What has changed about SEO in 2013? Find out...

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How has SEO changed in 2013?
Nwosu Mavtrevor
SEO is like the butter to blogging as both goes hand in hand. The concept of SEO is so vast no one can
claim to know it all. But having a good knowledge of SEO can put you on the top spot of the search engine
and the only way is having knowledge of the latest SEO changes. What may seem important last year may
not have any ef f ect any more this year, so keeping tabs on the latest SEO trends is very important if you
are to peak ahead of your competitors.
Now you may be wondering, “What has changed in SEO this 2013”? That’s what this article is trying to
explain. SEO is on steady changes as Google themselves agreed to have at least 500 – 600 updates every
year and every update is an SEO move. Though most of them are minor updates, but having the slightest
idea still matters in this competitive business – Blogging!
In 2013, SEO is still divided into two – On Page SEO and Of f page SEO, while the On Page SEO has to do
with everything you do f rom choosing a keyword to publishing an article, the Of f Page SEO handles other
activities outside your site that could help improve your site’s ranking in search engines.
How SEO Has Changed This 2013
Author Rank:
The year 2012 saw a major SEO shif t and this year 2013 is going to consolidate on the changes. 2013 is
going to see “Author Rank” assume a major role in how posts will rank in search engines. Google will assign
an Author Rank to every author based on parameters like niche authority and domain expertise. Authors
with higher rank will see their posts rank higher in search engines and Google is bringing in the Google+
prof ile into SEO, so you have to claim your Google authorship now and also improve your social media
activities especially on Google+. Here is a post I wrote on how you can claim your Google authorship and
its benef its.
Google Disavow Tool:
Another SEO move in 2013 is the Link Disavow tool. In previous years we only believed backlinks are all that
matters and now Google has redef ined that to say quality and varieties of the backlinks are all that matters
and not the number of backlinks. Bloggers and webmasters started cheating about backlinks until Google
said “enough is enough” and slammed penalties on links they considered as spam and irrelevant. The
Google Penguin update was born and algorithmic penalties were dished to def aulters and this was a major

2. SEO move in precious years, but Google has tampered justice with mercy by rolling out the disavow tool so
you can clean up the links and maybe get your site back to lif e. Take advantage of this tool if you were
af f ected.
Must Read: Local SEO – Best for Small Businesses To Get Success
Social Media:
Social media will have more ef f ect this year than it has ever had in previous years. The growth of the Social
media networks will have heavy inf luence in SEO in 2013 and beyond, so if you are not participating in the
social media networks, you better get out there now and join as much as you can, use it to share contents
and socialize with your visitors. I am already using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and
the almighty Google+. Just as we know that news are spread via the social network so do Google also
know that like minds share interesting contents and if you can generate traf f ic f rom such sharing, then
your content must have been relevant to your visitors.
Link Building:
Any link building practice that involves mass or viral article submissions or any automated link postings to
ef f ect high ranking in search engine that ever worked in the past will NEVER work in 2013 as Google and
other search engines have seriously clamped on this in 2012 and will continue to do so in 2013 so as to
keep the search results relevant and honest. So I will recommend you desist f rom any search engine
optimization practice that involves any automated method, be it link building or link submissions it will only
drag you down with it. Manual link building is the only acceptable means of building backlinks, let your
content be relevant and rich enough to attract you natural backlinks.
Must Read: On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO: Which is more important?
Conclusion:
This year may not see any major SEO move as Google itself has announced the release of the last
Penguin update called Penguin 3 on October 2012. Except Google and other search engines implement a
major Penguin update f or 2013, there may not be any major SEO move. Quality content still remains the
major ranking f actor f or search engines. To remain at the top of the search engines, you need to publish
quality and interesting contents shared and discussed by users on the Social media networks.
In 2013, SEO rules no longer involve building mass low quality backlinks and content, it is about building
quality. SEO is no longer about ways to trick search engines into ranking your pages high, it’s about quality
content creation and marketing strategies that delivers valuable inf ormation consistently to your readers.
Listen