The State of Search Team Wishes for 2013…
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The State of Search Team Wishes for 2013…

2nd January 2013

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR to all the State of Search readers!

2013 has started. A year which will bring a lot of happiness, joy, and also unfortunately sadness, simply because that is part of life. But here at State of Search we are planning to make this to say the least a very memorable year in which you will see a lot of changes to the site, but mainly you will see some great content coming from our blogging team.

Last week we let the industry and the blogging team tell us what their best moments of 2012 were, this week we are looking forward to 2013. And what people wish for. Starting this time with our very own blogging team: what are their wishes for 2013, next to off course health and joy for everyone. Find out below!

Louis Venter: “My wish for 2013 is to find a better balance between all aspects  of work and play. Its easy to be consumed by whatever shouts the loudest but to constantly take stock of what we really want and to go after that takes focus. I want to be more creative whether that’s taking more time for the guitar or more creative SEO I feel that creativity in one area helps all so that’s my main wish for 2013. And to double the agency turnover again, not too much to ask for eh?”

Hannah Smith: “An ‘SEO’ wish for 2013? More collaboration. SEO just doesn’t work effectively as a stand alone discipline. I’d love to see more companies embracing this and allowing us to work alongside marketing, social media and PR teams.”

Sam Noble: On a search related front, I would like to see the bad search results start to get cleaned up. I have lost count how many times I have searched for something online and seen either of the following:

  • Multiple listings from the same site
  • Pages ranking that don’t have any relevance to what I am looking for
  • Listings for pages that don’t even contain any content

One example that really stood out for me is when I searched for ‘Budget Car Insurance USA’ and half way down page one I came across this listing:budget-car-example-sam-2

When clicking on the listing, this is what I am returned with! How helpful is that!

budget-coming-soon-sam-2

With the Panda and Penguin updates looking to clean up sites that have poor links or poor content, it still surprises me how much rubbish there still is sat within the search results and seeing this cleaned up is one of my wishes for 2013.

Barry Adams: “I hope (in vain, I imagine) that the growing threats against an open and free internet – including closed ‘walled-garden’ platforms, the appification of the web, pervasive filter bubbles, and corporate & governmental online censorship – will reverse and that a truly free and open internet can be guaranteed for future generations.”

Paddy Moogan: “In 2013 I’d wish to see the SEO industry mature a bit more and know what it wants to be. There is a lot of change going on right now with various companies rebranding or changing there offerings in light of Google changes. Whilst I understand this and believe the changes will continue, I’d really like to see a shift towards SEO becoming more about online business development (which covers lots of areas) that just being known for tricks and shady tactics. I believe this is necessary in order for our industry to shake of a bad reputation and be taken a bit more seriously for the value it delivers to businesses.”

Neil Walker: “I think that 2012 is simply going to be exciting, Google have been very transparent the last year, however it is still more than possible to manipulate a huge amount of it, I think from an SEO perspective we will see more link updates and content updates, what I am most looking forward in 2013 is the potential, clients are being more receptive to creative ideas and putting budget towards it, this for me is the most exciting part.”

Jo Turnbull: For 2013, I will set up and run a search event in Sydney, Australia where I will be working. I hope it to be as big as Search London. I also plan to help Search London grow and reach out to more people passionate about search. In 2013, I will be attending search events in the UK, US and in Australia and will also be blogging about the search industry Down Under.

Annabel Hodges: “I truly wish and hope that Google don’t continue down the increasingly undesirable path they are on. How they will be stopped, lord knows. That’s why this is a wish and not a prediction! I long for the days when I was impressed by Google’s future thinking and exciting products, now I all too often find myself fighting against yet another ‘small’ change they’ve made which goes against freedom, individuality and any existence of healthy market competition.”

Jeroen van Eck: “I sincerely hope 2013 will be a year where the major stakeholders in the current internet will find a way to cooperate with each other to shape the future of the internet, instead of drifting apart. I’m referring to the governments, large internet companies (Google, Facebook, etc.) and the users. We’ve seen some battles developing the last years around privacy and copyright, but solutions have never been achieved involving all these three parties. I hope 2013 will bring us more cooperation for a better future of the internet.”

Clarissa Sajbl: “What I have noticed during my first stint in search is that a lot of search professionals seem to draw a rather negative picture on Google. I am confident to say that all of us might have our doubts every now and then too or – that you yourself came across sceptical professionals – please don’t get me wrong, I encourage scepticism as we should always question the status-quo! However, at the end of the day the big G is just another multi corporate organisation thriving to improve its search engine and products to satisfy its customers – and of course its ROI. In other words – where would we be without Google? Would you really be sitting at the desk you are currently at? As a result my wish for 2013 is that we learn to perceive the big G as a referee rather than the snake in the grass.”

Bastian Grimm: “For 2013 I really hope that Google comes clean in some ways (for example kind of re-define the “we’re not a traffic destination but a distribution” lie). Taking their moves into a lot of sectors in 2012, I strongly believe that this will continue in 2013 – and for the German market I guess it’s gonna be extremely interesting to see how UK pilot projects like car insurance comparison will make their way into Europe and Germany. That’ll massively change that sector over here as well. And if I’d really have a wish free, I’d hope that Google finally starts playing by their own rules… even though that’ll probably never happen because they’d get into A LOT of trouble with their own products then. ;)”

Kelvin Newman: “For 2013 I’m really excited by the next BrightonSEO more planning has gone into this that anything else, which I hope means it’ll be the best ever we’re also just about to take on our first full time member of staff which is about as serious as it gets. We’ve got some ambitious plans for 2013 and really want to see them happen!”

Gianluca Fiorelli: “That our industry may learn to play by the rules, that Google will remember what it was when it started and – being Italian and living in Spain – that this f*ing economical crisis will end after more than 5 years.
We, SEOs, are lucky and somehow we are living in a bubble; but there is a world outside suffering and loosing everything they gained in a life.”

Claire Thompson: “What I wish for in 2013? As a PR consultant I look from slightly outside at the relationship the SEO industry as a whole has with the search engines. The engines need the SEO industry if for no other reason than they want people to do things for their sites to please them. The SEO industry needs the engines to makes their money. So even though there’s a huge, symbiotic relationship, there’s a relative stand off. As a State of Search blogger, I’d love to see the SEO industry doing its own PR and developing a better, more influential relationship with Google in particular, in 2013.”

Nichola Stott: “Our wish for 2013 is pretty simple and it is to continue to be able to make a real difference to the clients who come to us to help them position their products and stories through search; and most importantly to continue to love doing this! “

Gemma Birch: “Not getting “sacked” from State of Search ;-)”

James Murray: “My only wish for 2013 is that it’s not a desolate year. 2012 was jam packed with lots of interesting events from the Royal Wedding to the Olympics. These are always fascinating to monitor to see how the online population react to these big events. On the surface 2013 doesn’t appear to have any major flagship momentsto look forward to, but then again there are always some surprises in store – we didn’t see Gangnam Style coming either!”

Aleyda Solis: “I have two wishes for 2013: No “Not Provided” and Google rankings data for all. “

Sam Crocker: “My biggest wish is to get (not provided) data back for 2013. I know it’s wishful thinking, but you’ve got to dream big!”

Paul Rogers: “In 2013 I’d like to see more retailers embracing user experience, we’ve seen a lot more companies working on things like site performance, responsive design, site search, user journeys, improving their checkout etc – but there’s still a lot of high profile retailers who don’t understand the value. Lots of people are talking about UX at the moment and I would love to see more companies adapting to more modern principles in 2013.”

Ned Poulter: “We’ll save on the predictions, as there’s bound to be a plethora of SEO in 2013 posts coming in the next few weeks, but what I’m incredibly excited about for 2013 is a bigger move for SEO becoming a fundamental discipline for online marketing. Existing not just on the periphery but central to all online strategies, whether it be: social, content based, video, mobile, or other; I believe we’ll find that there will always be the need to have an SEO guy (or girl) in the room… In addition to this I’m looking forward to seeing an increased offering of CRO services, UX and user testing by SEOs, it’s something I’m very intrigued by and also to develop as an area of expertise for myself. The digital world moves at 1,000 miles-an-hour and I genuinely cannot wait to see what 2013 has in store for us…!

Be sure to look at the moments of the bloggers of 2012,

part 1
part 2

Find the moments of the industry experts:

Joost de Valk, Mel Carson, Jonathan Allen and Barry Schwartz
Becky Naylor, Marcus Tandler, Dennis Goedegebuure, Alex Moss and Julie Joyce
Dixon Jones, Kevin Gibbons, Fili Wiese and Richard Gregory
Will Critchlow, Roy Huiskes, Andy Betts, Jane Copland and Matt Roberts
Andrew Girdwood, Murray Newlands, Judith Lewis, Greg Jarboe and Nicky Wake

Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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