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2011 is just around the corner, and, like always, speculations have started on how the SEO requirements will change in the upcoming year. Over the past few years, search engines have made considerable changes to the way they rank websites. Therefore, SEO changes are always a top interest amongst the website developers community. Here, Above Bits LLC takes a sneak peek into the future, trying to ascertain what SEO will look like in 2011.
Proven Influence of Clicks and Visits
Until recently, it was believed that the number of visits to your website has little to no say in the website’s ranking. However, in the past few months, speculations have started that visits to the website are a prime determinant of the website’s ranking. We can only guess that 2011 will bring us someone who will finally prove the effect of visits on where your website gets placed on search engines. We can certainly hope that such clarification will give us a better insight into ranking our websites.
Google Maps Filters
In 2010, a major change to SEO was how maps and listings on the Google local indexes were a massive boost to the local SEO of websites. In 2011, we suspected that Google would offer greater benefits on such listings. For example, a sorting function would make it easier for local visitors to check the options from their area. This way, local businesses can get a better reach in their areas as well.
Social Searches
Social media is on the rise, and the expansion of Facebook and Twitter is unprecedented. We speculate that 2011 will bring us a greater influence of social media on site rankings. Two things may happen. First, social link sharing may get indexed by Google and other search engines, affecting the website’s rank. Second, social searches can become a prime source of traffic for many websites as well.
Mobile Friendliness
It is hard to say how much mobile-friendliness matters to SEO currently. However, we speculate that Google will introduce clear policies towards its stance on the mobile-friendliness of websites. Probably, 2011 will be the year where only the website itself will matter, irrespective of its friendliness to different screen sizes and devices. After all, the search engine reads the content. Well! We never know!
Software
The importance of different software in determining the SEO of the websites may increase. Currently, MOZ and AHREF are on the rise as rank tracing platforms. However, other platforms may increase that can target different aspects of SEO and help the developer determine their weaknesses.
SEO will be a Thing of the Past
Yes! It seems crazy, but we speculate that in 2011, SEO will move towards something more inclusive and focus on a lot more aspects than hyperlinks alone. Such decisiveness will allow a better understanding of how SEO works and how search engines rank the websites.
We are as eager as you are for the changes that are going to come in 2011. Let us wait for the new year and see what is in store for the website development world!
