6 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2012 - Global Business Hub - Boston.com

The fast-evolving world of digital marketing has undergone profound changes over the past year. 2012 will offer us some even more interesting developments.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Content will trump craftiness

Google’s recent (and arguably overdue) change to its search algorithm, or how it ranks sites, was the game-changer of 2011. Google’s older algorithm gave less weight to how frequently a company was being discussed on social platforms like Twitter and more to relevance. On the one hand, expect to see more results to be linked to timely and social relevance and less to esoteric tinkering. On the other, as its product offering becomes arguably more robust, expect a bit of backlash over Google’s keyword and site promotion offerings (have you noticed how those sponsored sites are slowly taking over the results page?). The burden of authentic, timely and relevant content on the part of companies will become ever more important.