What Google’s gonna do to SEO in 2013?

Except for what Google sometimes speaks about its intentions, nobody has an idea about the changes it intends to bring to web search. For example, Google has reported today that it will carry out a new algorithm tweak later in the day that will affect about 1.2 percent of English queries. Such tweaks have been happening regularly after the major Panda change in 2012 that affected numerous websites.

Some likely major intentions of Google and actions it would take to implement them are:

• To make search more relevant. They have been trying it hard and some small search engines are giving them competition too in niche search. But whatever actions they take results in some complication that penalizes genuine websites too. So, they will try to make search more and more relevant, but with caution. Takeaway for bloggers: Do not indulge in black-hat SEO; remain your self; write good stuff.

• To integrate social media activities. Social media activities that link with a web resource will give it more authority. Possibly Google will promote its own social media platforms, and some will cry foul, but that is going to happen. Takeaway for bloggers: Be active on social networks; have cross-links of your blog with your Facebook, Twitter and other such accounts.

• To capture genuine engagement. Google will try to capture engagement of visitors on the site. Reading, commenting, going to links etc are likely to be captured and their correlation found with site visits. We don’t know how much of it will succeed but it will be one big thing Google will like to achieve. Takeaway for bloggers: Have interesting, engaging content. If your blog is for selling a service or product or promoting your book, showcase the thing in such a way that it engages readers. Google says, ‘Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.’

• To include search through new gadgets and tools. Mobile phones have become so important as tools of communication that mobile search is going to take centre-stage of search engines’ working. Not only that, search through / on widgets and apps is going to become more and more important, and Google is expected to take lead in this area too. Takeaway for bloggers: Be alert about new facilities made available on your blogging platform; have a mobile version of your blog; use new tools to link with your blogs and provide services through such tools [e.g. apps] if you can.

More SEO-related posts here.