While 2014 promises to be exciting with Social media at the forefront, but what remains to be seen is the extent to which search, search patterns, and user behaviour changes in terms of search engines in 2014.

While it is no secret that Social networking will continue to be popular in the coming year; how much and to what extent will search engines evolve?

We are already seeing a lot of results from social networking sites, especially in Google, and the popularity of Google+ is certainly a good indicator of how search will progress.

The SERPS in Google is a mixed bag with results from web pages, Google local, social networking, and video sites. The other major search engines, such as BING, are also displaying results from different sources but that is where the similarity ends. The search results in Google are quite different from what you will see on BING. And that is where the challenge lies. The challenge for most SEOs is to bridge this gap. With more and more pages competing for the same spot, it is indeed not an easy task to rank well in all the search engines, but it is not impossible either.

I typed in “Christmas tree shop” and various other keywords and found that the SERPS in Google and BING for the same search term show up completely different results with maybe just one or two URLs in common in Page one.

Search results in Google and BING for the key phrase “Christmas tree shop”:-

Other than the fact that search is getting customized and will get even more customized, from the SEO perspective, ranking in search engines will continue to be challenging and exciting. The ride ahead will be a bumpy one, but fun-filled and thrilling.

I wish you all a very-very Merry Christmas and a great new 2014!
May you always find what you are searching for!