The New Year is here and it’s about time we said our final farewells to 2012 and start looking forward to 2013 and the challenges that lie ahead. 2012 wasn’t the end of the world despite the Mayan Long Count ending and, more importantly, Google Penguin rolling out. But let’s take a speculative look at what 2013 has in-store for on-line marketers and search engine experts. What are the main changes that await in 2013?
Google Authorship will Grow
Last year saw the first dedicated effort by our benevolent overlords at Google toward the implementation of the long anticipated Author Rank. Google authorship is a quick and easy way to link your Google+ account to most or all of your content. Several people are speculating that Author rank will factor quite strongly in future Page Rank assessments, considerably more than the current impact of authorship. So over the next year it is very plausible that Google Authorship will steadily increase in importance as the way is prepared for Author Rank.
The Growth and Consolidation of Affiliate Programs
The popularity and increasing sales figures from affiliate programs are nothing new but they are steadily and gradually professionalizing and staying ahead of the game. Affiliate Management is getting easier and easier on the merchant side, affiliate networks are better at candidate selection and partners have new tools at their disposal to earn commissions, including better social network integration strategies. All in all the affiliate market is estimated at nearly 5 billion and is expected to grow substantially with the expansion of mobile search.
Mobile Search is (still) Coming
You have probably heard this over and over but Mobile Search is Right around the corner and it is expected to become quite huge and possibly overtake web search in the current decade. While most of the recent expansion has been through in app purchases ( like Amazon Kindle in-app purchases for different devices like smart phones or tablets) the share of Google searches through smart phones is steadily growing and odds are that Microsoft might finally get a search field that it can compete in if its Windows Phone finds mainstream acceptance.
Social Networks will get Better For Business
With social media fast becoming the main avenue for on-line marketing social networks will likely diversify their offer to brands and clients in terms of user demographics and target audience percentages reached. Facebook is already doing this albeit at a basic level but this year will likely lead to more professional social network analytics.
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