What you need to succeed in the 2014 search marketing arena

Search Engine Optimization - Magnifying GlassSearch engine optimization has matured greatly over the last year or so and will continue to be the focus of success for every company on the globe. Innovative strategies and fresh approaches have begun to explode and you need to stay abreast of the trends and the changes that are coming. The more informed and focused you are, the more you can create advantage. Create advantage, drive traffic and gain market share. Here are just a few of the coming attractions for this year that you will ignore at your peril:

 

  •     You must have a search engine optimization content marketing plan and your content must continue to reign supreme. You must engage your potential customers and drive them to your site. You must also make use of every social media outlet that you possibly can. Avoid sales heavy jargon and stick to what will create stellar content. Educate, enlighten and entertain. If you can do that, your search engine optimization will succeed and they will come. Then, it is up to you to make the conversion. Understand the audiences that you are going to try and attract. The YouTube audience is not necessarily the same audience that frequents Pinterest or Instagram. Is your Facebook page optimized to drive traffic?

 

  • Finding those critical keywords and building links will continue to challenge marketers throughout the coming year. Many forward looking companies have begun campaigns designed to increase their name and brand recognition. They are formulating plans designed around the needs of potential customers and how they are going to meet those needs. That is determining their search engine optimization keyword selections. They are no longer going to try and guess what the search engines, especially Google, may or may not accept or reject. With regard to building links, Google has been waging war against spammers of every shade so it becomes harder and harder to determine what type of links are going to be built. Volume is less important now that the intent of the link is regarding your search engine optimization.

 

  • Expanding your social media presence and getting a toe hold on mobile will be crucial to the success of every company in the coming year. You must create a strategy for expanding your reach that include the big guns such as Google+ and Facebook but your reach must also include Twitter, YouTube and such coming forces as Instagram. It’s a jungle out there in social media land so you must have brilliant content as well as interesting stories to tell. Special deals for current and new customers are a sure bet as well as continuing contests and promotions. This all breeds name recognition and builds trust which will translate to traffic and sales. Those who ignore mobile technology will miss out on a huge, and immediate, audience. More and more people are dependent upon their cell phones for just about everything. Your search engine optimization strategy of engagement must include effective ways to stimulate those users and drive them to your site or to your business.