What Will The Future Hold For SEO Trends In 2013?

SEO in 2013 is only going to get more interesting – it’ll pan out to previously uncharted territory, and yet largely stay the same. This is mainly due to the constantly changing landscape of the internet. There’s no other way to put it; when the internet changes, SEO trends in 2013 must adapt to stay relevant. Otherwise online marketing in 2013 through effective SEO will just have to bite the dust, and no one wants that. Change is the name of the game.

Big Changes in SEO 2013 Algorithm

According to insightful research, the SEO commenting system took a big hit when Google implemented Penguin and Panda updates back in early 2012. This opens a lot of opportunities for SEO in 2013, while it may or may not have a drastic impact on your business practices, depending on how you look at it. Simply put, comments no longer carry as much weight for SEO in 2013 as it did back in early 2012 pre-Panda and Penguin updates. In terms of internet marketing, this is a huge deal. This means the effectiveness of spamming to boost your internet presence is no longer viable. In other words online marketing in 2013 just got so much more interesting!

The Landscape of SociSocial Media Marketing In 2013

It’s pretty much common knowledge of every internet marketer that Google is perhaps the biggest player to root for when it comes to boosting one’s presence online. Insightful research is not even necessary to realize that. It is a fact. For example, the search giant’s take on social media, Google Plus, is one to watch out for in the coming year. It’s surely to break new grounds in terms of SEO trends in 2013. This year Google Plus didn’t quite take off the way Google had hoped it would, but one thing became clear: with regards to business practices, Google Plus will be quite handy for enhancing one’s SEO 2013 algorithm. In other words, it was a powerful tool for promoting the internet marketing campaigns of business worldwide. Google Plus, now that is social media marketing at its best.

Mobile Now Carries More Weight for SEO In 2013

Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets as a direct result of Apple’s influence in mobile computing, the battle for effective SEO in 2013 will revolve around websites that are on-the-go-friendly, more or less, as well as mobile apps. You no longer just want you website to be optimized for viewing on a 21-inch desktop monitor, no—it should be just as conveniently view-able when displayed on the 4.5-inch screen of an iPhone. This will basically be the first and most important rule for SEO in 2013.

For online marketers who are looking to stay ahead of the pack come next year, they’ll do well to take note of these upcoming changes. Grab the opportunity to learn the new rules while you’re at it.

These SEO pointers will surely guarantee you even greater success when pulled off correctly.

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7 Social Media & SEO Tactics Businesses Will Adopt in 2012

What will happen in the year ahead? I’m no fan of making predictions, but there are some major social media tactics that we can expect to affect businesses in 2012. Some of these tactics already have been adopted by select companies, but this year we’ll see mass adoption of these tactics by businesses of all sizes.

1. Social Listening for Marketing Intelligence

Last year we saw a plethora of new technology platforms that moved social media monitoring and started crunching some sophisticated data to gauge sentiment to drive marketing campaigns.

In my view, 2012 will be a year where businesses will take a step forward from simply looking at company mentions, debatable “sentiments”, and arguable influencer scores, and instead move toward combining all disparate social data to form a marketing intelligence that drives future marketing campaigns. Quite a few tools are doing this already, but expect to see more.

Marketers will no longer be tongue tied when asked by C-suite “mentions on social media...so what?” Instead, platforms will help marketers make smarter marketing decisions based on social listening.

2. Facebook – Advertisers and Brands will Focus More on Profitability

With Facebook on pace for a billion users, playtime is over. Businesses had in the past put lot of emphasis on the somewhat superficial numbers like number of Facebook fans without taking into account the quality of that fan acquired. What we’ll see instead in 2012 is businesses focusing more on profitability and a laser-sharp ROI focus when it comes to Facebook contests, Facebook ads, and Facebook only promotion.

Businesses will also realize that there is more to Facebook than measuring a linear conversion path from a fan to a paid customer. Marketers will be open to measure non-linear path of ROI measurement like creating Facebook-only promos to drive offline traffic. Retailers are a classic example, where lots of buzz and Facebook-only promotions will be done to drive foot traffic into retail stores. Besides large retailers, we’ll see an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses adopt this strategy.

Advertisers will start measuring their Facebook Ads campaigns based on profitability that either helps generate revenues or supports in some kind of cost savings. Brian Carter’s new book “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook” is an excellent resource.

3. Google+ - Pedal to the Metal

Google will aggressively roll out new features to Google+ and make Google+ pages more business-friendly. The biggest advantage Google has is its integration with other Google properties, like in its search engine results pages, in paid search ads, Google Reader, YouTube, etc.

Google also put a great internal focus on social last year by restructuring its employee bonus and salary structure based on Google’s success on social. This internal focus ensures that everyone inside the Googleplex thinks of social all the time. So, this internal focus with external push to consumers could make 2012 a year of Google+.

4. Quality Content

We all appreciate the importance of quality content – content that is engaging, relevant, and unique to the user.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen this mad rush (and budget) from companies to create content with the sole purpose of creating content for SEO. But we all know what happened to that with Google’s Panda update! So, in retrospect, Panda was a timely and much needed update from Google.

Instead, what we’ll see in 2012 is a more structured approach by businesses to create content that focuses on provides unique value to readers resulting in higher engagement levels with their community members. We’ll see a more holistic approach from businesses with content, whether it’s videos, how-to content pieces, or other types of content.

5. Community Building

As marketers get sophisticated with planning and measuring their campaigns, we’ll find businesses paying close attention to their existing community members. An increased emphasis will be placed on building an engaged community as opposed to simply amassing numbers. This means community managers must energize their community members as well as engage members for a variety of things like product development, market research, and special product discounts, to name a few.

Community building and management is all about people, content, and consistency. This tactic will be widely adopted in 2012 and will become an integral part of community management.

6. Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo)

SoLoMo – the social, local, and mobile triumvirate, will get a strong hold in 2012 with more integrated campaigns combining social media with local offers involving mobile devices. Essentially, socially advocated mobile content has the potential to boost brand loyalty, and this can boost sales among nearby on-the-go shoppers.

Top daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are perfect examples of this where they using deals to drive local sales. Foursquare is perfectly positioned for this SoLoMo tactic. We’ll see more local merchants signing up with Foursquare.

7. Social Media Drives SEO

Traditional on-page SEO factors will still hold true since it’s all about making your content search friendly, but what we’ll see in 2012 and beyond is strong social media sharing activities will drive SEO results. Last year we witnessed Google’s push to integrate social results into its SERP’s (and the newly launched Search Plus Your World update) and the Facebook-Bing partnership.

Ultimately, SEO will win because conversions will be higher (and relatively straightforward to measure) on organic search. As a result, more businesses will ensure closer collaboration between their search and social teams.

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Five Tips For Creating Professional LinkedIn Page

In case you would want to advertize your business, the first thing you would have to think about would be social media websites, owing to the fact that this marketing tool is one of the most influential ones. This would mean that you would have to gain knowledge on this particular topic, as it is not very easy to understand what social networking is all about. So, you have created a page on one of the leading social media sites, but what should you next? In order to be able to answer this, and take the right steps in this field, you need to familiarize yourself with social media websites.

The Most Popular Social Media Websites – LinkedIn

One of the most popular websites today is without a doubt LinkedIn. This social networking platform has millions of users, among which are both businesspeople and people who use the site for personal reasons. This site is one of the best ways for a great number of people to hear about your business, and here you’ll be able to share and show your expertise relating to your line of business.

Some Useful Tips on How to Create a Professional LinkedIn Page

In case you are new to LinkedIn, you might want to read on and see five of the most useful tips to help you create a professional LinkedIn page for your business.

Don’t Leave Any Blank Spaces: When creating a professional page for your business at LinkedIn, you should know that your business will benefit a lot if you fill in all the blanks. This means that you should provide the information about your skills and expertise. Also, you should have a profile picture, as a profile without a picture on any site tells a lot about the user. In many cases, profiles without a profile picture define users who don’t plan on staying on the site, or they are just creating spammy content.

Make Connections:  The main purpose of any social website is to connect people, and LinkedIn is in no way different from its competitors. Here, you should also try to make connections with people who have joined this site. However, you should keep in mind that you shouldn’t go around the site trying to connect with everyone you spot. Rather than this, you should try to find people who are in the same line of business as you, and people you are generally interested in getting to know better.

You Are an Expert: This site is one big network of professionals, and you should know you are one of them. Try to give your potential clients and customers the reason to choose you.

Sync In – LinkedIn offers its users to sync their profiles with their Twitter account, and other useful sites. You should make use of this.

Realize the Importance of Groups: You will find a lot of groups on this site. There is a reason why they exist, and when you find the one that you feel you should join based on your line of business and interests – feel free to join it. This way you’ll get to approach your clients, show your expertise, and learn something new.

Try out these tips, as you’ll certainly benefit from them, but be prepared to learn a lot more things along the way, as creating a professional page on LinkedIn isn’t something you can just do. Instead it is a long learning process that will eventually show the desired results.

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Google Analytics Social Media Reporting Launched

Google Analytics has been working on social media reporting for a long time.

They started off with the Social tab under the Audience drop down. But this was limited, and it only relies on Google + Engagement, Actions or Pages +1ed by default. This wasn’t enough for Google and now they have launched an entirely new social media report that takes steps to prove how social contributes to conversions.

How to Access Social Media Reporting?

To access the new Google Analytics social media reporting tab follow these steps.

1. Login to Google Analytics
2. Select your account
3. Select Traffic Sources
4. Select Social

Under social you will see:

• Sources & Pages: Identify networks & communities where people engage with your content.
• Conversions: Measure the value of social by tracking your goals, conversions and ecommerce transactions.
• Social Plugins: Measure your on-site user engagement.
• Social Visitors Flow: Compare traffic volumes and visitor traffic patterns through your site.

Google Analytics Social Overview Tab

This tab shows you total visits, the number of social visits and how the social visits assist in conversions. It also breaks down the social networks and the traffic they deliver.

Google Analytics Social Sources Tab

This gives you a better look at how each one of your sources of social traffic compares to your overall traffic.

Google Analytics Social Page Tab

This report shows you the pages that are the most engaged socially.

Google Analytics Social Conversions Tab

This tab will show you both conversion from a social network and conversions that were assisted by a social network.

Google Analytics Social Plugin Tab

This area allows you to track likes, Tweets, etc. However, it only shows Google +1s as default.

Google Analytics Social Visitors Flow Tab

This tab is really amazing. It shows how visitors from social flow through your website. You can see where they start and where they finish.

Now that you know a little about Google Analytics Social reporting it is time for you to jump in and try it for yourself.

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Top 5 Facebook Privacy Tips

Frequent Facebook users have a love-hate relationship with the world's largest social network. It's hard not to worry about how Facebook is using the information we so freely feed it, yet the platform itself is so fun and enjoyable to use, oftentimes it's easier to overlook the bigger privacy picture for in-the-moment fun. Parents share images of their kids with friends and distant relatives. Artists trade links and images on Facebook, collaborating and curating ideas and interests. Yet the social networking comes with a price, as evidenced by the controversy caused by the Girls Around Me App, which uses public Foursquare and Facebook location data to map women nearby. And of course, it's easier to freak out about apps like this than to seriously consider what dumping your personal information onto Facebook itself means.

Facebook users need to be aware of what they're sharing and with whom, especially the young and vulnerable. To get a better idea of five ways to better protect your Facebook privacy, ReadWriteWeb talked to Sarah Downey, a privacy analyst for Abine, the maker of Do Not Track Plus.

Be aware of what you share on Facebook, but also keep an eye on social-sharing apps that let your friends share your information. If you are worried about the information that you've made available on Facebook, limit with whom you share it.

1. Limit Sharing to Friends Only

This suggestion is diametrically opposed to Zuckerberg's famous "the age of privacy is over" declaration in 2009 in which he decided that everyone should share everything they posted on Facebook with everyone else. Later he retreated on this statement. The FTC stepped in, especially as the Timeline era approached. Facebook users can set the default to "friends only," and that's exactly what Downey suggests.

"If you're sharing with 'friends of friends,' you're exposing your info to an average of 150,000 people," says Downey. "When your data is open to the public, it can - and does - end up anywhere: the Girls Around Me app or Spokeo.com are two creepy examples."

To change the settings to friends-only, go to Privacy Settings, and select "Friends" or "Custom." Adjust the settings according to whom you would prefer sees your posts. Note that if you check the "Friends of those tagged" box, you are allowing Facebook to share the post on your wall with the friends of the person tagged.

2. Don't Let Your Friends Share Your Info

Pay close attention to requests from random Facebook social apps like BranchOut. (Plus, do you really want to do "career networking" on Facebook? Casual networking is one thing, but for purely professional connecting, go to LinkedIn.)

"BranchOut requests your basic info; your email address; your profile info: education history, location and work history; and your friends' profile information, including their education histories, locations and work histories," says Abine. "Even without your permission, BranchOut can access your friends' permission."

This is not only intrusive, yes, but also indicative of something more important: As soon as you become Facebook friends with another user, you are allowing them to access a great deal of information about you. This is even more reason to watch what you share on your Facebook profile and who you become friends with.

To change this setting, go to Privacy Settings > Apps, Games and Websites. Then select "How people bring your info to apps they use." Go through and uncheck information about yourself that you don't want your friends to share via social apps and games.

3. Take Care of Your Taggage

That's right, I said taggage, not baggage. It's all kind of the same these days, though. Unlike Google+, which asks users if they'd like facial recognition turned on in photos, Facebook offers "tag suggestions." This means that when a photo that looks like you is uploaded to the network, Facebook suggests adding a tag.

It says that this helps "save time," especially when many photos are uploaded from a single event. It does not tag you automatically, but this sort of thing does count as facial recognition. If you would like to opt-out of this feature, change the "who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded" option to "no one."

If you don't mind keeping it within friends, select the "friends" option. You can also adjust the Timeline and Tagging options, turning on the review tags and review posts friends tag you in.

4. Limit Audience for Past Posts

The switch to Timeline caused many to promptly wipe and clean up their Facebook profiles, making them shiny new and pristine for friends. Changing the privacy settings on old posts means that you're making a conscious decision to share even past posts with only your current Facebook friends.

This includes posts you've previously made public, or posts you've shared with people who you may not be friends with anymore. It poses an interesting question - do you want to change your Facebook past? That photo of an ex that you've since Facebook defriended, or perhaps a friend that you needed to unfriend for a time? If those photos represent memories, is it really necessary to go for a one-size-fits-all vision of your Facebook past?

"Think of this button as a one-stop shop to edit visibility of all your past Facebook posts," says Downey. "Anything that was open to the public or friends of friends will change to friends only."

5. Make Your Subscriber Search Private

Do you want your Facebook profile to be a community space, or a subscriber-based stream of you? Removing the public Subscribe option will help keep random strangers out of your publicly facing community.

"Unless you turn off Subscriber Search, anyone can subscribe to your public posts, whether you know them or not," says Downey. "This means that your 'public timeline' will show up in search engine results and let anyone look up your timeline by name."

To change this, go to Account Settings > Subscribers, and uncheck the "allow subscribers" box.

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