Despite Google’s seemingly iron grip on the search engine market, there are a few dark clouds threatening to darken their horizon. The first threat to Google’s dominance is the sheer number of people using social networks. According to Comscore, most web users spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn than they do searching on Google. Google’s plan to address this problem, the birth and development of their own social network Google+, did not work in the way they had hoped. Google+ is gaining popularity, but is in no way a threat to Facebook’s1.9 billion users.

Microsoft is adding three high-power tools to its marketing arsenal, poising it to compete with Salesforce.com, its chief rival in the customer relations management (CRM) sphere. Microsoft is introducing CRM capabilities in customer support, marketing automation and social media marketing. These innovations will be available to Microsoft Dynamics customers with the second-quarter release.

A recap of SEO in 2013 includes a number of algorithm updates and releases from Google with Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird. Encrypted search capabilities, with Google’s move to secure search in September, have undermined keyword data. This move has caused an SEO identity crisis in some and provoked an answer to the call of the survival of the fittest in others. Google moves in 2013 have led Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers to voice the lingering question, Is SEO dead?

If you are a site owner, you know that you need to keep your site stocked with fresh content on a regular basis. Internet users are always hungry for information. If you let your site stagnate for very long without updating it, you run the risk of losing traffic.