After writing the rather humorous post on predictions for 2011 I noticed more and more trends so I finally decided to write a 30 trends for 2011 list again this year. These trends are the ones you really have to know about if you ask me. These changes take place already or are unfolding and you can’t afford to ignore them as an SEO, web design or other Web professional. So here they are:
Web Development and Publishing
Google Chrome becomes one of the most important browsers
I’m not a friend of Google Chrome. I tried to ignore it until now but its market share is so significant by now that you can’t ignore it anymore. Make sure to offer your toolbar, add on or custom feature available in Chrome as well in 2011.
RSS is dying
The rumors of of the death of RSS have been returning over the years. This time it seems RSS really has a problem: Google Chrome and Firefox 4 drop or limit RSS support.
E-mail marketing returns
While RSS has struggled over the years an almost dead medium made a come back, e-mail. E-mail marketing and “creating a list” is a must have again. You can’t rely solely on RSS. Even substituting RSS with Twitter and Facebook updates won’t suffice. Aweber and MailChimp are your friends among others.
HTML 5/CSS 3 usage goes mainstream
HTML 5 and CSS3 are around for a while but with significant improvements in browser support their usage will go main stream in 2011. You can have a competitive advantage by applying these still new techniques. In the SEO industry only a few of us have embraced the new possibilities. Our colleagues from SEO Gadget are leading by example.
Scrolling
Did you know that the “above the fold” web design and usability rule is a myth. Modern mice make scrolling very comfortable and people scroll all the way down it seems. Just scroll this.
Social Media
Facebook is the emperor
With Goldman Sachs financing Facebook there is no doubt that Facebook will be the most powerful player. So you need to be on Facebook or you risk a disadvantage to those who have a presence there.
Location rules but not on Foursquare
Foursquare, Gowalla and other location based social media were the rage in 2010 but they are already stagnating. Why? It’s because of the big players adding location features to their own services. In 2011 location will matter but not the small startups that made it popular.
In Africa mobile phones boom and with them social media
Surprise, surprise Africa is not the place war, AIDS and famine spreads but the most promising mobile and social media market. Africans leapfrog landlines, computers and static websites and start using social media sites on mobile phones.
Q&A surges but not solely Quora, Yahoo Answers still rules
The current hype is Q&A site Quora. While it’s a valuable service it’s still barely a blip compared to Yahoo Answers. Other Q&A sites still matter and Yahoo Answers is much bigger than most other social sites like Digg, StumbleUpon or Delicious.
Meta tools that publish to several social sites
These days almost all newly popular social tools apparently support Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the likes. Amplify, Sendible, Trunk.ly or Sprout Social are just a few of useful examples I’ve tested recently. As you will notice they come from different directions but tackle the problem of reaching all your friends and followers on different platforms.
Social Bookmarking disappears altogether
I predicted the end of Delicious last year but was nevertheless surprised to see it happen. I still hoped the flagship of social bookmarking will stay with us. In 2010 many other social bookmarking had to give up or restructure their services. Standalone social bookmarking won’t survive in 2011. Only services like Diigo that have evolved beyond bookmarking long ago can compete.
Search
Constant change
The only thing constant on Google in 2010 was the change. The number and frequency of changes was mind-boggling. As Google is desperate to find more revenue sources and get more money out of search I’m pretty sure these changes will happen as often in 2011.
Clutter
Do you remember the days when Google was a simple and easy to use search engine? These days the search results are so cluttered and full of annoying ads and other additional results or features that you really struggle. Sadly the clutter is here to stay it seems. It’s not a bug it’s a feature.
Blekko
The new advanced search engine Blekko was huge news in 2010 but it will be daily business for SEO practicioners and other Web professionals in 2011.
Privacy
Google is a privacy nightmare for most of us but until now most people preferred to ignore that fact. In 2011 more and more people will care about it and the FCC and other regulators do as well. Even Google’s search engine competition uses Google employees who have stalked teenagers to advertise.
Alternatives
For the first time in a while there are a few really good alternatives to Google, at least in English: Bing, Blekko, Yandex.com and DuckDuckGo are symptoms for a broader need: People do not want to be forced to use Google, they want choice. They have it again.
SEO
Conversion optimization
Conversion optimization or CRO has been around for years but in 2010 it reached new heights. Most reputable SEO companies practice and offer it by now. Either you do it as well or you can sell “search engine submission” and “meta tag optimization” again.
Diversification
Mobile SEO, local SEO, video SEO, social media SEO etc. are not new. Also specialist for each discipline focus on each one of it for years. Still the diversification of SEO services reached a point where no single individual and rarely a company can do it all at the same time. While some preach the rise “digital marketing” of bigger agencies offering everything I don’t believe SEO will stay a one size fits all game. I expect specialized services to flourish.
Facebook SEO
Facebook search and it’s ranking algorithm reached a new complexity in 2010 where the term Facebook SEO has appeared as the logical next step. I see some people who are already specializing in Facebook SEO as well.
Link building on social media
Facebook SEO is just one aspect of the relationship of Facebook and SEO. When Google and Bing confirmed that Twitter updates and Facebook likes/shares count as ranking factors as long as they are public people in the SEO industry weren’t really surprised. Those who haven’t yet considered building links on social media or rather using Twitter and Facebook to spread awareness of their business have to now.
RDF/Rich Snippets
While introduced in 2009, rich snippets have become crucial over 2010. Reviews get used for local and shopping search and you can’t ignore them anymore.
Ecommerce
A/B Testing
A/B Testing or multivariate testing exploded in 2010 with lots of tools and services offering and facilitating it. In 2011 everybody will try to convert the visitors they already have instead of just wanting more of them. A/B testing is probably the best method to find out what really works on your site.
Mobile Payment
Believe it or not but not only paper money is obsolete by now, credit cards are as well. What’s next? Mobile payment via your phone. Everybody uses it in emerging markets only we conservative Westerners still stick to the past. Finally some useful use cases appear for mobile payment so that we might embrace it as well in 2011.
Groupon
Groupon was huge in 2010 but it’s not the end yet. In 2011 it will become even more prominent. Use it or lose it.
Reviews
Reviews are the new links. Both local and ecommerce businesses get ranked by the number and sentiment of user reviews in Google. So you can’t live without (positive) reviews anymore in 2011.
Real life businesses gaining ground
Many Google local search changes have mostly one thing common: They favor brick and mortar real life businesses with an address. So the Internet uses a big part its virtual aspect as real life businesses get preferential treatment. Also Google Streetview compels people all over the world to clean up their facade or get less customers.
Blogging
Miniblogging
Tumblr, Posterous and a large number of other microblogging or rather miniblogging tools has been gaining popularity over the recent years. By now miniblogging service Tumblr is one of the biggest social sites. Tumblr is also bigger than WordPress.com by now. Also it’s easier to use to has a sleeker web design than both Blogger and WordPress.
Hosted blogging
Spam, security issues and constant hacking attacks on WordPress, content theft and censorship on both Blogger and WordPress.com have hurt hosted blogging platforms in the past. With the rise of new services like Tumblr many private bloggers turned away from self hosted WordPress blogs to hosted blogging platforms again.
More quality less quantity
The myth of blogging daily has been overcome in 2010 it seems, while some blogs turn media companies blogs several times a day and some group blogs do daily most regular blogs run by one blogger focused more on quality than quantity in 2010. This trend will remain sting in 2011 as the daily bloggers will move on to miniblogging while quality bloggers will focus on thorough research and killer content.
Blogging identity crisis
In 2010 with services like Google Buzz the definition of blogging got blurry. Also when you take a close look at what Facebook and Tumblr do you could consider both services blogging. Content sharing and blogging have finally merged. At the same time the focus on quality in real blogging made it more professional and journalistic. There is an apparent blogging identity crisis palpable 2011.
These trends have been mostly obvious in 2010 already but you can’t ignore them in 2011 anymore or at least you have to know about them. In case you decide to ignore them there will be others who’ll embrace the new opportunities.
SEO is rapidly changing and adapting to new Web trends all the time. That’s one of the reasons people scream “SEO is dead” each time a major change occurs. At the same time the Web slows down, the early phase of innovation is over and only a few big players control it now.
* Image: 2011 by Sebastian Oliva.
Google has changed its algorithm in 2011. Local online visibility will make huge difference today. Nice and informative content written here.
Strongly agreed with the Trends! even i made a research on the use of social media on cellphones in Africa and it turns out that very large amount of people are using social media on cellphones.
Thanks for sharing a great resource!
Wow good thing you didn’t plan on writing this ;) lol I can imagine if you had intentions then your “These trends are the ones you really have to know about” would have been much longer. While I agree with most of the predictions you are making on here, especially the email bit I can see a few in the SEO industry disagreeing with you in regards to social being brought into the fold.
Personally, I use what I can for a client. Especially if it means bringing social into their strategy. I just hate seeing things like “Use Twitter twice a day” as I have with some campaigns I’ve been privy to. All we can do is strap our seat belts on and make sure we have our wing man (in my case wing woman) ready to help out with social networks!
Moosa, thank you for the kind feedback.
Gabriella: Thank you as well and you are welcome to disagree but I don’t really get what you disagree with. It sounds like a misunderstanding a bit. Maybe you could rephrase your thoughts.
Also indeed I forgot the trends thing this year or I didn’t care as much. The last two posts were a huge success back in 2010 and 2009 so I wanted to give the people what they want again.
Hey Tad, you’re right…let me explain. It’s not that I “disagree” with these predictions it’s rather a conversation I had with a group of SEO professionals. Some don’t see social media playing a major role therefore diversification including Link building on social media is something they disagree with. That’s what I meant to say. Furthermore, I personally think bringing the various disciplines into one’s strategy is the way to move forward. I guess only time will tell how profitable it can be.
2011 will be very interesting going forward, as mobile-friendly SEO and site grow in importance and original location-based services are swallowed up by the big players. I agree completely with the increase in social media presence. Thanks for the great post.
Gabriella: Many SEO people don’t get social media, it seems there are more than I thought left in 2011. You can do SEO without social media but you can also walk instead of flying.
Some interesting point here.
Tad,
I’m inclined to agree with you on the growing importance of building quality links through social media. Based on the umbrella logic that the social media phenomenon continues to gather pace (not to mention that I understand facebook toppled google from the visitor charts for the first time this year), it seems more than a little bit naive of SEO’s to assume that the major search engines are not going to give it more weight in their ranking algorhythms.
Cheers
Yes, the buildup below the fold is worth noting. You hook them early and they cannot resist.
These are great points you have made. I really think that Google will continue to tweak with local searches throughout this year and SEOs will really have to put a lot of emphasis on citations for businesses and sites.
Some interesting points here! Especially the blogging identity crisis, it will definitely come to a point in 2011.
And Africa is indeed the emerging mobile market. Uptake and growth stats are incredible. Internet connectivity growth on the continent is largely driven by mobile/smartphone devices and is a note for marketers.
Africa is definitely catching up. Social sites like Facebook is hugely used in most countries. Here in Ghana TV shows take real time user comments and feedback through facebook. SMS services are rising and Mobile Banking is on the ascendancy.Most people visit the internet through their phones and the market is jusy ripe for SMS and other mobile products and services.
Goldman Sachs also financed DotCom before 2000 and sub-prime mortgages before 2008.
It is financing Facebook not because it’ll use it as a business/ad platform, but because it’ll get access to all the data the suckers share on it.
The ‘emperor’ of social media, Facebook, had better watch out. I love Google+. The reported numbers look great. I think Google will give Facebook a run for their money.
More people are browsing from phone, every webmasters must adapt mobile layout in their site.