2010 has come and gone, and as we move into 2011, it’s imperative that we asses our market. For us at TheeDesign Studio, our market is the internet and search engine optimization (SEO). 2010 didn’t bombard us with any crazy changes to the system, but as we look towards the upcoming year, we foresee a few notable changes. Of course, we could be wrong, but here are our ideas about SEO in 2011.

The Adaptation of Searches

This past year, Google released a personal search feature that is revolutionizing the way results appear within consumer searches. The new technology caches web history and returns results based on the searcher’s most viewed sites. This method comes standard on Google, now, unless users purposefully opt out. As useful as this is, a new challenge is posed to SEO specialists who now have to determine a way to draw repeat visitors to their site, ensuring that they show up in search results. One way to do this is to position the website as a resource that provides valuable information on a regular basis, making the site a regularly frequented location on the web. This is a good idea because personalized search results are not only exclusive to Google. Bing and Facebook have teamed up to create a sort of social search feature, integrating the "likes" of you and your friends into results as you search the internet. Search features like this really blur the line between previously independent now-turned-social activities, which brings us to my next point.

The New Direction of Social Media

Last year was a huge year for social media, and in 2011, we are expecting a few changes to how social media and networks function. The past few years there have been a huge influx of new users on Facebook and other social networks. There are now over 500 million "Facebookers", and we are expecting the new user numbers to eventually begin to trail off later this year. However, with so many active people online, the purpose and use of Facebook might be at the edge of evolution. We are seeing companies interacting with Facebook users on a more personal level, becoming more social in their decision making, and utilizing Facebook for what it is, a network of humans. "Optimizing" social media gives an opportunity for back links to your site, and although they may not appear to be as valuable to search engines, they are valuable to the humans on the social network, who may be current or potential clients.

Video Will get Bigger

It is no secret that video captures attention better than text, but what does this mean for websites? We expect a large growth of web video in the next year. Videos on a website are a quick and engaging way to share information to visitors and encourage them to stay on your site. YouTube’s rise in popularity is a clear example of this, and this past year, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as a search engine in terms of searchers. Videos on YouTube are often indexed by google and offer opportunity to cash in on some key words, even if their links are no follow.

Localized Searches

Similar to the personal search model that I mentioned above, localized search is throwing a curveball at traditional SEO. Because Google can now recognize a city, and search with local results, users are less often typing in location based keywords. Internet marketing strategists need to be aware of this adjustment and find a way to tap into the subtle location searches. Local search is still a new and evolving system which leaves a lot to be desired, but it is really important for sites to be optimized for both local and global searches to make sure you show up on either results.

We at TheeDesign Studio expect it to be a big year for the internet marketing team. As the economy begins to bounce back, we are optimistic about the changes in 2011. We love the challenge of keeping up with changing technology, and we understand how critical it is to be up to date. If you have any comments, questions or any other inquiries, feel free to contact our internet marketing team by filling out a contact form on our website.