Ah, the "year-end," "best-of," and "what-to-look-forward-to" posts. Love it or hate it, it's a great time to both reflect on 2012 and glimpse into the New Year for what possible stories will dominate our industry. I'm never one to dwell in the past, so I'd like to focus on 2013.
Instead of a simple 2013 predictions list, I'd like to frame this discussion as a New Year's resolution list. What are the things that we should focus on improving? Some of this is based on where things are trending, while others are based on areas where I personally feel like a lot of us could make improvements.
Mostly, I'd just like to spark some discussion about what may be important in 2013.
We will continue to think of the big picture
Most of the time I blog or speak at conferences, I talk about SEO's bordering disciplines - analytics, content strategy, marketing campaigns, PPC, conversion rate optimization, etc. I've done this intentionally because it forces me to dwell on a specific subset of the whole web marketer.
With these new tools in our web marketer's tool kit, we're (hopefully) able to think bigger and ask better questions.
- Do I really want to be building links to these pages at this time when I know they'll never convert? Perhaps a portion of my budget should be spent on CRO.
- Should this "link bait" campaign be supplemented with some social paid advertising? What might that look like in terms of expected cost and ROI?
- How does this content strategy I've developed fit with my clients' company-wide goals and prioritizations? Perhaps I could fast-track my strategy's implementation by more closely aligning it with a broader marketing campaign that's already in process?
One of my goals in the early months of 2013 is to develop a full marketing plan for one of my clients. A marketing plan in which nothing is off the table - video, mobile, display advertising, and even more traditional offline advertising. How are you planning to keep the big picture in mind?
We will learn more about Mobile/Video/Schema/Local/SOMETHING
There are a million things in web marketing that can be learnt. Time isn't unlimited though, so sometimes you have to pick your battles. Most of my career, the things I've learned about have been dictated by my (sometimes potential) clients' needs. For choosing a battle, you can make a case for leveling up in mobile, video, schema, local, and a lot more.
My personal choice is mobile. To this point, I've not yet been solely responsible for work on a mobile SEO audit, mobile strategy, or otherwise. Based on the undeniable shift in importance of mobile, I want to preempt clients' needs. There are two aspects of mobile that I'm most interested in:
Mobile Search
Maybe 2013 is the "Year of Mobile Search." These sorts of things don't happen in a single year, though. More than likely 2012-2015 will be the years of mobile search, much like 2009-2012 were the years of social.
Now would be a great time to dive in, develop an understanding, and maybe get some ROI benchmarks for the future - especially when it comes to paid mobile advertising (as CPMs will likely never be lower).
Mobile App Analytics
Google Analytics has clearly been hard at work on improving their mobile app tracking. With apps becoming an increasingly common piece of any brand's content strategy, the need for engagement measurement will only grow.
What do you think about this one? Which aspect of web marketing should we be focusing if we want to stay ahead of the curve?
We will read MORE/LESS industry blogs and publications
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Three years ago or so, I began to cull my SEO-related Google Reader. Just give me the essentials! This eventually culminated in the complete abandonment of RSS about a year later. The thought was that anything super important would surely come across my eyes and ears via Twitter, email, or real life discussions.
This was largely a success; I've spent much more time doing, and less time consuming others' work. Still, I think the pendulum has swung a bit too far to the other side.
This one's a really personal one, so I won't dwell on it, but I think the overall idea applies to everyone: I want to read just enough to keep me informed, but not too much that distracts me from what's important; the work.
We will accept (not provided) and adapt as necessary
What's that orange line? A successful link building project? Sadly, it's not (provided).
(not provided) really does suck. Whatever methodology we've chosen for overcoming the increasingly frustrating loss of our keyword data, it will never quite be as nice as it was before October 2011. 100% keywords are a luxury we no longer have, and by the end of 2013 we might be lucky to be working with 20%.
Adaptation is our only option. I've chosen to spend more time in my landing page reports. Some may choose to work on extrapolating known data. It's up to you. The worst choice is to do nothing at all.
We will continue to closely watch G+ and its effect on search
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Oh Hai. To ignore me is futile! :)
Love or hate G+, the search engine that commands ~75% of the search market share has thrown a colossal amount of weight behind their social network. That's reason enough to listen.
What are your New Year's Resolutions?
Everyone is at different stages of their web marketing careers, so I don't want to pretend that all of my resolutions apply to everyone.
What are you expecting from 2013? What areas are you looking to improve the most?
Happy New Year!!
Lastly, on behalf of all of the Moz bloggers I want to wish you all the best in 2013!
As an SEO my New Year resolution is “Find other ways to increase targeted traffic other than Google”.
Happy New Year to all Mozers.
Diversify. Good idea.
@asif - Agree with your thoughts. The biggest challenge will be to shift the conversation in SEO from keyword rankings to lead sources and engagement. Are we growing converting visitors and by what channel? Are we growing leads/sales and also improving engagement? Sales are typically a result of gaining more exposure from many touch points. It's a tall order for 2013.
Maybe focus on social media ads, presense? Personally, I find that the easiest way (in other hand, I gradurate from social studies, so I always prefer going social ;) ) to build a channel to communicate with customers.
I feel, that we sit between Facebook and Google.
I like your resolution but what are other search engines doing to help us use them more in 2013?
I'd agree with that. In the past I targeted all the major search engines and made sure I manually sub,mitted to a lot of smaller ones too. Because the smallers ones often had good page rank and authority.
I completely understand your resolution to more/less! You have to find the right balance that works for you. I love reading and can research a topic to death, but at a certain point you have to stop and put what you've learned into action. I've thought about setting aside a specific time to read, e.g. a half hour SEO and coffee break in the afternoon.
My resolution for 2013 is to finally, finally launch my own blog! It's been a goal of mine for a while, but now I'm giving myself a deadline. :)
Do let us know when it's up and running :)
2013 will be an amazing year! My SEO resolutions are to focus more on content creation for my personal blog, both written and video. Although not exactly SEO, but I also want to start my own podcast about SEO / IM / Entrepreneurship in Mexico.
Good luck to all, and have a successful new year!
To stop using FireFox because it has seriously turned to garbage.
Also, to use Google + more.
I'd also like to improve my writing skills in 2013 since I'd prefer that path over technical SEO.
I thought I was the only one! Firefox was amazing, and somehow, they managed to make it suck. Good thing we have Chrome.
Happy New Years everyone!
And my personal resolution: learn, learn and learn more ;) and push few social campains to roll.
Learning never fails! Also try new approaches to old processes.
My resolution is to leave more comments on blog posts! It might sound a bit silly but I rarely leave a comment - I intend to change that.
It's not silly! Participation / Interaction get's the ball rolling and the creative juices flowing :)
Quality Content plays an imperative role in SEO. We cannot rank on search engine if content is not unique. Implementing these changes will be good resolution to follow for the New Year……………
I'd agree, but it's important to remember not to just write for the sake of writing. We really must build quality resources that improve the world, instead of a mass of blurbish opinion.
That's exactly what quality content is. Not that is written right, but that it's useful, helps "imporve the world".
Definitely think mobile search and Google+ will continue to grow in the upcoming years. It will be interesting to see how the industry continues to change and evolve from all aspects of marketing.
Nice post and off course let me start by saying.. Happy New year to all mozzers.
for 2013 I have the resolution of doing a lot of testing work because I really do feel a lot of the old stuff still works fine.
Regards
Jarno
install systems that almost forces customer reviews, mobiles websites and maybe a little more google +, cut waste
Totally agree.SEO success these days really revolves around customer / visitor interaction. That's what the guys at the top want to see. Making use of all the tools in the utility belt - great site with REGULARLY updated content that visitors want to interact with; staying CURRENT with the major social networks, and using press releases as press releases -- not keyword platforms.
2013 will be an great year! My SEO resolutions is to focus more on unique content creation in the form of written, info-graphics and video. Social Media Marketing is also a good option to go with
From the past I directed at all the foremost seo development company and made certain I manually submitted to a lot of lesser ones too. Because the lessers ones often had good sheet degree and authority.
I think 2013 needs to be the year of learning the ins and outs of mobile search
I think what you have written about is on all Web Marketing Consultants minds - not only, what are my resolutions for next year but how can I be more focused. It is so easy in our business to get pulled into a hundred different directions because what we do requires keeping up with the latest technology, ideas and best practices - yet we forget about some of the basic fundamentals and common sense fixes that just keep working.
Despite all the new practices and fancy and expensive software out there, good ole Google Reader and Google Analytics still can provide us with a ton of information that can be integrated into our everyday strategies.
Nice post got me thinking about new ways to get clients .
You did a fantastic job of parsing out the aspects of the job that *should* matter and cutting through some of the fat. Very informative, well done! Side note, you must have a magnificent editor!
Nice piece Mike. Mobile is going to be huge in 2013, especially for search and email. In fact, I just saw a study from return path that more emails are opened via mobile devices than desktop browsers. You are right that these trends don't happen in on year, but I firmly believe that 2013 will "be the year of mobile." CPM will never be lower and mobile is still very much a buyers market. Keeping and eye on Google+ is going to be key also. Thanks for sharing.
"We will continue to closely watch G+ and its effect on search"
To be honest I'm still not sold on the thing. Part of me is "Oh but it is owned by Google so must be important!" the other part of me is considering any number of the following:
Should we give them more power when they take away our power i.e. (not provided) making up well past 10% of my GA data now (and this is for sites that have nothing to do with search or marketing in any form).
I see little engagement on the platform for many clients compared to other social networking channels.With anti-trust fingers being pointed at them, would really they really make it that Google+ users have an unfair advantage over those that don't?
I'm not saying don't use Google+, I'm not saying that people can't get engagement - just that I am personally not sold on the platform. If a client wants to use it fine. If they need a boost in the SERPs and are not using it, I would consider it. I'd consider what else is not being done that could be first though rather than more time consuming social media management.
Looks like my bullet points were stripped out in the above comment.
Wow, it's amazing how closely your list looks like mine.
I'm especially interested in Google +, Schema, and Local.
Nice Post! Looking back now 2.5 years to what 2013 was at the height of panda / penguin revolution, you could now write a thesis on common, everyday mistakes that we were making then that some are continuing to repeat now in spite of the warnings, you-tube videos by google and then allowing poor SEO practices to continue after being penalized and then going through the long, arduous reconsideration phase. Great content distributed through the proper channels will eventually make it into the hands of those who can make a positive impact!
Happy New Year!
My personal resolution is to focus on engagement--both in my clients' communities and in the SEO community as a whole. It's amazing how much better ideas flow in the 'company' of others!
Fantastic post! I'd say that my favourite part (and new years resolution) is to "learn more about mobile/local/schema" etc. I already know a lot about these factors from what I have read, but I would like to be putting it into practice more with clients. We've recently made our website "mobile responsive" which has been exciting. It would be nice to put this in place for our clients as well.
As a newer SEO my personal resolution this year is to dive into link building strategies. I feel very confidant with my on-page, keyword research and SEO audits, but have partially neglected link building. I understand the basics, but need to spend more time actually trying things and gaining hands on experience with what types of results to expect and how much labor is actually needed.
Here is my new year resolution: https://knifedge.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/top-5-new-year-2013-resolution-with-digital-media/
Thanks
Sekhar.
This post really resonated with me, especially the read more/less industry blogs - I tend to swing between over and under doing it also.
Resolution: keep learning, keep testing, keep the big picture in mind! Of course mobile and schema continue to grow in importance.
We pride ourselves on superior craftsmanship, attention-to-detail, and have an intense focus on customer satisfaction; including our industry leading 2 years of after sales service.
That 'resonates' - nice to know we're all in good company! Thanks Mike.
As a devotee of the paid traffic variety, I share your big picture concern as the top of my list. I'm coming the other way towards more SEO, but with the luxury of knowing which keywords to go after.
Then conversion and learning more testing methods come just ahead of schema, and then if nothing else comes up other than google plus, then mobile is probably last (possibly to be displaced with the 20 other new things!) - having said all that, I have to say I'm still learning more about copy, which was top of the list last year.
We will not rely only on Google for organic search. We'd dig out some other useful ways to increase reach of products. Wishing happy 2013 :-)
"Do I really want to be building links to these pages at this time when I know they'll never convert? Perhaps a portion of my budget should be spent on CRO."
For me this is the biggest take away in the article. Every client i was able to convince to spend some of there SEO or PPC budget on fixing conversion issues have benefited greatly.
Great article Mike!
My resolution is to get a grip. The idea that this year could be the year of mobile search and display is already stressing me out. My main site is way off on functionality on mobile devices and I've been ignoring it long enough.
FYI - do some research on responsive design, it is a great approach for mobile friendly websites!
Thanks, I will do just that. My main problem is the way my site appears on the iPad (and I suspect other tablets). I use an android phone with a small screen, which I don't expect much from, but I was disappointed with the appearance of my site on my iPad. I think it would be better shown as the full site instead of its current iPad form.
I was just winding up for the day and came across this post.
Amen! Could not have ended the year with a better post than this.
Very well put and presented.
I totally agree and accept all the resolutions.
I would like to add one more to this i.e I will not propose to call SEO by any other name .
Authorship Markup too needs to be focused on and Google+ as of now may not be the most widely used social media platform but as major Google products in some way or the other converge on Google+ your Google+ account has the potential of becoming your passport to your online identity hence ignoring this platform or not having a presence on Google+ is like applying for a VISA without a passport .
Have written a detailed post on
https://blog.webpro.in/2012/12/points-to-ponder-on-for-seo-2013.html
regarding SEO in 2013.
Wishing all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I agree that authorship is important, but in keeping with the OP's point about looking forward, I think author rank has been more than covered on Moz in recent months. I've probably written enough on my blog about the subject to alienate a few readers already.
Bharati, I read your blog post, very good. I love #14, community/relationship building is and will be a must.
Thanks Roberto .
Thanks Mate for this wonderful post, I believe mobile SEO, Schema and social is going to be the key in coming year of 2013, now we cannot ignore local SEO, social media marketing and mobile SEO, they would be the key pillar for next year.
Thanks for your informative post, and wish you happy new year.
I've been using socialbakers, hootsuite and socialkik to increase my followers and fans.
I am making sure that my clients websites are save from up coming Google Updates. Hope fully 2013 will bring a new update like penguin in 2012 and panda in 2011. Get ready Marketers to deal with this.
(Happy New Year every one)
The resolution revolves around the mobile and video marketing and we basically will be doing in the coming year.. nice post
I suspect that one of our focuses will be educating clients about other sources of traffic, not getting hooked on the tiny details, much like your 'bigger picture' comment. Also would like to better understand Bing & Yahoo's algorithms to reduce the over reliance on Big G.
Its all gona be mobile, ya hear me .. all mobile :p i don't know about you guys but my mind is pretty much made up that its all content at this point. had a bad 2012.. Good luck every one and Happy New Year!
2012 to 2015 are the age of mobile marketing , 100% agree !
2013 is going to be a great year for us and hopefully for all our inbound friends. :) Happy New Year everyone!
I think the questions you posted above is a really good starting point for a lot of people out there. Before you get all caught up or pumped up you've got to make sure that you plan properly before you take any action.
Great post! Keep up the great work, I like what you're doing for the SEI community.