To say that 2013 was an exciting year in the SEO sphere would be an understatement. Google continued its war on spammers and black hat SEO with even more Panda and Penguin updates. They changed the very platform they used to run their index when they launched Hummingbird and expanded the knowledge graph. And they finally moved to 100% encrypted search, taking away keyword referral data [not provided] from site owners worldwide.

All of these changes by Google - algorithmic updates, Hummingbird, knowledge graph, [not provided] - were part of a relentless drive to create a better user experience for the searcher. To succeed in 2014, SEOs and site owners alike must understand that the days of manipulating search engines algorithms are over. Only by taking a user-centric approach to your SEO strategy that identifies and fulfills the needs of your audience can you hope to achieve search engine success in a post-Hummingbird world. The good news is that we're here to translate the shifting nuances of what it takes for you to be successful online now and in the future.

However, before we get into where we see Google and SEO going in 2014 let's talk about last year's