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SEO Update – How To Optimize for 2010 and Beyond

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Over the past few months I’ve written several posts discussing the future of SEO. Were you aware that in the past 18 months Google has made more changes to its algorithms than it did in the previous 5 years? So how will these changes affect your business as we head into the next decade? As usual, when Google and SEO is concerned, nothing is ever clear.

Nor is it ever permanent. But the fact remains that if you want to spend less on advertising, and make gains with more organic traffic, you need to be on top of your SEO game.

A few months back SEOMoz released their annual search ranking factors report and there was some very mixed opinions about what exactly are the biggest performance indicators for maintaining good results in all the engines. But for the most part, much of that information will become somewhat distorted with the sweeping changes taking place in search.

So what can we expect in the coming year and where is search heading in the next decade?

Watch this video (courtesy of Web Pro News) where Matt Cutts gives some brief explanations of some of the most significant changes we can expect. Then read on to better understand these and other important changes you need to make to your SEO strategy in the coming year.

Google Caffeine

As most internet marketers and webmasters already know, Google has been developing and testing some very significant changes to it’s search algorithm. The sandbox, or testing version, was codenamed Caffeine and according to Google, it’s purpose is to allow Google to index sites much faster, but also to improve on the quality of the SERPs.

While there has been a lot of speculation, Matt Cutts has stated several times that this updated algorithm is not likely to be fully deployed until mid January. It has currently only been released in a single data center.

Page Load Time

One of the most important revelation to come out recently is page load time, or the speed of your website. Currently page load times are only considered for Adwords landing pages and have a significant effect on your bid price. However this currently has no bearing on organic search listings.

It looks as though that’s about to change and page load times are going to become an important factor for top ranking in the near future.

According to Matt Cutts, this will be changing next year, and page load times are to be included in ranking factors. In fact, Cutts went on to say that Google has been looking at page load times for some time now and it’s likely that it will become a major factor in 2010.

Take the time you have available to make sure your site is well coded and that your hosting provider can handle your traffic. Failure to do so could see you move from the front page to the last page on Google.

First Link Priority

Something that seems to have gone under the radar within many SEO circles is the recent introduction of a first link priority. This is good news for legitimate webmasters and bad news for spammers. But you need to understand how it works and adjust your deep linking strategy accordingly.

The way it used to work is that every link on a page was counted, indexed, and followed (where allowed). This meant that placing the same link URL on a page many times would distribute page rank, as well as take into consideration all of the anchor text as well as that highly sought after link juice.

The playing field has now changed and this is no longer possible. It’s likely that this change was made to circumvent any page sculpting methods that are in play today. Google is not a fan of page sculpting.

What all this means is that the first link on a page is the one that Google bot will take notice of. No longer can you link to the same site or page multiple times and expect the bot to take notice. It’s now only interested in the first link it finds on a page.

So for instance if you look at the average header navigation menu, most sites have a link to their home page with the anchor text ‘Home’. Since this is the first link that is encountered, any subsequent instances of that url will be ignored, including the anchor text.

This is going to have a major effect on the SERPs for almost all webmasters and you need to be taking action now if you expect to compete.

Snippet Links in SERPs

Saving the best for last, Google is now including snippets into some results. These snippets links are added to your result in the SERPs at no extra cost.

Snippet links (some people are calling them breadcrumbs) can be added to a listing to assist the user to find the most relevant information available on a site.

For example, lets say your selling blue widgets, and you provide free shipping. You listing will show your page title, and description with a link to your page. Inside of your listing though, you may also see another link with your ‘Free Shipping’ anchor text linking directly to you shipping page.

I believe this is going to have a major impact on CTR and user behavior and allow lower placed sites to receive a larger share of clicks based on these snippets of information that was previously unavailable. Let’s also remember that those links attract people therefore increasing the likely hood of a click to your site.

SEO Resources

If you’re still struggling with SEO, and trying to get a solid grasp of how it all works, you should review these posts so that you know exactly how the game is played.

Definitive SEO Guide to Search Engines
3 Steps to Better SEO Performance
Twitter SEO Tips

Conclusion

As you can see there is a lot to deal with. Some action should be taken right now. Other things can be adjusted in the next few months. However you approach this new age of search, be sure to take action sooner rather than later and secure your position in the search results.

I’d like to know how you think these changes to search will effect SEO as a whole, and how you will take advantage of this changing of the guard?

Related Posts

1. 2010 – The Year of Opportunity
2. Make Money Blogging Challenge – Update
3. The New Age of SEO – Google Caffeine
4. My Google Nightmare
5. The Future of SEO – Revisited

Tags: google, internet marketers, matt cutts, page load time, performance indicators, search algorithm, serps