SEO Forecasts For 2013
If you’ve been keeping up with the HookedOnMedia blog posts then you’ll know that 2012 has been a pretty eventful year. Google have released two game changing algorithm updates with the deceptively appealing names of Panda and Penguin. They have also introduced rich snippets via Schema.org and reduced the prominence of websites with Exact Domain Names. Bing also managed to garner some media attention with their ‘Bing It On’ campaign. Those of you who have managed to ride the tumultuous SEO wave are probably wondering what the major search engines and online authorities have in store for you in 2013. Well here are a few predictions made by our expert SEO team!
Google Authorship To Become More Important
Although Google Authorship has been in place for some time, it hasn’t yet been fully integrated within the Google algorithm. This is likely to happen at some point in 2013, much to the delight of subject experts from around the world. It means that the blog posts they write and content that they generate will feature more prominently in the search engine listings than pieces produced by unrecognised novices. Companies might even be willing to pay a premium for the writing of top rated authors in their respective niches.
Social Signals To Be Given Greater Recognition
Google and the other leading search engines already take account of social media signals in the ranking of websites. However, it is likely that they will pay more attention to the Facebook Likes and Tweets in 2013. The major problem with this is that it can be difficult to tell the difference between genuinely positive social responses and those that have been manipulated by success-driven marketeers. We are sure that the SEO experts are working to resolve this issue at present.
Websites To Be Properly Optimised For Mobile Use
There has been a substantial increase in the number of people using their mobile devices to access websites over the last few years. Indeed, a recent study showed that the mobile share of web traffic went up by 183.43% in Europe and 69% in North America from 2010 to 2012. However, there are still a number of web masters who haven’t taken the step of conducting mobile seo & optimised their websites for mobile devices. They might well be left behind in 2013!
Search Results To Be Highly Personalised
Google and the other search engines have long strived to deliver the results of direct interest to different searchers. Advancements were made with regards to personalisation when they released the Venice update and fully integrated Google + this year. Over the coming weeks and months we can expect to see more targeted results cropping up in the search engine listings.
