As we talk to SEO reseller companies every day, we are always trying to stay on top of the changing trends in search engine optimization. As the year flips from 2010 to 2011, it is a particularly good time to be thinking about what we’ve learned from the last year and what we think the big trends will be next year. As I think about the year in review, and all the conversations I’ve had with SEO reseller firms, I can see many trends in 2010. I can also think of things that didn’t happen as I thought they would. And then of course, there’s the experts.
Here is what SEOMoz is saying about SEO in 2010. It is basically the same stuff that Rand has been saying all year. Keep an eye on Social, but recognize that Google is still the BIG search engine in the room. Even with Bing and Yahoo putting everything they’ve got into the mix together, they are still not really making a dent on the big search monster.
What are guys over at the HubShout SEO reseller program saying? They are not surprised that all of the buzz about Twitter and Facebook is alive and well. After all, it’s been 3 or 4 years in the making. But they are also skeletal that the real “day of social media’ has arrived. I think they make a great distinction between using social media for reputation management and managing public relations and hard-core SEO. Social media is still not a huge factor in SEO, although most think it will be.
So what should an SEO reseller care about? Even if social media is not the killer rankings-maker, it is still a huge buzz in the marketplace. As such, your SEO reseller program MUST have a social media component, even if it’s only tracking. Although you should preferably have social media management as part of it. But at the end of the day, the customer is still going to be paying attention to the rankings in Google because this is where the business really comes from (still). Yes, you have to watch the customer complaints in Twitter, but your main flow of leads for the foreseeable future will still be Google. And a high quality SEO reseller outfit will give you the goods to sell to your clients and keep your revenues flowing.
Happy New Year!
