When you run a company, you’re busy doing what you love, serving your customers and trying to grow your business. So who’s got time to read tens of articles and reports on what’s new in the search engine optimisation (SEO) industry?

We get it. However, proper attention to SEO is how you’ll grow your business and earn your visibility in your market.

As search engine algorithms are constantly updated and evolve to become smarter and more complex, it’s important to keep on top of the changes to ensure you don’t get left behind.

So, here is a list with 24 of the best SEO articles from 2014, curated from 123-reg and leading industry blogs, which include top tips and advice to optimise your website. Give these a read to see if maybe there’s something you missed and how you can improve your SEO as you move forward.

1. A dictionary of SEO words, terms and phrases

There are so many SEO buzzwords and abbreviations that it’s hard to keep up. This article explains the most important ones. A must-read if you’re just getting started with SEO.

2. 7 simple yet vital SEO first steps for a new website

If you’re just getting started with your first website, check out this in-depth guide that walks you through all the steps to follow to properly optimise your website.

3. A beginner’s guide to SEO tools

With so many SEO tools online, it’s hard to know which ones to choose for specific tasks like checking for broken links, researching keywords or checking your website’s speed. This post includes the top most effective tools for every SEO task you can think of.

4. SEO beginner’s guide: 5 things every business owner should know

The five most important concepts that you must understand about Google and how you can leverage the search engine giant for your marketing efforts.

5. A beginner’s guide to SEO competitor analysis

See how you can learn more about your competitors, what (and how) they’re doing business online and how you use that information to improve your business.

6. SEO 101: Getting the on-page SEO basics

If you don’t get on-page SEO right, the chances of your site securing top spots for competitive keywords are slim. Check out this guide to getting on-page SEO right and learn what you can on your site to help you outrank your competitors.

7. 7 SEO truths every business leader must understand

Find out what are the SEO truths that you can’t afford to ignore if you don’t want to get run over by the competition.

8. How to conduct a basic SEO audit

A step-by-step guide that teaches you how to perform an SEO audit so you know how to assess your website and uncover what works and what needs to be improved.

9. The 8 most important SEO data points of any website

Find out what are the SEO data points that can give you an accurate read on how your site is performing online and how you can use that information to take action and improve your site.

10. 5 new SEO mantras to replace old, inefficient thinking

If you’re asking yourself how you can get your content to go viral instead of how you can help your customers achieve their goals or solve their problems, then you definitely need to read this post.

11. Six terrible SEO mistakes to avoid

If you’re building a new site, these are the most common but terrible SEO mistakes you should avoid making if you want your site to stand the test of time.

12. How to effectively integrate SEO into your business and marketing

Find out why your strategy should no longer be about including SEO into your marketing but about intelligently integrating it into every aspect of your business from content marketing and social media to public relations and web design.

13. How does Google judge quality content?

Everyone talks about the importance of quality content and its effect on rankings. But how do search engines identify quality content? This article tells you what you should focus on if you want to produce content that search engine will recognise as high quality.

14. Ten timely tips for terrific title tags

Find out everything you need to know about title tags and get some really good tips on how to get your titles to stand out and get more clicks.

15. How to ramp up your user engagement (and get more links)

We talk so much about creating good, useful content but not so much about user engagement with that content. This post explains how to use user engagement to generate more amazing content and links.

16. How user intent will forever inform successful keyword strategies

It’s no longer about keeping up with algorithm changes but about writing content for your users, according to what they’re searching online. Learn how to can educate yourself about the user intent behind your keywords.

17. How to rank a keyword: The guide that actually tells you how

A great article that shows you what are the key areas that you need to work on to gain higher rankings on search engines.

18. 21 link building ideas that have nothing to do with guest posting

An excellent piece that shares some creative and effective link building tactics to get more traffic to your site. They’re all simple and easy-to-implement so do give them a try.

19. Moz’s 2014 local search ranking factors

Moz’s annual survey reveals the local search ranking factors in 2014 that have the biggest impact on rankings.

20. Turning old content into new links

Learn how to take advantage of what you already have – your old content – to build new links.

21. Losing organic traffic after a redesign? Four things to chec

If your recent website relaunch has cause a substantial loss of organic website traffic, this article explains the top areas to check to get your site back on track.

22. Seasonal SEO: How to prepare your site for every season

Whether it’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day or any other occasion that you can use to make more sales, read this post to learn how to make the most of a particular occasion to grow your business.

23. How to spot and deal with negative SEO

Find out what negative SEO is, how to detect it and what you can do is your site has been hit.

24. Are your own sites harming your SEO strategy?

We all know that duplicate content can harm your SEO, but what about similar theming across sub-domains, international sites or family sites that have different URLs? Read this post to find out how to deal with all these issues.

So, there you go. These are the most popular articles on SEO from this past year. If you’ve read any others that you found useful or interesting, go ahead and share them in a comment below.