3 SEO Changes You Should Know About

SEO has been one of the biggest enigmas of the online marketing world. The industry of SEO (search engine optimization) is an ever-changing field. As you read this article, the search engine algorithms have probably changed a million times. (Ok, maybe just a few thousand times...)

If you don’t keep up with SEO, your business may not be as successful, but if you over optimize your site, you can be penalized. It’s a double-edged sword that companies like us have to deal with on a daily basis. Even if you have a firm working on the SEO of your website, it’s still good to be in the know of the latest changes.

Here are three changes in SEO that you should be aware of:

1) Google Places is now Google+ Local pages - Google announced last week that Google Places pages for businesses are being automatically converted into Google+ Local pages, which offer a number of new features including integration & availability of Zagat reviews, integration of “circles” (reviews and recommendations from your network on Google), and the ability to build a following and message them.

Google+ Local pages are now much more visually appealing - that is, if you have pictures of your business to share. As before, your customers can also contribute pictures as well.



2) Facebook news feed optimization - People have been talking about how Facebook posts and pages have been dropping in the search engines, but that shouldn’t deter you from optimizing your news feed. Thanks to a new startup called PostRocket, you can get help analyzing what types of posts work best, how often to post, and what time of the day to post. They also provide a checklist on how to improve the reach of your page, what you can do to get people to click on your links, and how to make your posts more viral.

PostRocket is in beta right now, but you can see how your page is performing with their prelaunch gift. Visit: www.getpostrocket.com

Bing features social sidebar - Bing now has a three-column design which features a core search, snapshot, and the new sidebar that consists of social integration with search. You’ll be able to get results from your networks that are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Foursquare, Blogger, and even Google Plus. Bing will search through tweets, blogs, and Google Plus posts to give you information based on the topic you searched for.



As you can see by some of these SEO changes, social media and social networking sites play an important role in your marketing plan. How you leverage these sites can make a huge difference in whether or not your business receives more exposure in search engines. It helps to be well-connected!

==========================
Like this article? Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to stay updated on new blog posts and resources.