Here are our questions and answers that the SEO world is curious about and that constitute the main factors of this ever-evolving world;
1. Do you expect potential algorithm changes in 2014 to be on-site or off-site? How do you believe these changes will affect SEO?
İlyas Teker (iProspect): We have seen many times in previous years that Google is very successful in implementing any change it thinks will benefit the user more in search results (this could be an algorithm change or an interface change) . According to Moz sources, Google updated its algorithm 17 times in 2013 alone. This number is of course the number we see. I am sure there have been hundreds of algorithm updates in the background that were not reflected to us or shared. In a news article published in Radikal the other day , we read that the Google algorithm update eroded the $2 billion Demand Media by 75%. Companies that do not follow algorithm updates closely and do not update their sites accordingly can unfortunately lose a significant amount of traffic on the organic side. We can easily say that Google will implement many updates that will be effective both on and off the site in 2014. These updates are essential, especially so that increasing spam sites and studies do not pollute the search results.
Mert Erkal (Stradiji): If we carefully observe the changes in Google in the last few years, we can see that the algorithm changes have forced SEO projects and employees to be more and more creative. As is thought with every algorithm change, SEO will not die in 2014, but it will gradually become a job that requires more expertise and experience. In my opinion, these changes will mostly affect on-site SEO and user experience. Ultimately, Google's customers, people searching on Google and customer satisfaction are very important to Google.
Serbay Arda Ayzit (SEM): I think that Google will be able to make better sense of the content with Hummingbird, so 2014 will be the year of Google's fight against link spam. Although Google has made many updates homeowner database in this area, link spam is still one of the biggest problems in many countries other than the US and UK. Especially in our country, the ones who suffer the most from this are the professionals who try to do SEO correctly. In addition, I am sure that user behavior will definitely affect the rankings more and Google will work on this side. But still, the fight against spam links will be at a higher level.
Şahin Seçil (GroupM): When the concept of SEO first emerged, it was possible to rank at the top by making “title” arrangements, but the standard “title”, content density and arrangements (originalizing copied content) of all sites led to the emergence of the concept of backlink. In recent years, with developing technology and growing sites, on-site arrangements have once again reached an important point. With the transfer of knowledge to ready-made software, we see that critical on-site arrangements that need to be made in site construction have come ready-made. This shows that sites that want to make a difference should give more importance to off-site factors, in other words, it is possible to see that the effect of off-site factors increases slightly compared to on-site factors in the next step.
Uğur Eskici (n11): Before I share my predictions for 2014, let's take a step back. We experienced 4 different Panda and 2 different Penguin updates in 2013. In addition, there were some changes targeting spam queries with the payday loan algorithm update. I don't think there was a site that was not affected by all these updates. While US queries were affected by around 0.3% in the payday loan algorithm in particular, this figure was around 4% for Turkish queries. The point we need to reach from here is that spam production in Turkey - especially pornographic queries - is quite high and Google is taking some special actions especially for Turkey. When we examine the updates, it is obvious that some cultures need to change both in terms of backlink profiles and on-site optimization because all these updates have affected and will continue to affect all SEO work done in every way. In fact, similar issues were constantly on the agenda in other years. After Google makes a change, the SEO world finds other ways within itself and comes up with another update. Therefore, most of the updates that will take place in 2014 will be a continuation of the Panda & Penguin series. At this point, the most important way to stand out from competitors, or rather to keep the user on the site, is the experience to be provided to the user. However, before reaching this point, all of the on-site optimizations of a site, in short, SEO infrastructure and compliance, need to be provided/completed. If you can also provide a good user experience, you may not even need to put much effort into off-site optimizations. I do not remember doing any special work for the backlink profile in my professional life for years, I think such elements should be formed completely naturally. And this approach already leaves you a safe area. The target of many filters and algorithmic updates was aimed at backlinks. If your original and up-to-date content can also interact with users, you are on the right track.
Yigit Konur (SEOzeo): Google will continue to fight spammers, not SEO professionals, in 2014, as it always has. Therefore, I believe that any updates will not scare agencies and consultants who do their job properly. In this context, I believe that users will have a better search experience in 2014. Universal Search, which Google introduced to our lives in 2007, has expanded its scope and moved to our inboxes and even our address books! We can say that Google is trying to evolve its search results according to our own personal data and preferences. In this respect, it may sound cliché, but good content will always win. Content that directly matches what the market is looking for and finds answers to questions will be more prominent. I believe that with the in-depth articles update, many companies will increase their content investments in order to reach their potential customers by giving them more comprehensive answers. On the off-site side, I believe that this will be a year when social media will truly increase its area of influence. Apart from this, like every SEO professional, we will witness the disappearance of players who openly try to dominate the market by purchasing site-wide links and malicious link providers one by one this year. In addition, the Rap Genius case was a great example for even large companies supported by tens of millions of dollars of investment to review their SEO choices. I am one of those who hope that this situation will decrease and end, especially in our country, with SEOZEO's publishing policy.
