Factors and Trends of SEO
ByA Few Factors and Trends of SEO
The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever changing environment. The purpose of this article is to identify some of the main factors that could in fact alter your SEO strategies, and eventually your search engine rankings. I'll also explain some good points, and a few of the bad points of these changes.
Google Local Search
If you throw together organic and local search results you get Google Places. Since the merge of these search results the layout and the rankings have changed quite a bit. For example, if you typed in “Sushi Bar” you would find several high page ranked websites, as well as local neighborhood listings. The same applies to mobile device search results, Google now uses the mobile user's geographic location.
The positive side: Since Google's merging of local search engine results, many businesses has had the opportunity to reach higher rankings. Also, if you have the taste for Sushi you can read restaurant reviews, view photos and pinpoint locations in one shot!
Social Indicators
Both Google and Bing validate that social indicators are in fact used as part of their ranking system. For some time many believed social media to be just that, but now its a fact that Facebook ‘likes', Google's ‘+1' and such are used to influence rankings and may at some point become equivalent to back links.
Google's Branded Search Results
At one point in time Google would only allow up to 2 search results from any given domain to appear in the search results. But, now Google is recognizing brands and has changed their restrictions allowing multiple results to display from the same domain, if they feel the user's intent is in search of a particular brand specifically.
The positive side: If your a known brand you will benefit greatly because this can in fact affect your rankings in a positive way.
The negative side: If your an affiliate of some sort selling third party products it may be extremely difficult to rank for these keywords any longer.
Speed of Your Website
Back in 2010 Google confirmed that the speed of websites will be a factor in determining their rankings. There are several elements of a page that can actually slow down a website such as, videos, images, audio and maps. Other things such as your server size, page code and errors may also slow down your website quite a bit.
The positive side: This gives you an advantage to outrank your competition if your website speed is optimal. Also, this will force many website to optimize their slow pages giving users faster search results and a better browsing experience.
These are just a few factors and trends that can affect our SEO strategies.
If you would like to learn more SEO factors and strategies I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and don’t forget to download your FREE career brochure!