It’s nearing that time of year when we begin to take a look at what 2013 might hold in store for us from a digital marketing perspective. But before we dive into next year we thought looking back at some of our digital marketing insights for 2012 might be in order.

One of the predictions we made (and this was a no-brainer) was that Google would continue to make algorithm updates that centered on ‘fresh’ content. I’m sure most people had this on their list and if they did, they nailed it! Panda updates continued throughout the year and in March, Google rolled out the Penguin update that penalized sites that were over-optimized with poor content.

We’ve preached all along that content is Emperor, but it has to be good, well-written content. Write for your audience with information that is of value and they will find it, as will Google. Optimize it with smart SEO content marketing best practices, but don’t be an idiot. Come on! We all know better.

Another of our insights was that Google+ would emerge as an important business tool for SEO and we believe that this is happening and will continue to happen. I don’t think that Google+ will ever threaten Facebook – so long as Facebook continues to evolve as it has – but for B2B companies I think Google+ will continue to be a tool that will play a role in online brand building. I think 2013 will be a benchmark year for Google+ as a platform that will either propel it to new heights or leave it dangling on the vine like MySpace and the myriad of other ‘social media’ marketing platforms.

And finally (at least for this blog post) we predicted that Microsoft will acquire Yahoo and make some inroads into Google’s search marketing share. Well… we didn’t really nail that one, but I do think that Yahoo continues to be an acquisition target, and Microsoft certainly makes sense as an acquirer. Other than a news portal, antiquated email platform, and search engine for the elderly I don’t see Yahoo’s business model keeping up with the Jones’. Maybe 2013 will be the year?

We’ll dissect more of our 2012 digital insights and lay some groundwork for our 2013 digital marketing insights in the days ahead. We hope your holidays are unfolding nicely!