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It can be really difficult to keep up to date with what’s happening in the internet marketing world.  I’ve had a lot of people ask me recently, where to focus their internet marketing efforts this year. So here are my 5 internet marketing trends that I’m suggesting you (and your business) can definitely no longer afford to Ignore. 

5 Internet Marketing Trends

# 1. Responsive design

You can no longer predict how your customers will access your website:

• Global sales of tablets are expected to exceed 100 million in 2013
• And smart phones owners will be the majority, in many countries by the end of the year.

Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices – Wikipedia.

In simple terms, responsive design works out what type of device that is being used and adjusts how the information is displayed to fit the screen size, to give the best possible user experience.

# 2. Thick content

For me:

1. Thick content
2. Author rank
3. And guest posting

Will become intrinsically linked by the end of the year.

When it comes to effective content marketing strategies, quality has always trumped quantity (but quantity is still important!). Recent Google updates that reward high quality content (and penalize low quality content) now mean, that content marketers really really need to focus their efforts on creating thick content.

Content that is:

• Unique,
• High value
• And information packed

# 3. Author Rank

Author Rank is the idea that your reputation as a content creator should influence search results.

• It allows content creators to claim ownership of their content, wherever they publish and have their avatar and name show up in the search results (see image above).
• Content creators need to claim their content through the use of a digital signature (Google+).

Check out my post on how to claim your Author Rank.

# 4. Guest posting

With the amount of content that’s now produced daily and the race to produce higher quality content, building a successful blog from the ground up (and on your own) has become increasingly difficult.

Guest posting has always been a sensible online marketing strategy and now with the advent of Author Rank, it just became even more important:

• Author Rank informs Page Rank (and probably visa versa). If you write for an authority site like Tweak Your Biz, this will help you to build your Author Rank.
• While this opens up opportunities for business bloggers, it’s sensible to assume that it may become a double edged sword, in that, authority sites will also start to pay more attention to an individual’s author rank before agreeing to publish their content.

It’s those authors that can manage to build their Author Rank quickly, that will benefit most in the longer-term.

# 5. Strategic social media planning

While the argument for being there may have been won – many companies continue to view social media as “build it and they will come”. They create channels and start broadcasting their message, expecting a mass of new fans and interaction. It doesn’t happen!

• Only 20% of marketers are currently actively measuring social media ROI, with “80% of marketers beginning with tactics instead of goals” – eMarketer Report.  
• The reality is that continuing to waste money and time on tactics that might work is not sustainable.
• It will be those that take the time to really understand social and develop a social media strategic plan that will be successful in the long term.

Check out my ten steps in developing a strategic social media plan for your business.

Are there any critical internet marketing trends you believe I’ve overlooked? For the benefit of readers please share your suggestions in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Niall

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