If you didn’t like how things were going in the online marketing universe in 2011, you never had to wait too long for things to change.
We saw product launches, IPOs, tech company mergers and acquisitions, and to keep it all entertaining we had celebrities and politicians vying hard to be heard above all the online clamor – and then frequently apologizing for the clamor that they’d created. (On the upside, endless punchlines now exist for a joke beginning, “So, Charlie Sheen, Anthony Weiner and Newt Gingrich walk into an Internet cafe…”)
Searching through this tsunami of activity, we’ve selected some of the developments that we believe will be of the greatest impact to you when you seek to maximize your internet marketing and advertising efforts in 2012.
Google Penalizes Overstock.com and JCPenney in the SERPs
Inbound links have traditionally helped websites with their search engine results page (SERP) rankings. But over the years, Google’s algorithms have increasingly placed greater weight on links that are relevant and of high quality. During the first two months of 2011, Google determined that Overstock.com’s and JCPenney’s enviable quantity of inbound links had been gained through incentives (rather than sheer merit). Google sent both companies’ SERP rankings for many keywords from the coveted page 1 to pages something-or-other-you-probably wouldn’t
bother scrolling through to.
Search Algorithm Tinkering Keeps SEO Folks on Their Toes
A constant theme throughout 2012. Search engines regularly fiddle with their algorithms, but the Overstock.com/JCPenney penalties were just the beginning of major changes in Googles’s search algorithms (known as “Panda”) that place greater emphasis on not only the relevance of website content, but equally significant, how “fresh” it is. Sites that post news, blogs and social networks became the big winners with these updates. The tired old saying “content is king” is now a guiding principle for any business hoping to truly be a winner online.
Social Media Emerges From Its Goofy Adolescence
In 2011 the business community and financial markets recognized that social media’s value extends far beyond mindless entertainment. As marketers embraced social media as an essential marketing tool, we saw a proliferation of IPOs, a surge in new apps and platform partnerships, and major milestones in reach and usage at sites such as Reddit, Stumbleupon and Tumblr. (Of course, we haven’t forgotten the unveiling of Google+…which has already gotten enough ink in this blog post.) All this growth in options for increasing your business’s reach is good news. But it also requires you to keep in mind that social media marketing is now an essential component of successful SEO.
Online Marketing Takeaways
- The search engines keep getting smarter. They can detect links that are relevant to your content versus links that have no business being there. Focus on relevant content that supports your well-earned links – thereby affording you the maximum benefit for their placement.
- Do you regularly update your content? Search engines algorithms reward sites with fresh, unique, relevant content. Incorporating a blog or video on your site can help with this goal. If you're time-strapped, companies like SEM Zen can assist you with online copywriting or editing.
- Social media not only allows you to engage with your customers and establish authority in your business space. It’s also a link-building tool. Identify which social platforms are best to reach your customers and develop a strategy to regularly engage with them.
Let Us Know What You Thought about this Post.
Put your Comment Below.