How to Keep Up with Google in 2014?

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Many people didn’t think they needed one. They assume SEO isn’t that important for professional services firm.

Wrong.

That’s just one of the conclusions from a webinar titled “How to Keep Up with Google in 2014”, featuring Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin. If you are not familiar with Rand or Moz, you need to check out this webinar.

For those who are not aware of, Moz is where many SEO professionals go for their state-of-the-art tools and education. The material that Rand shared here is top notch. He makes a very complicated and critically important topic understandable to a marketing or operating executive. If you are building a professional services firm in 2014, SEO needs to be part of your plan.

Here are a few highlights:

  1. SEO is an important issue for any professional services firm. It is one of the most fundamental tools used by high growth firms. One of the first things your potential clients will do to check you out is to Google you. It is also how many potential clients will educate themselves.
  2. Google is continually modifying its algorithms (with more than 600 changes a year). They struggle to give better results for its users. Google is the most popular site where your potential clients or employees are looking for many things.
  3. Trying to manipulate Google with “black hat trick” is similar to losing proposition. Shortcuts of the past are not just a waste of time and money, but they can actually be awful.
  4. With all of this change and turmoil, there are many opportunities for professional services firms to go ahead of the competitors.
  5. Google’s goal is to help searchers find the most useful and valuable content, thus producing the most useful and valuable content in your areas of expertise will give you a good chance of being found.
  6. Be aware to many technical considerations, such as page load time, mobile friendliness, and website organisation and structure.
  7. Make sure you have access to a wide range of technical and marketing talent.
  8. Having a cohesive brand supported by content relevant to all stages of the business development cycle is very important. Good content marketing is good SEO. Create stuff people want to read and share.
  9. SEO is no longer an isolated discipline. It should be an integral part of your entire marketing efforts. Promotion, PR, social media, content creation and SEO are all in the mix. Your SEO plan is your marketing plan.
  10. Beware of easy fixes or creative new shortcuts. Doing it the right way is not easy, but the upside is great and there are many advantages for early adopters.
Take a look at the webinar below: