Google is the indisputable leader in the global search engine market, and its dominance is not likely to wane any time soon. For SEO marketers, this means that Google´s updates, changes and launches will continue to play a central role in 2014. I came across an interesting article on Econsultancy, taking a look at what Google is likely to focus on over the next 12 months, and thought I would summarise the predictions for you.
Spam is one of the areas that receives the most attention from the search engine, and its attempts to remove spam from search results have made significant progress over the past few years. In 2014, Google is likely to turn to local SEO, which is still more prone to abuse.
Another thing on Google´s agenda could be tackling structured data abuse, particularly reviews, author markup and PPC listings. These are thought to be SEO tactics that boost rankings, and this makes them more attractive to spammers.
Links have been and will be a priority to Google, as Econsultancy notes. Actions against unnatural links started last year with anchor texts and press releases. Many experts believe that this will continue throughout the coming year, giving marketers a good reason to concentrate on brand building and integrated marketing instead.
Moreover, the search engine has indicated its plans to crack down on poor guest blogging. As the tactic gained popularity, the quality plummeted dramatically. With Google stressing the importance of fresh, high-quality content, guest blog posts – especially ones that appear on more than one site – may come under fire.
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By Ben Hollom