1) Mobile Continues to Grow
With more and more people using Smartphones and tablets, mobile search and mobile web access is growing in popularity. The more people rely on their mobile devices for search, the more important it’s going to be for businesses to supply mobile-friendly content.
2) Local Search Impacts Businesses
More mobile use means that more people are looking for things while they’re out and about. Businesses that are listed on Google Places, Yahoo Places, Yelp and similar services will rank higher in local search results. Increased local search also means that optimizing for local keywords is becoming more important.
3) Social Media’s Impact Expands
Posts made to social media sites are included in search results, and the continued growth of social media means that social interactions will start to have a bigger influence on search rankings. When people share a link on social media, it’s seen as a “vote” for the quality of the site and can change the way search engines index the page.
4) Search Gets Personal
Google+ has changed the way search results are delivered. When a Google+ users is logged in, Google takes into account pages that people in their Circles have given a +1 or otherwise deemed relevant. Other search engines are following suit by linking up with social networks and counting social media activity toward page rankings.
5) Human Impact on Page Ranks
Though search algorithms continue to be updated to provide better results, the human factor is becoming more important in deciding what is and isn’t relevant. Search engines will begin to qualify pages based on user feedback through social media and other platforms.
6) Less Focus on Anchor Text
Search engines can’t always tell the difference between good SEO link practices and link spam. The crackdown on spam in recent Google updates may undermine the practice of using keywords as anchor text.
7) Lower CTR For Top Ranking Results
With changes in SEO, top rankings in organic search are losing value and are therefore seeing lower click-through rates. These rates may drop further as personalized social search overtakes traditional results.
8) Increase in Undefined Keyword Referrals
When Google+ users are logged in, their search activities don’t return any keyword analytics information. This gives website owners less to work with when approaching SEO and may have a greater impact on organic search results than Google originally predicted.
9) Increased Focus on CRO
Conversion rate optimization (CRO), or turning visitors into customers, is essential for the growth of a business. Driving traffic will no longer be the main focus of SEO; rather, businesses will begin to shift their focus to bringing in visitors who are ready to purchase products and services.
10) Quality Trumps Quantity
The latest Google Panda algorithm update included a crackdown on pages providing poor quality content. The future of search lies in high-quality, relevant content that not only makes good use of SEO practices but also gives users detailed, useful information.
There have already been some big changes in the way people use search engines and how those engines return results. These changes will greatly impact the way businesses and marketers approach SEO in 2012.
Byline
This article was written by Karl Stockton for the team at rolo. Be sure to check them out in the future to take advantage of their superb information on IP addresses, such as their information on 127.0.0.1.
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