SEO in 2013
What will SEO be like in 2013?
It is strange why this question gets asked in December 2012 and January 2013, as forward thinking SEO agencies and marketing managers will have been planning their initial work in 2013 many months ago.
But the New Year is the season of predictions ahead to 2013 and a look back at the last year. So we can so the same with SEO.
How will SEO change in 2013?
One answer is a lot; in some ways the pace of change has accelerated, especially if SEO it taken to include all non paid internet search. This then includes most of the social developments and a considerable amount of the mobile developments. The types of changes to be seen include the numbers of and types of social media, how social channels show up in search results, which posts or parts of social media get indexed and by who, and the relative value of social marketing for improving rankings within web search results.
Google will probably make more substantial algorithm changes more quickly and panda and penguin will be followed by? Puffin, Pelican or Python?
New products will get incorporated, whether this be new features from html 5, rich data or shopping channel feeds, and there will be the customary short term gain in SEO as too much weight is allocated to these, before this is reduced to ongoing levels.
The importance of non text based media will increase, again giving a short term SEO opportunity for first movers in SEO and online marketing.
More useful searches will be on tablets mobile, and UK centred advertisers will need to follow what has already happened in other areas of the world – namely mobiles being the most important search device for many markets.
The above looks like plenty of changes and new things for SEO agencies to understand in 2013.
But on the other hand is this any different to 2012? Rather than seeing SEO as reacting to and complaining over external changes, the alternative approach is to welcome the evolving search market and work with it to increase website visibility. Or more radically to predict and be ahead of the game. This is actually not too difficult, as Google have publically stated their aim with search; so most developments can be anticipated. Taking this approach the best line to adopt with SEO in 2013 is to provide to very best online marketing website, and be confident that Google will adjust the search algorithm to cope. Of course in reality it is wise to use several methods and approaches to ensure your website’s visibility in the search engines is robust to changes.
Published on 29/12/2012
