Part 4: Web Trends 2010 – New Developments on the Search Engine Front

Previous – Part 3: The Evolution of the Online Advertisement

Search Engine Optimization is going through a transition period due to the recent changes in technology and the new direction the internet is headed.

1. There is a strong (and permanent ) emphasis on “personalized search,” and;
2. Social Media will have a firm hand in search results.

For example, if two separate people searched the keywords Bright Blue Star last year, they would return the exact same list of results.

Today, we are given multiple options. Multiple options means a variety of results. Which means, the same SEO techniques that may have worked last year, will not guarantee the same results this year.

I took this diagram from another blog because I think it demonstrates beautifully the impact that social media has on SEO.

So how do you adjust? How do you prepare?

Understand your market.

They say 2010 is the year of the “Hyper Niche” and “HyperLocal”. Really get to know who they are, what sites they frequent, and their general online habits. It’s no longer about getting the most hits, it’s about getting the right hits.

Develop a strong Social Media Campaign.

Create buzz about your site/product/service. Social Media Campaigns, when developed and executed properly, create relevant and fresh inbound editorial links to your site.  Search Engines are enhancing the crawling techniques to find these links among twitter and other sources, which will have a positive impact on your rankings.

Focus on the CRO.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is one of the most underutilized, yet highest ROI activities in the marketing department.  The basics behind CRO is comprised of two parts:

1. Defining your target visitors and finding them among your web stats.
2. Defining the action you would like them to take when visiting your site, such as sign up for a newsletter or purchase a product.

Your conversion rate is then calculated by = The number of people who take the action you want them to take divided by the total number of potential people who could have taken that action.

SEOmoz has a great article outlining ways you can improve this number.

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