Popular Trends Seen in SEO in the Year 2010

Over the years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been crucial for websites, but the year 2010 will see the integration of SEO with social media. SEO is no longer limited to tweaking you websites. There are a number of new trends emerging. The major trends in SEO are discussed below:

1. Speed dating: A new ranking factor for the websites in 2010 is site speed. The faster your site loads, the better the rank. Use of proper HTML, cleaning up CSS and Javascript will help create a website that loads quickly. Low speeds may increase your bounce rate and also lower the ranking.
2. Mobile Websites: With the growing popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and Blackberry, you need to ensure a mobile web presencee. According to a recent Nielson report, there are more than 56.9 million people looking for information on mobile websites.
3. Youtube it: In 2009, YouTube was the second largest search engine and it continues to run strong. To capitalize on its popularity, small and mid-size businesses are seen using videos to gain the valuable search space.
4. Conversations are critical: Google is pulling information from tweets, news, blogs and articles and showing up in the search result page. So it becomes important to monitor conversations happening about your brand to manage your brand reputation.
5. The power of the network: In 2010, people are seen more interested in developing relationships rather than just adding up friends and followers on Facebook & Twitter. Social media is about the people. It can only get you results if you are interesting conversation with your community and emphasise less on hard selling.
6. Search engines are global, listings are local: Search engines are checking the consistency and completeness of the local listing in order to rank the sites for relevant searches. So make sure you claim you local listings to show up in the result pages.
7. Search engines will keep the traffic: Traditionally, search engines send the traffic to the most relevant sites for the search queries. But this trend will change in 2010 because answers for some search queries will show on the result page itself. For e.g. if you search for “weather today” then you will get all the weather information on the result page without moving to another site.
8. Consolidate to serve: The year 2010 will see SMBs consolidating and integrating their scattered web properties to build a stronger brand. For e.g. those who have their blog located at wordpress or blogspot will start to move them on their site to build strong link equity and have complete authority over your sites.