It is normal, as the year reaches its end, for those who are, in some way, connected with the web and SEO in particular to dust off their crystal balls and come out with all those “I see a tall dark figure in the mists…” equivalents of online marketing. These are always enjoyable affairs because you get some of the weirdest notions as well as some well thought-out suggestions which truly mark the trends forming ahead. In particular I remember one Christmas at the very turn of the century when a round-table exercise of this kind produced the suggestion that the web was going to melt as websites became picture-heavy and servers were unable to meet the requests of an ever increasing online population of users. While this was hoary in hindsight (though there was some logic to it back then) the one prediction I remember best was the one we all laughed at back then which had a colleague predicting that the web would lead the economy in real-time takings on Boxing Day and sales. It was a suggestion which would require a further ten years to bring about but one which shows just how useful this kind of ball-gazing can be.
So, I guess, as you’re reading this right now you really are asking, ‘Ok, so genius what are the trends to look out for in SEO in 2011?’. To be fair I have already had a pretty good run at this when earlier in the SEO year I covered ‘eight SEO trends you need to take seriously in 2011’. In truth those trends still apply so this list only augments what’s already written and reinforces it with the power of hindsight of the months of the year which have just gone. In no particular order then the changes affecting SEO in 2011 (which are, as you understand extrapolations of the trends already in motion in 2010) are:
1. Social Media Optimisation – now no longer just ‘social media marketing’ or even ‘social marketing’, social media optimization takes into account the fact that Google and BING (the only two search engines of worth these days) take full account of the social media presence of a website and use this in their algorithms to rank a website. In simple speak this means that unless your website is being Twitted about and shared on Facebook and unless it has a Facebook presence with links from that Facebook page leading back to it, it is unlikely that it will rank as high as it used irrespective of the quality of on-page optimisation being carried out. This means that optimisation without social media is getting less and less meaningful and will soon have no validity whatsoever.
2. Twitter or die – Twitter has become the de facto means of getting the word out to your public in an instant. It has become the principal means of micro-communication and it is a main source of search engine traffic as the Tweets are indexed by Google and BING minutes after they are made. Bottom line is that unless Twitter is part of your online marketing strategy you are now missing a vital ingredient in your online optimization and may be also missing out on actual clients who follow Tweets closely.
3. Coded Facebook pages take off – With Facebook Pages becoming such a big part of the social media campaign on the massive community site a coded Facebook page using Facebook’s own FBML code is rapidly becoming a must. In 2011 coded Facebook pages will confer added interactivity, offer greater conversion ratio and a vital part in the generation of leads.
4. Trustbait will outweigh linkbait – We spent the last three years, since 2007, talking about linkbait and the need to create content which would be linked to by websites with relevant content. This meant finding contextually appealing subjects and writing about them. In 2011 Google weighs more links which are from independent sources like online magazines and newspapers and which are not contextually or thematically linked to your site. This is trustbait and it really is the natural extension of normal online marketing.
By following these practices along with the eight SEO trends discussed earlier in the year you will be on the right track with anything you do to help promote your website and online presence in 2011.
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I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
