2012 will be an important year for SEO and online marketing, as search engines like Google and Bing will introduce new features and impose new restrictions on websites to improve the search experience for users. Because of the upcoming changes, websites owners who want their sites to stay on top will find themselves more and more in need of expert SEO services, and particularly organic SEO services. Learn more about the SEO and online marketing changes expected this year.
Link-Buying and Link-Swapping Slowly Lose Their Effectiveness
Major search engines will consider human feedback more important when ranking websites. Link-buying and link-swapping will probably not die in 2012, but they will lose their power. Search engines will draw more on new human relevancy quality testers as well as on social networks to gather human feedback on websites.
Fresh Content Gets a Thumbs Up
Google introduced the Freshness update last year, showing its commitment to reward websites that post relevant content regularly. Expect more similar updates in 2012. The freshness of a web page’s content will come to be next in importance to the page’s relevancy. Websites that use organic SEO services will gain an edge over competitors.
Social Media Marketing Continues to Be Effective
Paid advertising may lose some ground to social media marketing. Marketing with Facebook may prove to be more effective both in terms of costs and results for online companies than marketing with Google or other search engines. Much of social media marketing will be done through expert SEO services.
SEO for Mobiles Grows
As more and more people access the web on mobile, web designers and SEO professionals will be compelled to optimize their websites for smartphones and tablets. There will likely be a growing need for expert SEO services for mobile optimization.
Guest Blogging Brings Extra Traffic
Bloggers will use guest blogging to gain more exposure and share links. The focus will be shifted from article writing and publishing content on article directories to guest blogging on established websites. Guest post writing will become part of the organic SEO services provided by most SEO firms.
As you can see, the SEO and online marketing changes predicted for 2012 are significant. Website owners who focus on creating good content and get help from expert SEO services could benefit substantially. When you create your marketing strategy for next year, make sure you take into account all these trends.