3 SEO Trends for 2013

Now, more than ever, content has an important role and ensuring your website is in tip-top shape is vital.

It is likely that Google updates will continue in the same direction for 2013, and scrupulous agencies will need to start working on complying to the new standards. This will involve not only enhancing the quality and content of websites but also expanding into social media and other forms of marketing. There are many different opinions about what will be the new SEO trends for 2013. The hot new SEO trends for 2013 will likely be:

Google+ and Authorship

Social networks are becoming increasingly important for SEO, as search engines have started recognising social signals – likes, shares, tweets and so on. But what happens when the social network belongs to the search engine? Google had tried to enter the social market before but never made much of an impact. However, it doesn’t look like Google is going to let Google+ die any time soon. In order to be more competitive in that race, and also to move away from the current ranking structure based on links, Google has started to rely on Authorship and AuthorRank. We have already seen the impact of social sharing on ranking and now Authorship will play an even larger role. Google will trust the content whose author has identified himself/herself as the writer by linking it to their Google+ account. Combining this with social sharing signals means that the content that engages the most is rewarded by ranking higher – effectively eliminating the ability for scrupulous individuals and agencies to spam their way up the rankings.

Rich snippets

Google is getting much better at understanding the content of websites and providing users with as much relevant information as possible when they search. At the moment, when you search in Google, you might only see the title of the page and a brief description. During 2013 we will see many more websites adopt Rich Snippets into their code. This will be pull through into the search results as additional information. This means that Google will be able to display things like reviews or prices for products. Or the times a film is being shown at your local cinema. This new feature may not affect search rankings directly, but evidence suggests it improves click through rates.

On-page content

In 2013, on-page content will become even more important. In order to avoid being downranked, it will be necessary to invest in high-quality, unique content. Ensure that you have unique content on every page, that it is engaging and valuable for readers and is of a healthy amount (too many pages with little or no content will negatively impact your website overall). In conclusion, 2013 looks like a very exciting year for the industry, with big challenges ahead of us, and lots of changes to get used to. By the end of the year we will see how many of these predicted trends have actually become true and which ones have been just something temporary, or erroneous. We are excited to see the outcome!