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Brief Your Bloggers: How to Prepare for 2014

A lot of changes happened in 2014, most of which will affect your bloggers. Make sure your strategy is ready to go by briefing everyone on the changes!

preparedEach year bloggers have to change little things about their job to keep up with Google changes, but this upcoming year bloggers are going to have to adjust their strategies more than usual. The way search is moving is probably going to affect writers the most drastically, so now is a great time to brief your writers/bloggers on what it is your company needs from its content, both on-site and guest content, this upcoming year.

Top Content Changes We’ll See in 2014

Google came out with quite a few changes this past year to try and improve search results and make them more relevant for users. Because content is one of the most important aspects of the web, it is the bloggers who are going to have to alter their methods the most drastically. Consider below some of the changes and how bloggers can react:

  • Cocitation. When it comes to linking, Google wants to see only quality links. This means that not only is it important to reference other authoritative sites when writing, but it’s important to avoid linking back to sites that have linked to other poor sites. Essentially, if website A links to website C and website B, then website B can still be affected by website C and the link juice that it holds.

How Bloggers Should React: Bloggers need to pay even closer attention to where they are linking and what they are using as anchor text. Using keywords as anchor text is no longer necessary (it seems unnatural), and even having an indirect link with a poor website can hurt, so it’s the job of the blogger to keep tabs on any link he/she choose to put in the content.

  • In-Depth Article Results. Google now offers users a block of results that offer in-depth articles, and according to Google, 10 percent of people’s daily needs fit this category. One category used as an example was “stem cells.” This is a topic that needs more than just your standard article, so Google’s new results are making it easy to find the articles that are truly detailed.

How Bloggers Should React. It’s clear that Google is moving toward the need for more detailed content. In the future it is the 1000 word content that is really going to catch Google’s attention and get you to the top, so now is a good time to start. Stop writing little 500 word articles if the topic really warrants more.

  • Conversational Search/ Semantic SEO. Google just released the Hummingbird update, which essentially focuses on moving away from keyword matches and more toward a conversational approach. Essentially, Google is trying to look more at the meaning behind an entire piece of content as well as the meaning behind a search as opposed to looking at just a few keywords.

How Bloggers Should React. The way it works is this: If someone types “movie theaters near my house” into Google search, Google will start picking up on the fact that location matters in this search. Local search results will therefore appear. Google will also use synonyms and related terms, known as semantic SEO, to pull up results. For example, they may pull up results of the latest movies being shown. Although the term “movie theater” might not be a keyword in the entry, Google still sees this as relevant. Bloggers then need to realize that when writing it’s not as much about keywords as it is about semantics. This will change how you write and where you put your focus.

It’s incredibly important for either the head of the company or the head of the content/SEO department (preferably the latter) to make sure all bloggers and writers are on the same page when it comes to these new changes. In other words, having a few training sessions that give bloggers a chance to understand what Google wants as well as practice making these changes is going to be crucial.

Do you have a content team and thoughts on the future of your content in 2014? What have you found helped you create a solid strategy that implements these new changes? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo Credit: beloudbeyou.com

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VIP CONTRIBUTOR Amanda DiSilvestro Editor-in-chief at Plan, Write, GO

Amanda DiSilvestro writes digital content that helps businesses grow their website traffic and establish thought leadership. Connect with Amanda at ...

Brief Your Bloggers: How to Prepare for 2014

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