourced.
• SEO professionals are becoming project managers,
coordinating responsibilities, assigning them, and assessing
and repairing on-site optimization problems.
7. Increasing demand of SEO services
• With the vast majority of businesses now actively using
content marketing as part of their marketing strategy (some
research puts this number as high as 94% for B2B small
businesses), the competition for search engine rankings is
fiercer than ever.
• 2014 Moz Industry Survey shows that a greater number of
marketing professionals are being tasked with SEO (78%)
than are responsible for content marketing (49%).
Conclusion
• SEO is not dead.
• The tasks and roles associated with SEO have changed.
• SEO is steadily integrating with content marketing.
