3 Important Lessons From 2013

2013 was a roller coaster year and as expected, Google did not disappoint with their mass of algorithm updates and continued knowledge graph expansions. But Google weren’t the only ones who were keeping us on our toes. Bing teamed up with Klout in a move to better incorporate social influence, and Yandex (where mass link buying often got you to the top) set themselves on a path towards not attributing any ranking factors to links.

In between all of the algorithm shuffling, there were many other important lessons to be learned. So keeping with the tradition of December posts, here are my three key lessons from 2013:

1. Never Forget The Basics

No matter what you do, there are always lots of new, shiny things around to consume your time and attention. But if you are not building from a strong foundation to begin with, then your efforts can often end up being wasted. In SEO, sometimes just sticking to the basic values of clean on-page factors and valuable content that people will want to share, can help to reduce the time you spend on being reactive and playing catch up to the never-ending algorithm updates.

Search marketing can sometimes feel so overwhelming and fast-moving that it can be easy to forget about the basics. This year, I learned not to be afraid to put on the brakes when needed. Remember to keep in mind that search is a marathon, not a sprint.

2. Get Your Analytics in Order 

It doesn’t matter how well or successful you think your program is doing, if you aren’t accurately measuring the outcome – in a way that is meaningful – you may as well not be running anything at all.

This year, going through a new CMS launch, I re-learned the importance of tracking accuracy and picked up some new tricks along the way, particularly with regards to attribution. A key takeaway I learned is that whenever possible, make sure you use actual numbers and don’t rest your laurels on numbers based on averages and calculations, which can vastly skew reality.

3. Life is About Making Big Moves

I couldn’t have said it any better than my Twitter pal, @sdmktgguy. Regardless of what the future holds, 2013 will always be a memorable year for me. It was the year that I left my first employer of 14 years, to work for a different company, in a different state, in a different industry. And despite all of the scariness that change can bring, I’ve never felt more excited and eager to make a difference.