For the humans that are still with us, in this foul year of our lord, two thousand and twenty, was probably one of the most challenging years of your life and worth every bit of hindsight and self-congratulations you can muster. It’s been tough.
Professionally, there have been a lot of successes at SEO Bandwagon and we are proud of that. It has been challenging dealing COVID-19 restrictions and the difficulties related to the increased marginal difficulty of the mundane tasks of life. Everything has been harder to do and that adds stress to people’s lives and that all adds up. If you work for a business that was shut down, or were laid off, you are a freaking miracle worker and you deserve praise. The goal for this year was survival, you exceeded expectations.
The good news is that there is an end in sight for COVID with a vaccine finally rolling out. Schools will begin to have a limited opening, life will start to seem normal again. In case you were feeling nostalgic about life before “Tiger King,” and toilet paper shortages, here’s a year in review that feels more like two.
Google Algorithm updates seemed to be a regular occurrence in 2020, just like every year. Aside from an indexing bug, more regular updates will likely be the new standard for 2021.
The top searches of the year were not surprising: US Presidential Election and COVID-19 related searches. In more uplifting areas of life, learning to garden and more stay-at-home hobbies showed us that people were trying to find new ways to occupy their time.
In terms of our business at SEO Bandwagon, we are opening up a new Vendors section for businesses to hire SEO contractors. Contractors are invite-only, vetted to meet our standards, and that they do their own work. No sub-contracts for who you hire. We receive a lot of leads and inquiries and it has basically just been a one person operation. Trying to find help has been challenging, but the people I ask seem very interested in listing their services here so my clients can select a broader offering of services.
New Year's Resolutions for 2021
I’m against New Year’s Resolutions in a general sense; why wait? 2020 has been particularly worth reflecting on. There are going to be faster, more continual changes that will continue to reward continual content creation , and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
- Security – This is the example of “stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready,” E some tries to breach your website every hour. Every. Day.
- Security – Yes, it is on the list twice. Update your passwords, stuck on stupid is soooo 2020. Convenience and security is a balancing act, and you are already tipped over and don’t know which way is up because, “it’s easier.”
- Publish More – Writing more is always on my list (along with play more guitar) and it’s always good advice. It just takes a little time and practice to get good to great at writing. You are primarily competing with people who just order content, you can do better.
- Generosity – It’s easy to make excuses for being stingy last year. Contact was limited, everyone was stuck at home, but I think we all know that families are struggling during COVID-19. With that in mind we are trying to offer some free services for WordPress development for 2021, and maybe even some Free SEO Advice.
- Learn to Code – Always good advice in my opinion. Learning a new language, programming or otherwise is an enriching experience. I didn’t learn much about JavaScript last year. So I’m switching my resolution to learning Python && JavaScript.
- Trust & Growth – The first part is holding back the second part. As stated previously, people are struggling and even in digital marketing fields, and we are trying to help by sharing our platform. Leads, vendor marketplace, and some new software products have been on-mind for years and it’s overdue.
