SEO is changing - how has your day to day changed?

[purpleindigo]

I'm sure we all read on our alternatives to Google Reader that SEO is changing - "here's what we must do to be relevant in 2014". I find these articles boring and uninformative. I suspect I'm not alone.

The reason I'm not their biggest fan is because I feel like I've invested 10 minutes into an article that I have no actual guidance from. Therefore, I thought I'd ask the real SEO's, you guys, what has actually changed for you?

Are you now not creating content with the aim of getting links? If you run a commercial website, what are you doing different to rank your product pages - directly or indirectly? Please share with the group.

I'm sure many like me are still brainstorming and creating content they think will grab people's attention and gain them links, whilst also pushing their Facebook, Twitter, Youtube profiles, etc etc. What has changed about this?

[CommT]

Hi Purple Indigo,

If I can, I'll try and actually telephone the person I want the link from - this way they can't bin my enquiry out-of-hand without reading it! It is much, much easier to get the link you want if you can speak to the person (if the person runs a business local to me, I'll try and meet them for coffee to ask!) If I can't speak to a link prospect, I will email them. These have a lower success rate than the ones initiated by phone.

We haven't created any link bait for our sites. This is mostly down to a lack of resource. I can't ask for a designer/writer's time for something that may not work. But, having said that, we do create a ton of regular advice articles (I work for a mortgage broker specialising in landlord mortgages) and these get linked to naturally (but there is no control over these links, but they are still very nice to have!!!)

What are your preferred methods?

Amelia

[purpleindigo]

I'm wondering if my English sense of sarcasm didn't come through as strongly as I'd hoped from my original post! My general point was that as far as I'm concerned, doing what we do hasn't changed that much. The articles telling us otherwise, screaming as us to look out for "these top 10 tips for 2014" are doing more harm than good.

You've mentioned there that "it's all changing on an everyday basis" - I'd have to ask, really? My day to day is the same. What does the "change" really mean to you?

[purpleindigo]

I do similarly. I have various lists that I work from, ones that I send content through to when we do a content piece and another list of "targets" - sites we'd like to create some sort of affiliate partnership with or reach out to from time to time because we feel it is more of a direct cross over of our targets.

I'm interested to read what you do with the people on your list. Are you just dropping them emails in an attempt to get a link or are you sending through "linkbait" when you have it? Hearing your method would be cool.

[TheeDigital]

I agree with ameli, SEO has not changed that much from the early days it's more that the tools have changed. Twitter has turned into Buffer and Hootsuite, G. Analytics has changed into some weird combination of Analytics, Raventools, and Moz, and so on.

It's all changing on an everyday basis but the basics still remain the same. Create an awesome website, engage with your customers online, and care.

[CommT]

I honestly don't think the fundamentals have changed that much from when I started out in SEO about 10 years ago. Yes, some link building techniques have become toxic and some onsite practices too, but SEO in it's most basic form has not changed. We are still trying to make sure our site is the best match for the search queries we want to rank for. And, the way we get there is still the same - on-page techniques backed-up by quality links from relevant sources.

No black and white animal ever spoiled my rankings and I believe it is because I have always erred on the side of caution. Sometimes, I've been desperate for links and come close to making poor decisions though! I always compile a list of links before I start actually trying to build them and I always look at the list afresh the next day. If something gets in due to me feeling a little desperate, I can always take it out the next day when I'm thinking more clearly!

To be relevant in 2014, you must do the same as you should have been doing in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.... etc. That is to say,. you should be reading Google's webmaster guidelines and make sure you don't do anything against the 'rules'. You should be creating content that people actually want to read, to watch, to listen to, to gaze at.... It's not easy getting this right but I've found a good way of making sure my content resonates with my target audience is to read forums to get an idea of the sorts of things people are worried about/interested in or talking about online.