As we come up on the New Year, it is important to look back on how search engine optimization trends have changed in 2012. Certain practices became more effective while others became irrelevant. Search Engine Land highlighted several SEO trends that developed over the past year. Below are a few examples that we experienced here at Applied Interactive.
○ Penguin Algorithm Update
The Penguin update affected 3.1% of queries in Google search. This update started the shift away from low quality content frequently used for link generation. Since Penguin, search engine optimization has increasingly been focused on developing high-quality, relevant content. We have come up with several strategies for content development for 2013, highlighted in our last blog post.
Conductor Survey data above, which shows the importance SEOs are placing on improving content development strategy after the past year.
○ Search Engine Results Pages
There have been a number of changes to SERPs in the past year. Bing started using social data from Facebook in their search results. Google drew in Google+ pages with Google Authorship, showing the authors picture next to their content. Social data stole the show in 2012. We have started using Google+ and Google Authorship to promote credibility. We will continue to explore social data as it affects SEO in 2013.
○ Link-building became link-earning
One of the trends to go cold in 2012 was link-building through comments, directories, and other outreach. This traditional approach declined in use throughout 2012 as Google became more effective at grading credible links vs. spam.
The field of search engine optimization is constantly changing, and it’s important to be able to keep up with trends as they develop. Learn more about search engine optimization with Applied Interactive.