Part I: 3 Search Engine Marketing Game-Changers for 2012
The Internet landscape is constantly sprouting successful ideas, innovations, and technologies and growing despite a less than stellar economy. This gives us reason to look ahead to what the new year will bring. If you’re anything like me, you look forward to the surge of predictions for how the next 365 days will pan out. Not only does it give us an idea of where the web is heading, but it also gives us room to prepare.
The year 2012 will be an exciting and interesting year for web marketers, SEO experts, content creators, analytics gurus, and the like. While we cannot predict how the year will turn out exactly, we can anticipate and start to plan for the impact of Google’s social search, the explosion of video content, and the emphasis on meaningful content.
Social Integrates With Search
Last week, Google introduced a little something to the web that got most web marketers in an uproar. The update, also known as Google Search, Plus Your World, was introduced as a way for Google to continue its transformation of the search engine into something more. According to Google, the transformation will not only allow the world’s most popular search engine to not only understand content, but also people and relationships as well.
The reason why most web marketers have spoken up about this is because it affects the way that Google search results are displayed. Instead of the standard list of top-relevant websites, it will now filter in content from you, a friend, or someone you may know. Likewise, you will now see relevant Google+ pages and profiles while searching for a topic or area of interest. While this may not seem like a big deal to the average web user, it is a note-worthy move on Google’s end that will indefinitely change the way we search for information.
Google Search, Plus Your World may not have been welcomed with open arms by the web marketing community, but it is the start of something significant. We still have work to do to build a social web that is easy, intuitive, and smart, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the year 2012 will give us the tools we need to refine the way we socialize and communicate on the Internet. Likewise, it will encourage businesses to invest in a sound social strategy to help them connect to not only current customers, but potential ones as well.
If you are not utilizing social media or have not setup your Google+ page, now it a great opportunity to do so to increase your visibility to Google users. If you are still unsure of what Google+ has to offer or how to set one up, here’s a great article to help you through the process.
What do you think of this new search feature? Will you use it?
