By Ella Mason

Cast your mind back to a time before Google; It’s hard to, isn’t it?

Because, for most, thinking of a time where the beloved search engine was non-existent is virtually impossible. Today, we use it for nearly aspect of our day-to-day lives; from running our businesses, to using it in our personal lives when we get home from the working day.

For many of us business professionals, there’s a more thought-provoking issue about how the world worked before the birth of Google; SEO. Without Google, there was no SEO. So, how on earth did businesses attempt to get to the top?

SEO has become big business thanks to Google. Traditionally, the practice of SEO was about keyword usage, making sure your site has no technical or configuration problems, and of course, you can’t mention SEO without the issue of links, links and more links. It’s through this that many businesses have managed to thrive and grow.

However, as we move faster into an advanced digital age, SEO is becoming far more sophisticated than these traditional methods. As technology is evolving, SEO is rapidly evolving along with it. So, if you’re a business owner. Here’s how, and why, it’s important to keep up with it in the next few years.

Social SEO
No one can argue the effect that social media is having on our world today; most have it, most use it, and most follow it in one way or another. It’s because of this that social media has become a prominent part of SEO and why so many companies are now including it in their strategies.
In the same way as links, social media pages prove value for a company if a company is mentioned frequently through likes, tweets, circles and general traffic. And Google agrees. If a company has a higher presence on a social media site, it’s likely to lead to increased traffic to the company site and therefore results in an increase in inbound links – all in all, a good thing for SEO and businesses in general.

With new social media sites being developed everyday to rival Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the influence of social media on SEO is undoubtedly set to grow further in the future.

YouTube SEO
Now, I know that when you think of SEO tactics, video probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But believe it or not, SEO is evolving due to the increase of videos being placed on YouTube. YouTube has now become the second largest search engine, after Google itself.

YouTube videos are contributing to the growth of SEO, due to the following reasons:

• The first is the fact that in many cases, YouTube videos are increasingly climbing the position-rankings on Google – and some are even making it to the very top.
• Secondly, the inclusion of YouTube videos allows for increased outreach to the whole community of an extremely popular form of communication. With a reported 120,000,000 members, by using this medium, you’ll show to all of them that your business is with the times and knows what it’s doing.
• The clear benefit of YouTube videos is the ability to be easily shared across all social media platforms. You can link a video across to your company’s Facebook page, or tweet it on Twitter and watch as your engagement, interaction and traffic increases as a result.

Smartphone and Tablet SEO
The advancement of new technologies such as smartphones and new high-tech tablets have – with the help of their integrated apps – transformed pretty much every aspect of our lives. And SEO is also no exception to this.

SEO on the go has become an important contributor to the evolvement of SEO as a whole. A company can manage, run and boost their SEO presence from any location, at the simple touch of a button. Simply, SEO no longer needs the sole use of a computer to operate. And what’s more, those customers you want to reach no longer need to be sat at a computer to hear about, find out about, or even, interact with you. And, with so many companies now offering businesses great smartphone deals and special offers on tablets, it’s no wonder that these technologies have had such a profound impact on the world of SEO.

So, just as it is important to run, manage and operate every aspect of your SEO from your office or home computer, it’s just as vital to make sure you can run it on the go. Fail to do so, and your business could significantly lose out in the ever-fierce business SEO race.

About the Author
This article was written by Ella Mason, an experienced freelance writer. Ella specialises in writing useful and informative advice for businesses.