Im proud to say that Ive never been responsible for a site that has been punished by any of the Google Panda/Penguin updates.Ive seen my fair share of Google fallout though, usually brought forth by someone after theyve seen their traffic tank. They dont know what happened, why, or much less how to fix it.
Truth be told, Im surprised by how often Ive been presented with this scenario. Every google reklam firmaları single time its boiled down to using bad SEO or outdated SEO tactics that they consider tried and true but are no longer valid.
As Mark Jackson stated in "7 Habits of Highly Effective SEO":
If the word "EzineArticles" falls out of your mouth when you start talking about your SEO, you should just stop right there. Even before the Panda update, this really wasnt the best use of your time and essentially was just a way to get some quick links back to your site.
Get this through your head: link building isn’t easy. It, like all things in optimization, takes time and effort.
Instead of going after easy links, why not work on building relationships with bloggers and work on writing guest posts that can add value to their site and community while benefitting you with exposure to their audience and possibly building a quality reference from an authoritative site.
Here are some tips: 8 Steps to Guest Blogging Artistry for Free Links, Recognition & Exposure
Heres the thing, you run a business, and kudos to you. According to Dun and Bradstreet there are an estimated 23 million small businesses in the United States as of 2010. Im not saying that youre not doing something thats newsworthy, but just existing doesnt qualify you.
Ask any public relations agency and theyll be quick to tell you that theres more to PR than just a press release. Kimberly Eberl, President of Motion PR in Chicago states:
Kinda sounds like link building, doesnt it? Press releases for the sake of links alone is probably just as close to a waste of time as article submissions.
Remember, no quick fixes. Do something newsworthy and good. Youll be helping someone else at that, in turn can help you with effective media relations and the links will follow.
What is this, 2004? Link exchanges are just another way to try to take the work out of gaining links and earning trust by swapping links with another site.
Can you think of a more easily detectible signal that you could throw at a search engine to let them know youre trying to get cheap, useless links?
Think of a link as an endorsement of sorts. A link should mostly be used when it makes sense and can help the visitor by pointing them to additional resources or related material.
If someone makes good content then that will help your readers or site visitors, then by all means link to them. That works the other way around too: *hint* *hint*
We already know that great content can drive great links. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when looking at your content creation:
Im not going to dive face first into the automated tools debate that constantly seems to circulate through the social media sphere. A tool to help streamline, disseminate content, and balance time can be just that, a tool.
Tools all have their purpose and can all be useful given the right circumstances. That said, you dont saw a board with a hammer. Learn your tools. Use them, but use them wisely.
Social media, including your blog, is a way for you to build relationships. It can help you gain and keep customers or open new doors for the future.
Automation is often seen as an easy way out for companies that know theyre supposed to "be social" but they dont want to be, they just know its "important" for some reason.
Thankfully most blogs and websites nowadays have social sharing buttons of some sort. Unfortunately, many site owners arent paying attention to these social signals, what they mean, or their potential.
In a recent Google earnings call, he was asked, “If you think of the future of Internet search three or four years out, how important will the social signal be and how important (will) personalization be?”
Truth be told #1-6 above all fit into this but I felt like this should have its own little mention. Why? Because this is a pattern by which a lot of people set out into SEO and its why old SEO methods are still being used. Its also why so many people fail at marketing in general.
I was handed a ranking report by an SEO the other day which they had run for their client of five years. It was 30 pages long and tracked hundreds of keyphrases.
I asked how this correlated to their analytics and how the traffic behaved since the client had felt that their sales were down. The SEO looked at me and said, "Umm. I dont know if they have analytics on their site. Maybe I looked at it once… Im not sure. But Ive run ranking reports for them every month and they like that."
I know how alluring those ranking reports can be. I know you do work, and this is a nice little report that you can show your client or your boss that says "Were number 1 in Google for Blue Spandex Widgets For Sales in Wichita, KS!!"
However its our job as an SEO to steer the conversation from the old way into a more meaningful one. If we dont, were taking the path of least resistance and we truly arent helping ourselves or our clients.
You may have a problem that youre not aware of yet because maybe everything is going along swimmingly. Go look at your stats, right now. How much of your organic traffic comes from Google? What percentage?
I know you wouldnt put all of your retirement plan in one stock so why would you put so much at risk in your current life by keeping all your eggs in one basket. Create a diverse traffic portfolio.
Although geared towards the travel industry, I believe everyone who is thinking about this could benefit from reading: Getting Serious about Inbound Marketing
I have one last bone to pick with something that a lot of people dont think of when it comes to SEO, but it fits and Im tired of running into it. You know that website that you have? Oh, you helped design it? Yes, I see how that menu looks all cool. Flash, you dont say?
Your website can say a lot about you and your brand. I know a lot of people pay a lot of good money for a site, only to have it be ugly as sin, non-functional, or not search engine friendly. This has been going on since I started working online and its not bound to stop anytime soon but Im pleading with you to save yourself the time and money and headache:
The next time you go to build a site, hire a designer. Shop around. But when you find one thats good, trust in them and their design work. They do this for a living and you dont.
Guide your designer, but dont do the designing. You didnt hire them to just use tools you dont understand. Allow them the freedom to make something great for you.
At the same time, you should also hire a great SEO. This person will work with the designer and the developer to ensure that what you end up with not only works to your needs but will do everything it needs to do in regards to the search engines as well.
Original Image Credit: VHS Survivors by Homies In Heaven/Flickr.
Editors note: This column originally was published on August 7, 2012, and comes in at No. 8 on our countdown of the 10 most popular Search Engine Watch columns of 2012. As the clock ticks down to 2013, were celebrating the Best of 2012 by revisiting our most popular columns, as determined by our readers. Enjoy and keep checking back!
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