SEO Predictions for 2012

The following SEO predictions are collected from a combination of personal studies and that of over 30 industry websites. It is thru this study that I have culminated the top and most anticipated movements within the SEO community. The points are noted and explained below:

1- Site Ownership of materials will take pecedence in the years ahead

Implementation of REL=author , REL=publisher tags to associate authorship from site TO articles TO Googe+ (a method implement to help identify ownership, battle spam, battle scrapers and more validate ranking / listings)

Add author tag to page – points back to your google + page as author = association and increase rankings

Google announced is implementing “signals” for which page is orignal and which is not
(these are being guessed as the new author / publisher tags)

2- Anchor Links will begin to devalue as high placement ranking indicators

(this is due to too many sites “gaming” this aspect of ranking)
However, there is “STILL” value for sites who wish to build relatioships between data on their sites. SEO’s are suggesting giving more attention rather to stronger “calls to action” (CTA’s), than to assume anchor linking will cover all bases.

3- “Host crowding” is being implemented

– prevents too many results from “one” site
= fair and balanced, should help to eliminate 1 site listing multiple times for keyword used. This has been an ongoing effort that will allow other sites to rank instead of 1 site claiming multiple spots (1-5…etc)

4- Partial relevance in search will be seen less often | with long tail content becoming be more available in index

(long tail is defined as less sensationalistic content that is deemed valuable but may be older or less searched that popular content – Summary: a large amount of long tail content can be equally as important)

5- Date based results – giving fresher content prevalence (if it measures as significant)

(new relevant substantial content should move into higher rankings than outdated content)

6- The Web will shift from link value to content based value

(this is due to overwhelming issues with using “links” to game the system)
(This also compliments statement #2 from above)

7- Google is going to continue to improve search results by punishing sites that rely on poor, duplicate or trivial content.

(This should be a given to fight the war on Spammers and Black Hat practioners)

8- Personalization (Results from being logged into Google) is starting to become a priority.

– As followings grow, a business pages increase, web sites will also have to concern themselves with their Google+ presence. Personalization which is the default search setting (for those logged into Google) influences the search results of those who are in your circles.

9- Google’s built in spell check

( Long tail words misspellings are become extinct with Google’s instant spell check )
( this is to combat misspelling spam and squatters )

10- Social Media will just be “media” aka “How Google Ate Social Media for Breakfast”

(Separation will continue to gray combining social media and regular results into one combined search rather than separation of SERP results and social media results)

11- Black Hat SEO practioners will be a thing of the past

(ownership, and social precedence/relevance will make it harder for Black hat tactics to game the system)

12 – SEO will have to adopt and rely more on being “social media optimizers”

With Google now holding keys to a great social network you can expect more undercover changes in rankings and more personalization of search, making the job of the “old style SEO” much harder. (also mentioned in point #10)

13- Start using Schema.org to structure data

Adding micro formatting to your SEO efforts enables semantic search to operate successfully. Schema.org is going to be a huge factor in the future of SEO, so now is the time to get on board before you start to see your rankings floundering.

being implemented into HTML 5
http://schema.org/docs/documents.html

Example:

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/environment“>
  <h1>Twilight</h1>

rather than

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Movie“>
  <h1>Twilight</h1>

Note: Google also now provides tool to check once complete

The point of Schema.org is to provide a greater intelligence into how a particular word is being used in regards to the page its being used on

SEO Predictions for 2012

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