2014 SEO Predictions

[max99x]

Just blogged about my predictions for SEO in 2014, be interesting to hear you guys thoughts and own predictions.

http://www.expertly.co.uk/seo-predictions-2014/

 

[addz123]

I think HTML, markup, UX and social will be the biggest changes to Google's serps.

I also think Google's increasingly using additional sources such as Twitter to crawl for new content. Other than that I think FB graph search and twitter search will send increasing amounts of traffic.

I'm still very skeptical of author-rank.

 

[Murray]

Increase in Negative SEO

I'm still yet to see a site with a good natural link profile hit by "negative SEO", it's the boogeyman of search.

 

[addz123]

Ive seen it happen 2-3 times this yr. even if no penalties for
$5 you can force a Webmaster thousands in cleaning and disavowing his own links.

Also, if you spam a competitor with links you make it
More risky for him to keep developing his site.

 

[Murray]

Ive seen it happen 2-3 times this yr. even if no penalties for
$5 you can force a Webmaster thousands in cleaning and disavowing his own links

I'm sure you could get a site an unnatural links warning, but one that would say

we are taking targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole

And I'm sure you could make them waste their time disavowing the links (even if they don't need to)

But actually affecting their rankings (if they deserve to be there) I've not seen.

 

[Grant]

Agree on natural search results decreasing...tis' all part of the master plan.

 

[bermuda]

When you have a look at many websites status on Google, especially in recent months, you will figure out that content is becoming more and more significant. Truth is, Google has already discovered that many companies are using professional SEO services and their websites already are powered by decent types of links from high PR spots, and the ones with more compelling contents seem to be winners in their niches.

Links will still remain very important indeed because they are bridges between web pages and some votes cast in favor of websites, but then on-page elements, mainly contents will arrive at the scene to play their exclusive roles. Google plus as mentioned is getting bigger and bigger every day, almost marginalizing the rest of the social media resources in the future and counted as an SEO ranking metric.

 

[bonusmedia]

I think budgets will shift towards content and paid advertising.

Ranking organically for generic terms will become a less viable strategy.
On some terms you see a ratio of 10 adwords ads plus 4 comparison ads to 4 natural results above the fold. The trend towards localized and personalized results will likely continue. The payoff for ranking for major terms is decreasing.

There comes a point where the time, effort and cost of getting organic results outweighs the cost of paying Google for clicks. You have to hand it to them - it's an extremely profitable and successful strategy.

 

[dashu1]

Links are everything and they always will be unless someone can develop a real search engine that can not only read words but can understand them and their context as well.

What I've been seeing and what I think will continue through 2014 is that a handful of very high value links (ie from sites with very high trust and reputation) are enough to get sites ranking for up to medium difficulty keywords.

Blast away at your peril.

 

[diggdirectory]

2014 will be more about SMO
SMO will rule in 2014
SEO will be same as it is in 2013
search will increase , users will increase but i think there will be no changes in Google search

 

[jacal1]

First, thanks for the link - your page is well thought-out and also looks great.

I think the two highlights as far as SEO in 2014 are social media and site speed. The effort that a company or person puts into these areas may provide G with a great way to see how motivated the owner is. In other words, they can factor out fly-by-night or scam sites put together quickly just to make money on keywords. If a person is putting a lot into social media, and spending time optimizing the performance of their site, then they are really in it for the long haul, and that in many ways is one thing G has always wanted to emphasize.

 

[doma1n]

Nice post on the 2014 predictions,
I think bonusmedia has hit the nail on the head with summary below.
Google is definatly pushing the advertising way and less help ranking for those who have aff links/adsense on their site.
The only saving grace for us all and love them or hate them is the EU. I think they will eventually try to tame google a bit more. How they will do it is still open for debate but I think they will try.

I think budgets will shift towards content and paid advertising.

Ranking organically for generic terms will become a less viable strategy.
On some terms you see a ratio of 10 adwords ads plus 4 comparison ads to 4 natural results above the fold. The trend towards localized and personalized results will likely continue. The payoff for ranking for major terms is decreasing.

There comes a point where the time, effort and cost of getting organic results outweighs the cost of paying Google for clicks. You have to hand it to them - it's an extremely profitable and successful strategy.