The Future of SEO 2014

SEO is the art of ranking for a keyword or key phrase in the organic listings of Search Engines like Bing, Yahoo and, of course, Google. For several years, SEO was contingent upon the amount of back links you have pointing to your site.

2013 was a game-changer of a year in SEO world. On-the-ball online marketers may have been spouting the benefits of quality content for years, but 2013 was the year everyone finally sat up and took notice. Google's birthday update, Hummingbird, provided all the confirmation needed to drive the web definitively towards bigger, better and cleverer content.

I was at an eCommerce meetup this past week with some former colleagues, some of their clients, and some industry neophytes and vendors. As the night wore on, eventually the topic of conversation turned from the various aspects of building the stores and cataloging products, to how to drive more traffic and market the stores.

Two of the main components of a strong SEO strategy are the same as they has always been: to publish high-quality content that gets read and linked to by as many people as possible (ie, quality content and inbound links). But in 2014, a third key element will join the ranks [...]

Diversify anchor texts for your backlinks by using a mix of brand names, URL, or keywords + brand.