Whats Next for SEO?

The era of meta spamming has been over for a long time now thanks to the introduction of Google. The emphasis for a while now has been on votes (or inlinks) but “What’s next?”. That’s a pretty ignorant question I know as there are always new factors being taken into consideration and implemented by the major search engines. SEO for a start is built on experience, trial and error, word of mouth and whatever has given you results. It’s an ever changing industry which is what makes it exciting and allows those dedicated to do well.

Ivan Strouchliak posted a great article titled “The Emerging Importance of Behavioural Data in Rankings”. To me it seems the logical step and after the years of spam and link farming is something that the likes of Google would love to do. Although Google has an unprecedented amount of information I don’t feel it has enough leverage (yet) to make behavioural data a key factor in rankings (which may explain Google introducing an operating system). It probably already is in effect to a degree and I can’t help but think that Google Analytics plays a part it in.

I got thinking on the way back home that “if Google and the likes of Bing implemented it well enough so it could be a vital factor how would this effect SEO and websites in general?”. I came to the conclusion it would mean the better site will succeed. For an internet user that’s great but for optimisers? All I can imagine that being is a complete nightmare initially. Most optimisers realise that to make a site rank well it has to have good content that’s not only targeted but also relevant and useful.

Why would behavioural data be a nightmare for optimisers? If it became the key factor in SEO it would mean that to perform better it would have to be better and lets face it that isn’t always the case at present! That can be problematic as behavioural data will be based on popularity and even if your site is better it still might not be drawing in users. If this is the next step online marketing will have to be taken up a level and a phenomenal amount of more market research will be required. This, I believe, is where those companies and individuals using true organic techniques will succeed. The “other” types who rely on “tricks” and cheap link building will most likely fade away in time.

I’m finding the concept interesting and as I said it’s logical step forward. Of course time will tell but something like this being introduced could have a radical change and shake-up on the industry. Is that a good thing? Depends who you are.