How SEO Is Renovating Itself for 2013 ?

Considering SEO, 2012 has been a eventful year. There were several important updates (like Google Panda and Google Penguin) which changed search scene altogether. Google updates its algorithm in order to weed out low quality content and it will never stop its relentless run to make search results more relevant. But through all the change, hardship, and confusion, there is at least one thing that has remained steady and reliable in the world of SEO (search engine optimization) is that those who work hard to develop excellent first rate content are always rewarded, and those who do their best to manipulate the system and drill earnings out of industry blind-spots are punished and pushed out.

Google Author Rank

SEO : A Brief History

If you wants to work as an honest SEO practitioner in an age of link schemes, paid blogging, article marketing software, bookmarking tricks, etc., then there is no picnic. Nowadays an average developer is able to work on SEO. This  is because of Google, which has worked so hard over the past few years to level the playing field and give quality content its rightful place above webmaster tricks and illusions. When Google implemented Penguin and Panda, massive internet empires were wiped out overnight. This is true. Internet marketers who had tried to manipulate or abuse the system saw their page rank decreasing as those with first rate content rapidly outranked them. Scraped content, spun articles and artificial link profiles were not cutting it anymore, because in the age of Penguin and Panda, quality content is the king. If your website is giving users a bad experience, Google will notice the masses fleeing your site and your website's rankings will be sufferring. There is nothing personal to Google. Google just wants to ensure that it remains at the top of the search engine category by providing consumers with first rate quality results.  

SEO in 2013

Consider Google Analytics, does your website have a bounce rate north of 70%? If so, why do you think that is? Do you suppose that your content matches up with the interests and intent of your viewers? Are people having trouble navigating your site? Does your site solve problems and offer solutions? Is it too hard to understand for a general audience? Do people spend fewer than 30 seconds on your site? Earlier, in the history of the SEO industry, optimizing your website's content for your Google was more important than offering great user experiences, and Analytic reports like these were far from uncommon. Times have changed, and while your page rank remains significant, in 2013 SEO will be defined by content-driven metrics like Google Author Rank.

Google Authorship

Google Author Rank

You should be aware that Google Author Rank has already been implemented on Google's end. If you don't know, it may be due to the slow reaction of the SEO industry. Approximately, only 1 in 10 blogs related to technology have implemented Authorship for their site. Of course Google Authorship is online and open for business. The impact of Authorship on Google's search algorithm is still a ways off. Nobody (except maybe a few Google executives and engineers) have any idea of when that will change. But with Authorship online, experts are saying we can predict the full implementation of Authorship into Google's algorithm in this coming year. Google will not take lightly a significant change like Authorship, and you can expect there to be substantial amounts of testing prior to full implementation in order to help assure that we don't have a repeat of what happened prior to the Panda and Penguin era. But with several months of forewarning, it may be wise to begin to prepare now and start implementing early.

Google Authorship

What's the Significance?

• Why is Google Author Rank so important?

Author Rank helps Google to establish content authorities on topics independent of individual web addresses. Not only does this mean that Authorship represents a powerful ranking metric that can be implemented independent of individual web addresses, it also means that users are furnished with information about who are the best experts in the industry and can begin to search for them by name. If you opened a website on the best racing motorcycles available for under $4,000, found the necessary keywords, did some on-page optimization, and began to build your backlink profile, would you be an expert on motorcycles? Of course not! But as it stands, your content (and expertise) would have equal chances of being placed alongside the world's foremost expert on motorcycles. And while that may be good news for you, it's not great for the end user experience. Authorship allows Google to identify the real deal (through things like page sharing) from the imitation or emulation of expertise. Can you imagine if you were attempting to compete for a page rank on Google without any backlinks, in a niche with some fairly competitive keywords? You wouldn't get very far, but Authorship might change that. Are you tired of competing against sites that have a quarter of your expertise but double your staff and resources? Authorship is on your side.  

The Bottom Line

It used to be popular notion that keyword density of 10-15 percent was necessary for your website to rank well, but those days are gone. And as sharing is emphasized through Google Authorship, building backlink profiles will stop being an all-encompassing part of developing your page rank and will take their rightful place as just another significant metric. Does this mean that SEO is dead? Of course not—only that what defines useful content is constantly being refined and improved to favor quality content first.   If you want to prepare your SEO for 2013, open a Google Authorship account for yourself and begin to familiarize yourself in preparation for a long and rewarding relationship.
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