If 2011 was the year of quality website content, thanks to the upheaval caused by Google’s Panda update, 2012 is not going to be any different. However, this year, seo trends will branch out into three more avenues, if not more.
In essence, seo in 2012 is going be more personified. This means that seo will depend more significantly on social signals derived from social media. While this is not something out of the blue, it is just that this time social media strategy is going to be an extension to all SEO strategies. So, till now if seo could do without social signals, it won’t, from now on. This appendage to seo has largely been facilitated by Google giving more leverage to social signals when it comes to rankings. In fact, after Google+ was rolled out last year, it indicated Google’s growing inclination towards adapting the social aspect into its algorithm. Google+ roughly translates into what people will find more relevant to them. And at the end of the day, the search engine giant will look to these very social stimulants, to determine what people find relevant to them and churn out personalised search results. This is not some farfetched idea, nor is it looking doom seo in any way. By lodging cookies or acknowledging logged in users, users will see search results more relative to their online behaviour. Add to this the element of ‘share’ and social signals may just rule the day for seo. This in no way indicates the death of seo. If anything, it is an opportunity to expand its scope into impacting a user’s social sensibilities which will in turn reflect strong social signals for improved ranking.
A second trend to play a more serious role in search rankings will be mobile search. Blame it on mitosis qualities of android and iOS smartphones, internet enabled communication devices are beginning to take the centre stage as far as search engine use is concerned. Almost 90 per cent of the smartphone users have internet enabled on their devices and more than 70 per cent are likely to search for a query using their smartphones and tablet PCs, while 53 per cent are likely to opt for online retailing. While search results generated on a mobile device are not much different from those on a regular computer, a website that works well across different mobile phones, loads easily, is properly coded and renders well on the platform is the one which is given preference over others. This calls on seo strategies to diversify into mobile search more strongly than ever.
Lastly, quality content will continue to hold fort. If you were required to regularly put up quality content, now you can expect to be penalised for not doing so.
Convonix is India’s leading internet marketing firm and offers SEO & social media marketing to over 400 clients. Based in Mumbai, its thorough research & expertise enables it to establish a perfect synergy between SEO analysis & social media strategy.
