SEO Trends for 2012
With Google changing its algorithm somewhere between 350 and 500 times in 2011 (that’s more than once a day!) it’s sometimes difficult to know what to stick with and what to toss out when it comes to your SEO content. What’s relevant today may not even score with the bots tomorrow. In SEO’s ever changing landscape, the best SEO provider needs to stay on top of what’s working now, to ensure that they can switch strategies in midstream if need be to continue flying high in the rankings. With that in mind, let’s look at a few of the SEO trends working really well right now.
1.) Social Media – How many Tweets, or Facebook shares or mentions, or the number of Plus Ones from Google Plus you receive can have an effect on your SEO. Setting up a profile on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus is a hot SEO trend right now. By keeping the content relevant and consistent, you can greatly improve your reputation with the search engines and in doing so, dramatically improve your rankings.
2.) Linking Frequency – Watch out how many backlinks you create in any one day. More than five and many of the bots see it as a manual manipulation in an attempt to improve your standings. Likewise the same number of links built every day. Vary the number, the type and the time of day you create your backlinks. This lets the search engines see you as more legitimate and organic.
3.) Backlinks – Long a mainstay of SEO strategies, so how can they be a new SEO trend, right? Well, it’s all in how you use them nowadays. You have to remember to vary the sources of your backlinks. You can’t just rely on article directories or social media alone. The search engines like to see a wide variety of sources – blogs, articles, social media, and your fans/followers/commenters sites, too.
4.) Outbound links – We all know that backlinks – inbound links – are worth their weight in gold as far as search engines are concnerned. A commonly overlooked but highly effective SEO strategy that’s turning into a hot SEO trend is outbound linking. By linking to high-ranking, high quality, well thought of sites, you add authority and reputation to your content. Make sure the links are to sites relevant in your niche or to the topic of the blog post for maximum effect.
5.) Content – Content is still king, and I’m sure if it can accurately be described as an SEO “trend” or not. Without regularly updated, high quality, high interest content though, you might as well not even bother with other SEO strategies. Without good offerings of interest to them, your readers, followers and fans won’t bother either. And without them, what’s the point? Besides, the bots still love finding fresh new goodies on your site. Keep writing and updating. It still matters.
Whether you are just starting out with SEO or have been at it a long time, it never hurts (and usually helps to keep the trends in sight. Knowing what’s hot and what’s not can make all the difference in the world!
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