As we head into a new year (it’s 2010 already?) I thought I’d discuss the most important thing about SEO. It used to be keywords. Back in the day, before Google, when webmasters wanted to ensure that pages ranked well enough to receive top rankings in the search engines of the day, you just had to know how to use your keywords correctly. Then Google came along.

Google changed the SEO game from a strictly keyword-based on-page optimization rule to a combination of on-page factors and off-page link building strategies. From 1998 to about 2003 the most important thing to consider for SEO purposes were your inbound links.

Even after 2003, inbound links were still important, but you had to go about your link building efforts in a different way. Quality of links rather than quantity of links became more important.

Starting in 2005, your social graph became even more important. And I believe that social graphs will become even more important in the future. But that’s not the most important SEO factor for 2010.

So what is?

In 2010, the most important thing you need to know about SEO can be summarized in one word:

Diversify!

That’s it. Diversify. Don’t just focus on one thing. Stretch out and move your SEO in multiple directions at once. Universal search and mixed media are not going away. They will only become more influential as the search engines learn to rank the various media available to them. YouTube is one of the most important web properties now, as is Facebook. To truly take advantage of the best SEO opportunities you should be branching out into multiple streams of search engine optimization including videos, viral marketing, podcasting, link building, social media, real time, and whatever else pops up between now and then.

The search engines of the future will be multimedia portals. It’s time to start thinking that way.

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