What Is SEO 3.0? - Website Promotion - Online Promotion

If you keep up with SEO, you may have heard the term SEO 3.0, coined by SEO freelancer Mike Meyer in 2010; it is like Web 2.0, but refers to search engine optimization. In short, SEO 3.0 is an identifier to help organize phases of local search engine optimization into a typical timeline, which ensures the most current practices are implemented, because some techniques from even a year ago can result in poor consequences. Following is a basic breakdown:

SEO 1.0 / 1995-1998: This is where all things SEO started to emerge. Essentially, there were no rules. This time is often called "The Wild West of Online Marketing" by SEO professionals.

SEO 2.0 / 999-2009: This is what many of us - SEO professionals or otherwise - know today, a plethora of rules weaving in and out of our consciousness constantly.

SEO 3.0 / 2010-present: To succeed in this modern age of local Search Engine Optimization, we need to understand this new era, and apply these new concepts if we want sites to rank highly after search engine algorithm changes that happened in late 2010 and 2011.So what were the changes? There were more search engine changes between October 2010 and March 2011 than in all the previous decade combined. Let's discuss some of the major ones.

Google Instates Insta-Preview: The search engine giant implemented an idea originally conceived by MSN, called Instant Preview, so potential visitors no longer have to visit your site to see if they like it, thanks to a magnifying glass on each result that, when clicked, displays a thumbnail of your site. If searchers don't like the preview, they simply move without visting it, implying that anyone can judge your site by its cover, without hearing what you have to say, so now you need to get users to actually click the link. The fewer searchers visit your site, the lower your rankings.

Bing Teams with Yahoo:In 2010, Bing and Yahoo! Fulfilled a long-standing announcement to join forces - in terms of rankings, at least. Now Yahoo, with 22% of the search engine market, displays listings much like Bing. Because Bing initially had nearly 11% of the market's volume, the two engines combined now control a full third of the search market. In the past, many did not optimize for Bing because it accounted for so little of the market. For those people, the money they spent optimizing for Yahoo is gone without ROI, and they must start again with Bing.

Google Goes Local:For over a decade, Google has made the world smaller selling itself as a global search engine but, today, it wants to be local. To accomplish this, it has implemented many changes. One was moving the Google Places 7-pack listings from the top right corner to the main search results, where they were more likely to be noticed. This means that if you don't have a Google Places listing claimed, your local competitors will be smiling when customers find them instead of you on first-page search results within Google local search optimization.

Keep up with the market, and take the actions you need to take to keep your business in the game and your potential customers wanting your services. Local Map Fusion takes into account all the new rules of SEO 3.0, and will provide you with a solid platform for increased traffic and, consequently, increased revenue. Contact us today!