50 Quotes on Leadership Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

John Rampton

Contributor

Entrepreneur and Connector

 

Every entrepreneur knows that the success of their business ultimately rests on their shoulders. Yes, the product you build and the team you hire are important, but your ability to lead is what carries your company.

With that kind of pressure, it’s easy to feel stressed, lonely and overwhelmed at times. Every great leader has faced a challenge that defined their greatness, which is why we often turn to their advice when needed.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or team leader, here are 50 inspirational quotes on leadership for when you need a little pep talk.

1. "A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." – Rosalynn Carter
2. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” - Lao Tzu
3. "It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse." -  Adlai E. Stevenson II
4. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." – Colin Powell
5. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” - Max DePree
6. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams
7. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
8. "A leader...is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." - Nelson Mandela
9. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” - Aristotle
10. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
11. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." – Bill Gates
12. “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit." - John Maxwell
13. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy
14. "The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." – George Orwell
15. “I start each day by telling myself what a positive influence I am on this world.” - Peter Daisyme
16. “Earn your leadership every day." - Michael Jordan
17. "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." – Jack Welch
18. “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” - Peter Drucker
19. "My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better." - Steve Jobs
20. "The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader." – Albert Einstein
21. “Great leaders find ways to connect with their people and help them fulfill their potential.” - Steven J. Stowell
22. "To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." - Pat Riley
23. "If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk." – Benjamin Hooks
24. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” - Jim Rohn
25. "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." - Max Lucado
26. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
27. "It is absolutely necessary...for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders." - George Washington
28. "Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work." - Vince Lombardi
29. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”  - Stephen King
30. "A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason."- J.P. Morgan
31. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” - Chinese Proverb
32. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
33. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”  - Andrew Carnegie
34. "Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar." - Orrin Woodward
35. "Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." – Oscar Wilde
36. “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” - Sam Walton
37. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” -  Albert Schweitzer
38. “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” - Dolly Parton
39. “I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.” - Warren Bennis
40. “In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer.” -  Henry W. Longfellow
41. “It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. (Absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.)” - Latin Proverb
42. “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” -  Thomas Carlyle
43. “A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.” - Ovid
44. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader” - Henry Ford
45. “Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty, and industry. Don't take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world.” - Noah Porter
46. "Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter." Jaachynma N.E. Agu
47. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”  - Herbert Swope
48. “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”  - Solon
49. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” - Maya Angelou
50. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Bonus:
“Screw it, let’s just do it.” - Richard Branson

 

'Polished, Poised, Prepared': Confidence Tips from Women Entrepreneurs

Image credit: heidinazarudin.com

When you are a business owner, it doesn't matter how much funding you have, where your college degrees are from or whom you network with if you are not confident about your ideas.

At the end of the day, if you don't have faith in yourself and your business, you will most likely fail. Despite constant rejection and doubt, successful entrepreneurs are always able to find confidence from within. If you don't have unwavering faith in your idea, no one else will either.

As a fellow business owner, I understand that it can be challenging to silence the self doubt, especially when you are faced with a big decision or are constantly barraged by naysayers.

My fellow young female entrepreneurs always inspire me with their uncanny amount of determination and fearlessness. They aren't going to let anyone get in the way of their dreams. Here are some things we can learn from these ladies about finding your confidence:

Admit what you don't know. If you are aware of the things you don't know, then you have a lot more faith in what you do know. Part of owning your own business is being able to hire people to compensate for your weaknesses. No one expects you to be good at everything. If you have a good team, where everyone excels at a certain skill, you will gain more confidence that your ideas will be executed properly. 

Do your research. When going into meetings with potential investors, clients or customers, make sure you really know what you are talking about. You have to know the ins and outs of your industry.

Melissa Thompson, CEO and founder of TalkSession, shares how she finds her confidence before a big meeting with investors: "I spend a lot of time studying the market. I make sure to stay educated about the legal part of the equation as well as the practice and business portions. [Since I am not a doctor], I compensate by subscribing to medical journals, actually reading them, and engaging in conversations with industry specialists."

Heidi Nazarudin, blogger at The Successful Style and president of Blogger Babes, said, "My confidence is a mixture of style and substance. Knowing that I look amazing and that I have done my homework for the task at hand is a great confidence booster -- in other words, polished, poised, prepared."

Don't pay attention to any disadvantages. One of the first questions that I always ask Gen-Y female entrepreneurs is if they feel that being a woman is a disadvantage. Everyone I have spoken with so far has said "no."

Andi Atteberry, founder of blingsting, writes, "I don't put any energy into wondering if I have different challenges than any other leader or business owner because I am female. I think at the end of the day, if you are good at what you do, that's all that matters."

Just because they don't like your business, doesn't mean they don't like you. For entrepreneurs, the line between personal and professional is blurred. When someone rejects your business idea, it can feel like a personal attack because of all the time and energy you invest. Shop-Hers' founder, Jaclyn Shanfeld, explains how she gets over rejection and maintains her confidence: "I have thick skin and I'm able to separate myself from the opinion of others. I'm humble and passionate about what I do. A 'no' can't take that away."

Realize from the beginning that there is more to you than just your business. This way being rejected won't feel so harsh, and you can bounce back faster.

The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Rebekah Epstein

Rebekah Epstein is the founder of fifteen media, an agency that works exclusively with PR firms to streamline media relations in a digital era. She specializes in business, lifestyle, fashion and beauty.

Clay Adams

It is the most popular website in the world, drawing a billion visitors each month. More than 12 billion queries are sent through its search engine each month and there are more than 15 million websites connected to its Analytics tool. We’re talking, of course, about Google.

Whether your business has a well-established web presence or you’re just emerging on your own slice of cyberspace real estate, Google is most likely a key aspect of your online efforts and pursuits.

We understand that busy CEOs and entrepreneurs can’t possibly learn all there is to know about this internet gargantuan as quickly as they’d like, and your marketing team or SEO agency will likely help with understanding the common conventions regarding Google.

So today, I want to instead help you focus on five important concepts about Google that you may not come across often, yet are equally crucial to your online business strategy.

#1) Google is Constantly Changing

Before you take one more single step toward leveraging Google for your online marketing efforts, it’s imperative to understand this fact. The level of fluidity, growth, and diversity of this company is mind-blowing. You will never see Google stagnate. If it ever does go the way of the Dodo, it won’t be from complacency.

If we’re looking at all of Google enterprises as a whole, the amount of corporate acquisitions, inventions (and patents), new software products and tools, website properties and similar business activities is practically innumerable. And that’s without even considering its core component – the Search Engine.

Google is always changing and cooking up something new. Just recently, they lauded the new ‘Google Compute’ product, stepping into the ring with rivals Apple and Amazon for a veritable clash of the Cloud Computing titans.

Okay, so what about Google Search? This is the cornerstone of Google’s empire, and the service that started it all is equally dynamic. Google makes about 500 changes and updates just to its search engine algorithm each year. Many more likely occur quietly behind the scenes. They also change-up their Index and how it operates.

It would take some time and a fair amount of research to fully understand the ins and outs of Google’s algorithm changes, and may prove beneficial in the long run. But right now, the takeaway is simple: Your business must be adaptable to Google’s whims if you wish to leverage the power of search marketing.

#2) Your Competitors Are Leveraging Google

This is interesting, albeit somewhat obvious, because it applies to your business even if you don’t currently operate any type of online presence. You can bet without a sliver of doubt that some (if not all) of your rivals are competing for exposure on Google, whether through Organic Search or Pay-Per-Click ads.

If your business has an active, well optimized and maintained website with high quality unique content, then you may find yourself a step ahead already. However, the majority of business owners fall into one of two camps, which we’ll examine now. If you fall into one of these groups, your competitors are taking the money you’ve left on the table.

The first group consists of businesses with no online presence. If all you have is a single Facebook page for your business, you can count yourself among these ranks as well.

The facts are simple: You need a website…at the very least. A complete online marketing strategy is a prudent follow-up step. Think of it this way: You are saying “No” to the opportunity of exposure in front of the nearly 275 million internet users in North America alone. If you have the capabilities for global reach, the number is closer to 2.4 billion.

The other group is businesses who have a website and perhaps some additional online assets such as Social Media profiles or blogs, but aren’t competing for exposure on Google (or perhaps not competing effectively). Applying comprehensive search engine optimization for your website, as well as robust content creation and promotion strategies are the crucial first steps for businesses in this group.

It’s understandable that you may not have the time to learn or apply proper SEO techniques while running your company. If that’s the case, your next best bet is to hire an internet marketing agency. Your biggest competitors are spending those marketing dollars for good reason.

#3) Google isn’t just a search engine anymore

Google’s benefits for business in terms of marketing exposure are clear, but Google has grown into much more than just a search engine. All it takes is a quick glance over Google’s Products Page for a true understanding of the company’s breadth. And this doesn’t even include the slew of tools and resources they offer for webmasters and online marketers, such as Google Analytics. Let’s also not forget Google is the proprietor for the firmware running on all ‘Android’ mobile devices.

This means that leveraging Google for your business goes beyond simple organic optimization for their search engine. The integration Google has established (and continues to establish) across all of their platforms means you’re embarking on a more elaborate campaign with more intricate strategies.

Even by looking at just a small sampling of some ‘flagship’ products, such as Google Plus, YouTube, Google Search and Google Places, we can recognize crucial interconnections and avenues for our marketing strategies. Let’s review some examples.

Recently, Google implemented its social platform (Google Plus) as a commenting system in YouTube. While this move drew a widespread outcry from netizens worldwide, the integration opens up new avenues by which multimedia, social media, and even SEO come together in a harmony that is still yet to be realized.

Google Plus and Google Places are also intertwined. Furthermore, they are wired into Google Search, though not always in the way most people expect. Perhaps the easiest way to bolster exposure for a business using these properties is to simply create and nurture company profiles in Plus and Places.

#4) Google strives for a high-quality user experience

This could very well be the most important concept for business owners to understand about marketing in the ‘Google-scape’. Recognizing the standards of quality Google expects from websites (and why) helps us shape our campaigns and the best strategy to achieve that pinnacle positioning on search results.

Honestly, this should already align with our own commitments to provide a great user experience on the web. But it’s easy for many business owners to get caught up in optimizing for robots, relegating actual human visitors to an afterthought.

While I don’t like to bypass an opportunity to preach my “Humans First” credo for web marketers, there is still more to be gleaned from looking at Google’s stance on the matter. Let’s examine it from Google’s profit perspective.

Google’s Search Engine is the company’s core product, driving about a quarter of its revenue from paid search advertising (AdWords), to the tune of over $42 Billion in 2012.

Because of the immense traffic volume garnered through Google Search, the advertising value of such a space is enormous. Furthermore, AdWords is uniquely versatile in its ability to generate customized, dynamic, targeted ads.

Competition for the coveted spaces and high volume keywords is managed through bid-based pay-per-click campaigns, which serve to boost Google’s revenues beyond what static advertisements might otherwise yield.

Google has built a consistent, residual revenue stream unmatched in the advertising realm. But they recognize how quickly those profits can seep out if they were to lose even the slightest slice of market share among search engines. As long as they’re returning great results for users on the engine, they can retain this billion-dollar behemoth.

The Take-away: Create websites and content meriting placement in search results based on Google’s quality standards. Putting your site in that number one spot might be worth a lot to your business, but putting the right one there is worth billions to Google.

#5) Google wants to know everything it can about you and your business

The upcoming year represents a brave new world in search marketing. Google has always been a rather data-thirsty enterprise, but the gathering will grow and all that information will soon come to bear.

Google has already begun rolling out features of its new Knowledge Graph technology. If you’re a business owner on the web and you’re unfamiliar with Knowledge Graph, make sure to check out Google’s ‘Inside Search’ feature page for a crash course on the subject.

Right now, backlinks are by-and-large the most effective method Google currently has in determining where to rank a site in the results, thereby making them an important pursuit and ranking factor for SEOs. But Google may well be moving away from links as Knowledge Graph becomes more powerful, versatile and stable.

Knowledge Graph is powered by real data about real people, places and things (known as ‘entities’). Not only is Google striving to return results based on this paradigm (as opposed to algorithmically scoring the ‘votes’ from backlinks), but they are also connecting these entities together in the ether.

The advent of Knowledge Graph is already upon us, with no signs of slowing. Just this month, Google announced the addition of automobiles to the Graph. But we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Google is tying together its flagship products (Search, YouTube, Google Plus) as both an information gathering and data integration platform serving as the foundation for new search engine technology like Knowledge Graph.

The SEO world recently went topsy-turvy at the announcement of the new Hummingbird algorithm as well, which caters to mobile and spoken searches (among other changes). It’s more adept at discerning conversational queries and answering questions. Hummingbird falls right in line with the rest of the components previously mentioned, improving the intelligence of the search engine in serving up results.

Taking all of this into context with our original point about Google’s desire to learn all it can about you and your business, we begin to see that there are some new ranking factors in town; and they are all tied to your authority and influence on the web.

Brand-building will be more important than ever. Advanced SEO techniques leveraging Microformatting and Authorship Markup are becoming staples in our arsenals. Your company’s trust factors, authority, influence, and reputation are being ever more intelligently indexed – and scrutinized.

For Google, backlinks are a necessary evil because they are relatively easy for spammers to manipulate, while also being the best method for ranking websites. Knowledge Graph is much more difficult to manipulate and could potentially improve search results even beyond the current standards.

Business owners on the web should therefore evaluate their search marketing strategies now. Optimizing for Google organic search is traditionally a reactive task. Algorithms change, new penalties pop up, new ranking factors are introduced and the SEO industry shifts gears to align with the latest changes. But this time, we know what’s coming.

It’s time to be proactive with search marketing – now more than ever. Research, prepare, and apply the appropriate strategies to bolster the positioning your business needs in a new era of search engine technology.

SEO Beginner’s Guide: 5 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Google

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Clay Adams | 8 comments

The views of contributors are their own, and not necessarily those of SEJ.

• inShare51

It is the most popular website in the world, drawing a billion visitors each month. More than 12 billion queries are sent through its search engine each month and there are more than 15 million websites connected to its Analytics tool. We’re talking, of course, about Google.
Whether your business has a well-established web presence or you’re just emerging on your own slice of cyberspace real estate, Google is most likely a key aspect of your online efforts and pursuits.
We understand that busy CEOs and entrepreneurs can’t possibly learn all there is to know about this internet gargantuan as quickly as they’d like, and your marketing team or SEO agency will likely help with understanding the common conventions regarding Google.
So today, I want to instead help you focus on five important concepts about Google that you may not come across often, yet are equally crucial to your online business strategy.

#1) Google is Constantly Changing

Before you take one more single step toward leveraging Google for your online marketing efforts, it’s imperative to understand this fact. The level of fluidity, growth, and diversity of this company is mind-blowing. You will never see Google stagnate. If it ever does go the way of the Dodo, it won’t be from complacency.
If we’re looking at all of Google enterprises as a whole, the amount of corporate acquisitions, inventions (and patents), new software products and tools, website properties and similar business activities is practically innumerable. And that’s without even considering its core component – the Search Engine.
Google is always changing and cooking up something new. Just recently, they lauded the new ‘Google Compute’ product, stepping into the ring with rivals Apple and Amazon for a veritable clash of the Cloud Computing titans.
Okay, so what about Google Search? This is the cornerstone of Google’s empire, and the service that started it all is equally dynamic. Google makes about 500 changes and updates just to its search engine algorithm each year. Many more likely occur quietly behind the scenes. They also change-up their Index and how it operates.
It would take some time and a fair amount of research to fully understand the ins and outs of Google’s algorithm changes, and may prove beneficial in the long run. But right now, the takeaway is simple: Your business must be adaptable to Google’s whims if you wish to leverage the power of search marketing.

#2) Your Competitors Are Leveraging Google

This is interesting, albeit somewhat obvious, because it applies to your business even if you don’t currently operate any type of online presence. You can bet without a sliver of doubt that some (if not all) of your rivals are competing for exposure on Google, whether through Organic Search or Pay-Per-Click ads.
If your business has an active, well optimized and maintained website with high quality unique content, then you may find yourself a step ahead already. However, the majority of business owners fall into one of two camps, which we’ll examine now. If you fall into one of these groups, your competitors are taking the money you’ve left on the table.
The first group consists of businesses with no online presence. If all you have is a single Facebook page for your business, you can count yourself among these ranks as well.
The facts are simple: You need a website…at the very least. A complete online marketing strategy is a prudent follow-up step. Think of it this way: You are saying “No” to the opportunity of exposure in front of the nearly 275 million internet users in North America alone. If you have the capabilities for global reach, the number is closer to 2.4 billion.
The other group is businesses who have a website and perhaps some additional online assets such as Social Media profiles or blogs, but aren’t competing for exposure on Google (or perhaps not competing effectively). Applying comprehensive search engine optimization for your website, as well as robust content creation and promotion strategies are the crucial first steps for businesses in this group.
It’s understandable that you may not have the time to learn or apply proper SEO techniques while running your company. If that’s the case, your next best bet is to hire an internet marketing agency. Your biggest competitors are spending those marketing dollars for good reason.

#3) Google isn’t just a search engine anymore

Google’s benefits for business in terms of marketing exposure are clear, but Google has grown into much more than just a search engine. All it takes is a quick glance over Google’s Products Page for a true understanding of the company’s breadth. And this doesn’t even include the slew of tools and resources they offer for webmasters and online marketers, such as Google Analytics. Let’s also not forget Google is the proprietor for the firmware running on all ‘Android’ mobile devices.
This means that leveraging Google for your business goes beyond simple organic optimization for their search engine. The integration Google has established (and continues to establish) across all of their platforms means you’re embarking on a more elaborate campaign with more intricate strategies.
Even by looking at just a small sampling of some ‘flagship’ products, such as Google Plus, YouTube, Google Search and Google Places, we can recognize crucial interconnections and avenues for our marketing strategies. Let’s review some examples.
Recently, Google implemented its social platform (Google Plus) as a commenting system in YouTube. While this move drew a widespread outcry from netizens worldwide, the integration opens up new avenues by which multimedia, social media, and even SEO come together in a harmony that is still yet to be realized.
Google Plus and Google Places are also intertwined. Furthermore, they are wired into Google Search, though not always in the way most people expect. Perhaps the easiest way to bolster exposure for a business using these properties is to simply create and nurture company profiles in Plus and Places.

#4) Google strives for a high-quality user experience

This could very well be the most important concept for business owners to understand about marketing in the ‘Google-scape’. Recognizing the standards of quality Google expects from websites (and why) helps us shape our campaigns and the best strategy to achieve that pinnacle positioning on search results.
Honestly, this should already align with our own commitments to provide a great user experience on the web. But it’s easy for many business owners to get caught up in optimizing for robots, relegating actual human visitors to an afterthought.
While I don’t like to bypass an opportunity to preach my “Humans First” credo for web marketers, there is still more to be gleaned from looking at Google’s stance on the matter. Let’s examine it from Google’s profit perspective.
Google’s Search Engine is the company’s core product, driving about a quarter of its revenue from paid search advertising (AdWords), to the tune of over $42 Billion in 2012.
Because of the immense traffic volume garnered through Google Search, the advertising value of such a space is enormous. Furthermore, AdWords is uniquely versatile in its ability to generate customized, dynamic, targeted ads.
Competition for the coveted spaces and high volume keywords is managed through bid-based pay-per-click campaigns, which serve to boost Google’s revenues beyond what static advertisements might otherwise yield.
Google has built a consistent, residual revenue stream unmatched in the advertising realm. But they recognize how quickly those profits can seep out if they were to lose even the slightest slice of market share among search engines. As long as they’re returning great results for users on the engine, they can retain this billion-dollar behemoth.
The Take-away: Create websites and content meriting placement in search results based on Google’s quality standards. Putting your site in that number one spot might be worth a lot to your business, but putting the right one there is worth billions to Google.

#5) Google wants to know everything it can about you and your business

The upcoming year represents a brave new world in search marketing. Google has always been a rather data-thirsty enterprise, but the gathering will grow and all that information will soon come to bear.
Google has already begun rolling out features of its new Knowledge Graph technology. If you’re a business owner on the web and you’re unfamiliar with Knowledge Graph, make sure to check out Google’s ‘Inside Search’ feature page for a crash course on the subject.
Right now, backlinks are by-and-large the most effective method Google currently has in determining where to rank a site in the results, thereby making them an important pursuit and ranking factor for SEOs. But Google may well be moving away from links as Knowledge Graph becomes more powerful, versatile and stable.
Knowledge Graph is powered by real data about real people, places and things (known as ‘entities’). Not only is Google striving to return results based on this paradigm (as opposed to algorithmically scoring the ‘votes’ from backlinks), but they are also connecting these entities together in the ether.
The advent of Knowledge Graph is already upon us, with no signs of slowing. Just this month, Google announced the addition of automobiles to the Graph. But we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Google is tying together its flagship products (Search, YouTube, Google Plus) as both an information gathering and data integration platform serving as the foundation for new search engine technology like Knowledge Graph.
The SEO world recently went topsy-turvy at the announcement of the new Hummingbird algorithm as well, which caters to mobile and spoken searches (among other changes). It’s more adept at discerning conversational queries and answering questions. Hummingbird falls right in line with the rest of the components previously mentioned, improving the intelligence of the search engine in serving up results.
Taking all of this into context with our original point about Google’s desire to learn all it can about you and your business, we begin to see that there are some new ranking factors in town; and they are all tied to your authority and influence on the web.
Brand-building will be more important than ever. Advanced SEO techniques leveraging Microformatting and Authorship Markup are becoming staples in our arsenals. Your company’s trust factors, authority, influence, and reputation are being ever more intelligently indexed – and scrutinized.
For Google, backlinks are a necessary evil because they are relatively easy for spammers to manipulate, while also being the best method for ranking websites. Knowledge Graph is much more difficult to manipulate and could potentially improve search results even beyond the current standards.

Business owners on the web should therefore evaluate their search marketing strategies now. Optimizing for Google organic search is traditionally a reactive task. Algorithms change, new penalties pop up, new ranking factors are introduced and the SEO industry shifts gears to align with the latest changes. But this time, we know what’s coming.
It’s time to be proactive with search marketing – now more than ever. Research, prepare, and apply the appropriate strategies to bolster the positioning your business needs in a new era of search engine technology.

Read more at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-beginners-guide-5-things-every-business-owner-know-google/84429/#kKcIIMETpFzLrIpV.99