As we move into 2012 the SEO train will keep steaming along and it’s important you don’t take your foot off the gas. But how can you improve on your efforts from 2011? Below are 7 New Year’s Resolutions for your SEO activity that should help keep you moving forward this year:
Shed Some Weight
2011 was undoubtedly
the year of the Panda, as flabby sites with too much content of low quality saw their rankings and traffic tumble. You may not have been amongst the victims, but it was a clear message from Google that the trimmer your site is, the better it is likely to perform in the SERPs.
2012 is the time to shed those pointless pages and focus on getting your site in great shape where only quality content survives. If you don’t get rid of it, the Panda might come and do it for you...
Be More Sociable
Google+ is the kid on the social block, and it’s the clearest message from Google to date that social is going to start affecting the search results – sooner rather than later. Already search results are being massively affected by personalisation, with people in your circles and sites you’ve +1’ed popping up left, right and centre. The Google+ effect is only likely to grow as Google starts to harness the +1 activity and feed it into the search results, whether it was you who +1’ed it or not. No longer will building anchor text links suffice, you need to grow your social circles and create content that those people will love and share.
And this goes for other platforms as well, not just the all seeing “big G”. The big names like Facebook and Twitter continue to provide great places to interact and reach out, as well as increasingly popular outlets like
Pinterest,
Tumblr,
FourSquare,
LinkedIn etc.... Whilst these might not have the direct impact on search like Google+ will, they’re all fantastic places to generate interest in your content and your brand.
Learn a New Skill
Be Nice to People
It’s a shame to say it, but in many places SEO has a bad name. Unfortunately there are many bad practitioners out there who have helped paint us in a bad light and made SEO a dirty word. What’s the best way to combat this? Be nice to people!
If you are open, transparent and just generally nice then good things will happen! This could be with bloggers, peers, clients, colleagues, charities, passersby, strangers.... Everyone’s a bit ratty after Christmas has gone so try and put a smile back on their face with some hearty SEO cheer, you never know what you might get in return...
Create Great Content
Once you’ve shed the excess weight and made friends with the Panda, it’s time to get on the weights and start to bulk up. Begin populating your site with attractive, linkable, useful content which you can promote in your newly extending social circles. Then the people you’ve just been nice to will be more than happy to share it, link to it and promote it simply because you’re a nice guy. It requires some creativity to keep producing winning ideas, and they won’t hit the mark every time, but the ones that do will make it all worthwhile.
Give Up Bad Habits
If you’re still heaping all your SEO efforts into article marketing, spammy links and measuring keyword density then it’s time to change tack. With the new wave of social influence, the Panda attack and Google’s continued quest to remove spam, you’re better putting your efforts into white-hat, sustainable techniques like those mentioned here.
Visit Somewhere New
Everyone likes going to new places, so why not make it your mission to find a new place to hang-out in 2012? This could be trying out a new
social media platform, regularly reading a new selection of blogs in your niche or discovering different search engines, like
Yandex, which have a significant market share in many countries (it’s not all about Google you know!). Make 2012 a year to explore.
So there you have it! Some ideas for how you can make 2012 your best SEO year yet. And if this all sounds a bit too much, feel free to
drop us a line and we’ll do our best to help you along the way...
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