Category: Search Engine Optimization

Google’s Panda and Penguin updates have turned the web upside down leaving SEO experts struggling to understand the what it takes to now earn top organic placement. In this recent article from Website Magazine (a publication that I really like), some tips are revealed that may help you to update your SEO strategy.

First, it appears that big brands are breaking all the rules and getting or retaining organic placement. There are some important take-aways we can glean from the research done for this article.

1. Size and authority of your website are key for organic placement. A 5 page website will never be able to garner organic placement when competing with larger well placed website. Blogging remains the very best way to quickly build authoritative content for small to medium sized businesses who want to compete with big brands.

2. Facebook shares will impact your organic placement. Twitter activity is down the list to number six for impact, but Facebook social signals remain a key indicator of success in placement on Google. That means not just posting on Facebook but having people share your posts that contain links.

3. The content in the <h1> tag and the volume of content on a page for big brands do not appear to impact organic placement.

“Surprisingly, the data show a negative correlation between these factors and rankings – contradicting traditional SEO theory,” explains Marcus Tober, Searchmetrics’ CTO. “So, not having keywords in headlines or having less text on a page seems to be associated with sites that rank higher.”

That’s interesting news pointing out that authority of a site actually counteracts the keyword density and using keywords in the <h1> tags for big brand sites. However, that does not mean that smaller brands cannot and should not optimize their page code, but do it smarter and in a natural readable format.

4. Too much advertising on a page even for big brands appears to impact organic placement. This is a direct impact from Google’s Panda and Penguin updates. It doesn’t mean you cannot have ads on your page, but need to not have your page all about ads.

In a nutshell, here are the factors Website Magazine says are important. Make sure to read the full article as it is really pretty helpful.

1. Facebook shares
2. Number of backlinks
3. Facebook total
4. Facebook comments
5. Facebook likes
6. Tweets
7. Percent of no-follow backlinks – interesting this is a factor too!
8. Keywords in domain name.
9. Percent of backlinks with keywords – you’ll take a hit for too many with SEO anchor text

 

Google’s growing zoo of animals that includes a Panda and Penguin have changed the complexion of search engine optimization forever. Just what is this zoo of animals you ask? Panda and Penguin are just two of the names of recent far-reaching Google algorithm updates. These two important updates have hit web businesses with a low relevance penalty relegating their placement to a figure so low that no one can find them in Google’s index; quashing businesses in the process.

These two updates focus on links, content relevancy, and optimization techniques. All of these Google has deemed to be “unnatural” and thus warranted of being filter out of their index. But, in the process many legitimate businesses have seem their income drop to nearly nothing and are scrambling to remediate their website.

What’s the Future Impact?

From my personal perspective these are the long term impacts that affect the search engine optimization industry:

1. Link building will have to happen naturally through great content and article marketing only to high value industry niche sites. This means a higher level of writing and no more article spinning or article placement on a number of sites.
2. Website content must no longer be considered thin but in-depth unique and informative. This requires a better level of writing and a clear strategy for content creation.
3. Want to create a website mainly to make money off of AdSense ads? Better find a new way to make money. It appears that Google is really filtering out these types of sites that typically try to build placement with “easy” links and have thin keyword dense content.
4. Watch the level of keyword density. It used to be that to move a site we worked on a 7% keyword density. Now we can only strive for between 1% and 2.3% or so and not get dinged by Google as overly optimized. It means that content really needs to be readable first and optimized second.
5. Off site conversations need to be beefed up on social media with links and information pointing back to the parent website, but in a meaningful way. That means a real conversation with followers not a commercial in every update.

Search engines are rewarding quality, large, authoritative websites that are consistently working to provide a rich information experience to readers. If you are looking for a firm to help you position yourself for this new world of search engine optimization, I invite you to check us out at www.mccordweb.com.

This is the million dollar question isn’t it? In today’s search arena can you and should you even work to improve organic placement or should you instead just concentrate on pay per click advertising. Personally, I think that the answer straddles both sides. This is what I recommend for organic placement and good website visibility.

Do Everything Right Consistently

• That means improve the quality of your content on your website. Write with your reader in mind.
• Make sure you are blogging under your own domain so you get the spider benefits.
• Look to add new articles, white papers, and thoughtful insights regularly to your website pages.
• Syndicate some of your content on article syndication sites.
• Do a monthly e-newsletter and archive it back on your website.
• Get going with social media and try to become an active part of a community.

Invest in Pay Per Click Advertising

• Put money into Google AdWords. Don’t break the bank, but make sure you have a presence and are using it to your advantage.
• Make sure you are using conversion tracking and have phone calling enabled with your programs.

You’ve just got to cover your bases in this changing world of search engines. You simply can’t go wrong with these approaches, they are simply sure to pay off in the long run in regards to organic placement, link building, and website visibility.