In 2012, we saw Google and other search engines making revolutionary changes to their algorithms. Sticking to Google only, we saw the company rolling out major updates to their deadly algorithms that landed several thousand websites in the dust. Google continuously updated and terrified Webmasters with Google Panda and Google Penguin updates and refreshes.
Almost everybody around the internet world was worried about being penalized by Google Panda or Google Penguin, many people even left the online world and moved out from the community. But it doesn't mean that we should stop working online.
Actually, I take these algorithms as a challenge to me, and you should too!
Even I have lost several projects and visionary blogs, due to my lack of Search Engine Optimization, and by completely ignoring what Google was saying. 
Post Penguin SEO Trends
No doubts that Google and most of search engine experts say that it is not suitable to use excessive search engine optimization. But believe me, there is no success level without any kind of optimization and working on the guidelines.
So I'm not telling you to go mad on SEO, and stop relying on other tactics. But in 2012, SEO became really tricky, and in every case it turned out to be different from next. Before all the major changes to the algorithms, we all used to create a number of back links through bookmarking, and article marketing of our content to get high ranks in SERP.
However, in 2012 things changed. And they will also change more in 2013! Google has already announced that its Web Spam team is coming with revolutionary changes to search algorithms. Everyone seems to be worried once again about their online ventures, and tries to follow several tips and tricks to stay safe. Google has already hinted at major Google Penguin 2.0 roll out, and more SERP results powered with Google Author Rank.
I have been working very closely with search engine algorithms in several forums, and do regular analytics and lots of split testing. Yeah! Search Engine Optimization Split Testing!
Let’s come back to the point, and discuss which things are going to stay in 2013 Search Engine Optimization Trends:
5 Search Engine Optimization Tactics To Must Follow in 2013
1. Stop Relying On Social Signals
In late 2012, you may have seen many talking about the social signals and social networking playing part in the search engine optimization. Google tricked everybody in 2012, and start following the social signals to rank SERP higher than others. Many of us have seen unstable rankings, and some of us got kicked out of the game. But in 2013, things are going to get complicated with Social Signals. Google will surely follow the Social Signals, but not to only rank higher but to also judge whether you are doing it right or manipulating the system.
Social boosts are good, and everyone wants his / her post going viral on the social media networks. But, what if someone is manipulating the system and keeps throwing poor-content in social streams – including Facebook? Google is playing their part and trying to minimize the impact of social media boosts in order to keep the game safe.
With the launch of Google+, and authorship, Google rolled out many things that were not visible to everyone but somehow they were tracking and monitoring to come up with big results. Google+ Authorship helped a lot in getting higher ranks, and a significant improve in the CTR rate from SERP page.
2. Authority Rules The Games
As I have mentioned above, the social signals are going to lose their value but it doesn't mean that it will stop working for everyone. It is working, and it will work in future for everyone who is playing the game fairly. The authority of the people, and interaction rate will impact the search engine results – alternatively you can say that Google has got its own “EdgeRank” to filter the content.
The numbers will not bring you on top, but the influence of powerful users can easily pop-up your post in search engine results. In 2012, everyone start flooding the social media with its content and established several fake profiles to get quick retweets, shares and Google +1 votes. But with 2013 search engine trends, everything is going to change.
Google will only count those shares, votes, and retweets that come from some authority profile or high-authority source.
So it is the very best time to stop spending your time on fake social media hype, and start targeting real profiles.
3. Say Final Good-Bye To Manipulated Press Releases
Press Releases remain one of the best ways to reach the internet market. But perhaps this is starting to change. Matt Cutts, of Google has already expressed the feeling on press releases and in the upcoming months we will see many people losing their ranks due to their past involvements in the press releases. Google plans to stifle some press releases networks and websites who might be promoting spam content.
In 2012, we have noticed Google stopped paying attention to big press release networks like PRWeb, and started highlighting their network to ignore the value of links. Many say you put your links carefully in a press release, but I would say you should avoid using your link in Press Release. If you seriously want to reach some audience, and not looking for backlinks then try some content marketing, and strategy to highlight your web within content without linking back to your website.
4. Adopt Latest Development Trends
If you ask, you will find thousands of webmasters who claim that Google is not playing a fair game with them in certain niches. No doubts that Google isn't playing fair, they are here to do business, but do you know what kind of business they are up to. Well, maybe not!
Many big publishers are always seen beating out their competition easily in SERP without any hard work, and most of us think that they are ruling us because they hold more exposure than us. But I don't agree with this point! Without any doubts they hold major exposure in their pockets to reach the internet, but seriously? Is major exposure is the only reason behind all this super-charged SERP? Maybe or maybe not.
But according to many, and even according to Mashable, they are ruling the game because they always adopt the latest trends on the internet. They follow the latest development guidelines to improve their content. They try to come up with best development skills, and put their faith in upcoming revolutionary things.
I do remember, when Yoast released his WordPress SEO plugin. Many doubted his skills, but Mashable adopted the plugin and implemented in their system without thinking.
Your content is not enough to rank you better in search engines, it is your development skills, and CMS that can rank your content higher in search.
5. Don’t Underestimate Google Author Ranking
It is not the first time that I am saying to focus on Google Authorship. In the past, I have already expressed my vision on Google Author Rank.
I have personally experienced how Google treats the links in SERP which appear with an author profile image. It depends on your Google+ Profile, and your authority on certain subjects.
Here's what Matt Cutts from Google has to say on the topic of rel=author:
I have already shared what I wanted to tell my readers, friends, and buddies all around the world. No doubts that you are doing great in your niche, but still I would like to say that you have to stay up-to-date, if you want to stay on top of the SERPs.
What do you think about this? Can you add anything to what I've shared here about SEO trends post penguin?
I thought social signals has just picked up more after the last Penguin update but I think I am wrong at this point.
Considering other factors that you talked about, I have never ever really understood why Press releases are given so important because today they are of no use.
The only thing that I was not focusing on was AuthorRank and maybe now I should start focusing on it.
Thanks for that nice post, Hamza 🙂
I must want to add this in post, social signals are important. Because they always keep you in safe side from penalities, and show the real side of your community.
AuthorRank is a very important factor in SEO at the moment, if you are not using it, you are not anymore in SERP. You have to quickly focus on Author Rank. Matt Cutts has released a video this week highlighting the importance of Author Rank and Authoriship.
Press Release still works, but only when you are approaching web with some offer or product with quick sales.
WOW!!! very interesting Strategies to implement this year,
I will concentrate on Google Author Rank,
Hello Hamza,
The main thing I am doing differently than I used to do is that I am diversifying my anchor text even more than before Penguin came out. Plus I tend to build fewer links than before Penguin. I spend more time getting just a few higher quality links that pass PageRank rather than trying to force rankings higher through repetitive anchor text. This system is working well for me.
The process you have defined here is awesome. The one most important thing in the Google Penguin 2.0 era is not to only focus on Anchor Tags. You actually no more required to build thousands of backlinks. Instead you can drive the result with 5 to 7 high quality backlinks.
Hi Hamza,
Really interesting and insightful post, I remember once there was the time when Google makes changes to come up with fair search results. But now Google forcing us to adopt their guidelines otherwise you will be lost in the internet world.
Hi Aasma,
Well, Google never asked anyone to go transparent. They are here for their own business. They surely want you to use their advertising platform to get higher ranks on a certain niche and business. Google Penguin 2.0 first update was not notorious, but believe me the upcoming update will shock everyone.
Hi Hamza! The more I read about SEO and the latest trends, the more confused I get:-) Dont get me wrong. Your post is clear enough, but all the Google algorithm changes are hard to follow. I guess that SEO consultants must profit a lot from this confusion… Anyway, not everybody can be an expert, but I always try to stick to my topics when I write blog posts and I have totally stopped using my main keywords as anchor text. SEO takes a lot of time and let’s hope that quality content at the end of the day gets rewarded.
Hi Rick,
I can understand your confusion. I am agree with you that SEO Consultants are making big money at this time. I am myself is traninging several SEO experts for upcoming changes in SEO. I always dig different kind of SEO information from everyone. Well. I must say you should use main keywords as anchor tag, but make sure not trigger Google Penguin 2.0 level. 🙂
Hello,
First and foremost thank you for the post. I am new to Internet Marketing and SEO and I had a quick question: Is backlinking still useful in getting your PageRank and SERP up, or is that now a thing of the past ?
Hi Brian,
Backlinks are still important and major factor of rankings. If you don’t have any kind of backlinks then it means you don’t have any kind of authority in search engine valley.
I am happy that Google not only reduce the influence of social media but keeps a strict policy. Because it is my personal experience that people with poor content misuse the power of social media and gets higher rank while the other with good content then them looking for a miracle.
Social links were the best way to rank any page in SERP. I have used this process couple of times, but seriously, there was an Egyptian group who misused this process and made several million dollars via Google Adsense.
This is such an amazing article Hamza, I now sure do know what to focus on in the Post Panda 2.0 Era. Thanks a million for sharing.
Thanks Oscar for your comments! I really appreciate your support 🙂
Hi Hamza,
Nice tips!
Some people use advertising to achieve PageRank, Google says they’ll hit you less if you actually tell your users about it. The wise tactic will be organically raise our PageRank. This means blogging, social engagement, and overall being a lot more engaged to try to get our website visitors active. Articles posted regularly on our website, social engagement every time we blog (that sort of thing is what Google is looking for in ranking factors)
It totally depends on the niche. Suppose if you are running an online shop at one side, and on the other hand running a blog. So you can’t use the same tactics for both.
Yep I got hit with Penguin 2.0. However, my links pointing to my site were all high quality and niche related and I just looked at my WMT links to my site, and I lost half of the links! WTF Google.
Anyways, what happened to the commentluv links? It was a huge help
Great post, thanks for the info on the new Penguin rollout. I have a lot of IM friends who have gotten hit by it, and your post could definitely explain a few of them. Google really just wants perfect search results, but they aren’t quite there yet, and sadly they seem to lead a lot of people right off a cliff with some updates. Heres hoping this year is better and more sensible.
I think in future only quality of your contents and your level of engagement with your readers will decide your page rank and your keyword ranks; oversmartness will almost be banned in future and there would be not option to play tips and tricks for impressing both people and search engines. This is called consolidation in blogging trends where only those would survive who can deliver; jugglers and magicians have to go back home.
Good article on changing realities of SEO after brutal Panda and Penguine; thanks
Hey Edson, I am pretty agree with you. In the future, Google is going to introduce lots of algorithms to help of artificial intelligence that can easily sense the root of link.
Everything’s gonna be alright as we keep doing it. Especially for bloggers, it’s really important to blog for their audience and share your love with them and Google’s just want to make improvements but sometimes new thing gotta take time to get use to it.
I personally think that nothing major have change. Google still rely on high quality content and high quality link profile. The rest is just, lets call it latest that doesn’t have much weight in algorithms.
Excellent article Hamza – I agree with you about the importance of Google Authorship and claiming your content on the web to raise your personal authority – that’s one thing I haven’t done well on my blog and it will be the first thing I will fix!
It will be interesting to see how the social signals part develops – I think there are many people still fudging it and it will be difficult for google to check via an algorithm. I think they will have to rely more and more on spam reports from end users.
Hi Steve, thanks for your lovely comment 🙂
If you really ask me, Google Author Rank is very important these days. MattCutts now even have a dedicated video published on it to describe the importance of Authorship in SERP. You really need to develop your authority, otherwise some other spammy rival can take it away from you.
– best wishes!
There is nothing new about this it’s just that people who do SEO got so caught up with getting the right anchor text and the right link that they forgot what a natural link profile looked like and Google was always going to catch up with them, it was just a matter of time.
Great post which clearly explains about latest SEO trends!
After reading this post, am feeling good that am playing a fair and genuine game with social media. Hope this might be the reason for my high SERP.
After the penguin update from Google, I felt that there is an improvement in traffic for my blog.
Thanks for writing the needful content for the bloggers Hamza 🙂
Hey Nirmala, Thanks for your lovely comment 🙂
I always write for my fellow bloggers 🙂 covering a couple of topics on my personal blog. You can check out the address in my bio!
Really impressed by these tips as they can help in achieving ranking even after Penguin update…I loved the 4th point which is regarding adopting latest trends…Am going to wait to see some more posts regarding On Page optimization after Penguin update……
Very good breakdown on what webmasters should look out for when building links. Getting penalized is something no one wants to happen to their site. Of course, the best way to find out what works, is to do your own testing. If you’re serious about SEO, you definitely need to have enough sites to try out all of the different tactics. This way, you’ll know exactly what works and what doesn’t.
I’d say the best thing you can do is start with your own website.
Just as I was getting the hang of the way things were LOL! Thank you so much for this article. I have been dedicating a small amount of time each week to work on SEO and have been slowly moving up the ranks. This information will definitely help. I just recently added Google+ to my social media reach. Haven’t seen much activity from it yet but hoping it picks up!
Google algorithms are destroying SEO industry, there is no doubt that with the passage of time it will go worst. I lost my 60% keywords form search which were on first or second page, in-spite of it that i was not doing any wrong method for link-building. However after read your post i am much optimistic that i can get back my keywords in search engines ranking. Your shared points are very helpful for me because before read your post i was still thinking that press-releases are still effective and these are working but now i will not use these and will explore more ways of ranking.
I’ve tried google authorship and my click through rate went down. I have a software download site and it turns out that people looking for downloads don’t like the google authorship pictures in the SERPS. They think it is an ad. I simply can’t use google authorship. Unless there is someway to use it and not have my SERP result change.
Hi Evan,
Google Authorship works wonderfully for many. I hope one day it will work for you too. But you must understand the meanings of authorship before using it on your website. You said you are providing downloads to software programs not actually providing some kind of information / articles / news or anything that goes under the term “Author” – While implementing Google Authorship, you must go with Google+ Markup for Publishers. It will help you in gaining some SERP 🙂
This is what bloggers and webmasters should have done long ago. Even if they mostly aim to get a living out of blogging, well written and accurate content should always been a priority.
Stop relying on social signals seems to be right but you can not really ignore the social traffic which is sometimes a lot more if you have good profiles usually it takes time to build up strong profiles but they can give a boost to any page so it’s always good to relay few part of your strategy on social.
The great tips techniques shared on this post that should be very useful for developers and people who have mind to develop a website considering penguin update. Thanks for sharing this interesting and useful information.
Seems like it’s all about authority. Time to get busy!
That’s very interesting. It’s more about on google authorship now. And, it has a great benefit on SEO. Taking the example of writing articles or content, through verifying the writer’s identification, Google is providing greater exposure for that writer which will probably improve the quality of the writing.
Jim, it was always about authorship / agent rank. Google has been working on this term for last several years, they tried couple of times to merge social and search engine results. They believe / I do also believe that it can bring more real content, but it also has downsides. The more you go social, the more you will go limited.
Simply Gr8 Post !
All points are very updated and interesting. Specially the Google authorship is the one which I liked very much.I had never heard about this earlier.
Now in future I’ll take care of Google Authorship.
thanks for the nice post.such posts helps us to keep updated with the Google algorithms.
I agree with your point Authority Rules. Many bloggers concentrate more on fake shares rather than going for quality content. I suggest quality content will play a vital role for Google Penguin.
I think its a good step taken by Google. This will remove all the sites which were coming in top search pages due to the Black Hat techniques. Finally now the quality of the content that will matter.
Thanks for update.
Hi Vidushi,
Pardon me. But BlackHatTricks was always the part of real search engine. Actually, there is nothing black-hat trick unless you are doing it aggressively. Search Engine still depends on backlinks, and quality backlinks or high domain authority can still lead your way to high SERP.
I’m excited about rel-author too but am having trouble implementing it. trouble shooting to do 🙂 I’m also starting this blog out new too so no spammy links etc 🙂
Joe,
Search Engine business comes before than Google+ or any social network. Search Engine and SEO is the basic pillar behind Google Adwords – one of the most controversial service out there. Everything works in weird ways, one cannot limit his / her ways to few things. One should go and explore more and more ways!
One can build wiki links and .edu links and ensure that the ratings stay on forever so that their page rank would increase
nice tips,this peguin has ruined me,i’ve lost my pagerank,but i walk this road how was i walk,writ my thoughts,i publish fresh news,nice and user friendly design
I have been working my site from 3 years, my website ranking was gone in 2012 when penguin update comes. after then i gain my serp results againg after 6 months.
Hi Hamza,
This was a very informative post which I could use for our website. The fourth point you mentioned really makes sense. Not only we should have a good content but also firm SEO tactics to list our content top in the search engines.
aaahhh, I’ve just removed Authorship from my site 🙁
some of my blog seem not able to show google authorship. I don’t know how to make it success since you say google love it (google authorship) to get better ranking
I have been trying to form good links in different ways but nothing worked out for me. I know you are an Expert in SEO. I have one question on what are the disadvantages I will face if I enable dofollow comments on my blog?
This new update of google hit the serp of my site. It was first showing on serp 1 now it is on serp 22 on same keyword. How can i improve my serp ranking now? i always post unique content on forums and blogs with keywords navigated towards my website. But maybe these techniques are old now. It would be great if someone help me in this matter.
is page rank still important … i am not able to improve my page rank … trying from last 6 months..
This new update of google hit the serp of my site. It was first showing on serp 1 now it is on serp 22 on same keyword. How can i improve my serp ranking now? i always post unique content on forums and blogs with keywords navigated towards my website. But maybe these techniques are old now. It would be great if someone help me in this matter.
Hi Hamza,
I feel it becoming more impossible to keep following Google search engine policies as it’s becoming more complicated and confusing, There is no harm in following the clear recommendation like implementing Author markup and using Google+; But not heavily focus on it as it could change any time. Focus on what you can do best and produce quality content.
After reading the article it seems that Google Authorship is extremely important in order to get listed in SERP but Press release has loss it importance completely. Thanks for sharing the trends which we need to follow after this update.