The Trend of Online Reputation

Google + and Google Authorship has quickly become very important for SEO. The message is clear: Today, your content needs a brand, a voice, and a face. It needs to be trustworthy and reliable to be found. 

In 2013, this trend will move faster, because search engines’ goal is always to deliver the best sources of information to users. To get search traffic, you must build an online reputation.

Your SEO strategy: Become a reliable source of information for YOUR users.

The Trend of Quality and Relevance 

In the old days, people built huge websites that had everything for everyone. But not any more. Since 2011 Panda Updates, we have seen big websites like ArticlesBase.com, AssociatedContent.com lose 80%-90% of their search traffic and hardly recover. Now is the time of  quality, topic-oriented websites that are the best within a niche or servea specific user need best.

In 2013, content quality and relevance will continue to be highly important. If Google thinks your site is the best within a niche, you will have a better chance to rank high for the keywords relating to your niche.

Your SEO strategy: Be laser-focused within a niche that you are most comfortable with, and make sure Google knows that.

The Trend of User Engagement 

User engagement has become an important factor in SEO. Today indicators like time-on-site, pageviews/user, bounce rate havea bigger impact on search rankings. Google appreciates websites that users love and frequently use.

In 2013, user engagement will continue to be a stronger factor for search. 

Your SEO strategy: Take better care of your users, and Google will treat you well.

The Trend of Link Earning

Google looks for user feedback to judge the quality and relevance of a site. Thus, criteria such as social sharing, user ratings and active comments are influential to search rankings. 

Off-page SEO is no longer just about back links; it is about how your content will be talked about on the Internet.

Your SEO strategy: Build quality content and make it extreme easy to share them. Maintain active online conversations about your field and your brand.

The Trend of Mobile Search 

The mobile Internet users have rocketed in 2012 and will continue to fly high in 2013. And most users will surely use mobile for their Internet searches.

Your SEO strategy: Make sure your site is mobile-friendly and displays nicely on multiple mobile screens.

The Trend of Multimedia Search 

Web content used to be text, text and more text. And Google used to love text content. However, things have changed drastically and today we now see the virality of infographic, web videos, photos, audios, and all kind of online media. Sites like Pinterest and Instagram have grown rapidly thanks to this trend.

Thus Google has become smarter in multimedia search. In 2013, we will see more video optimization, social optimization, and multimedia SEO.

Your SEO strategy: Diversify your content types, make sure they are tagged properly for search engines.

Do you know other impactful SEO trends that will influence search industry in 2013?