2011 SEO Predictions

2010 was a year of change; with a tumultuous last couple of months in Local Search arena. Local

components were added ubiquitously; we had local search, social local, mobile local, social mobile

search, local commerce, mobile local search and so on. This transformation has built an

infrastructure on which the 2011 space will be defined in the Local search environment.

During 2010 Google rolled out an astonishing amount of innovation in the refinement of Google

Places Search. There is no doubt that 2011 will accentuate the mounting significance of establishing

and managing your business identity with emphasis on maintaining a constant and visible business

Name, Address and Phone Number.

These changes are all part of the bigger picture where Google is providing the user with an

experience that gets them directly in touch with the local information without sending them through

to an additional layer of search results.

Along with many of the Google Places users, we can only hope that 2011 sees the current product

refined to deal better with issues such as merging listings and that the annoying bugs and

shortcomings with the review system are fixed including the irritating 501 errors and inability of

owners to respond to reviews. From Google’s point of view, there is likely to be a crackdown on Map

Spam, particularly the issue of fake addresses which will likely be at the top of their spam fighting

priority list.

2011 will be the make or break year for the latest innovation Google HotPot depending on whether

or not Google will get the critical mass to embrace this new technology. One of Google biggest Local

vulnerabilities is the lack of in-house reviews and lack of a social graph and HotPot appears to be

their solution. Clearly the advantage of having more content submitted directly by Google users is

their motivation and even Google are willing to break their own rules on review solicitation with this

one. In a competition run in Portland towards the end of last year, Google was awarding prizes to

the value of $13k to the top raters in a rating places competition.

So where is HotPot headed? Google has the ability to create a more targeted social recommendation

algorithm that will give Facebook a run for its money in the social local game. The incredible

combination of review velocity, link authority, geosocial signals combined with the latest HotPot

sentiment could see HotPot become more successful than Facebook Places. Whether or not HotPot

will appeal and translate easily for the non-techy customers and business owners will be crucial to

their success. And there is the ongoing concern with their lack of customer service which may also

prove to be a hindrance to their success.

2011 is likely to also see a lot more activity from Google Ventures, a financial arm of Google that

invests seed money in companies that provide new and unique user experiences. Although the

acquisition of the daily deals giant Groupon didn’t transpire, we are likely to hear more from Google

Ventures in the near future.

On a final note, 2011 will likely see traditional SEO expanding to encompass more than just the

traditional website optimisation, link building, local listings and reviews. Small business is going to

require more than these four factors to remain competitive in their industry. In order to adapt to the

changing landscape traditional optimisation efforts will need to see optimisation experts also playing

in the spaces of social media optimisation, mobile search and location based services to continue to

best service our customers needs.

Lisa Baade is an SEO Expert at one of Australia’s leading SEO Companies, Search Engine Optimisation

Works – at the SEO Brisbane office.