Understanding Search Engine Optimization – Tips and Tricks
If you’ve been looking to drive targeted, hungry and ready-to-buy traffic to your website for any amount of time, but didn’t know how, or thought you had to fork out an arm and a leg just to achieve this objective, then welcome to Assegai Media, we hope to clear some misconceptions about seo in general, including how to generate traffic to your website, regardless of the time of day it is.
A few years back, pre-2007 to be exact, all it took to rank websites, was a EMD domain (exact match domain, i.e domain with the same name as the keyword you were aiming to rank for), a couple of pages with overstuffed keywords on it, sprinkle in a few hundred spammy blog comment backlinks to that domain and voila, you were on page ONE of Google baby… and off you could go to improve on your handicap on the golf course, or twiddle your fingers whilst contemplating what mischievous endeavor you could get yourself into next with all the money you were likely to make from such high rankings in the search engines.
As you would imagine, this was the proverbial “Gold Rush” of internet marketing, and most internet marketers made their name (and money) doing it this way but, hoodwinking the customers landing on these websites into partying with their hard-earned cash was quite a challenge in and of itself!
You see, the content on these high ranking websites was sub-par to say the least. The content was unreadable, it was written with the intention of ranking websites, and not engaging the customer at all.
Soon enough there was an outpouring of negative comments to the Google gods to mediate and “clean-up” their muck-strewn search engine, or there would be a mass-exodus of traffic from Google to, you know where!
Now, if you know anything about Google, they’re not in the advertising business for the fun of it, no Siree!
Lest we forget, Google is principally an Advertising company, they merely use their search engine as the platform to achieve that aim.
Soon enough Google caught wind of what nefarious activities were happening right on their front door, and they gave prime-directive to one Matt Cutts, Head of Google’s webspam, to clean up this mess, or else.
This directive culminated in a series of brutal cleanses ever unleashed on the internet marketing community to date, starting with what was termed the Farmer Algorithm update c.02/11
The Farmer update was presumably aimed at content farms; those that produced low-quality information or republished content for the purpose of generating revenue that was often in the form of advertising.
Just to refresh your memory, JCPenney was hard-nailed for using link-farms that year.
Literally overnight JCPenney felt the sting and lost rankings across several keywords, and so did a host of other big name brands.
If JCPenney, BMW, The BBC, Overstock etc.. companies that have limitless advertising resources could be hammered by Google for some shady linking strategies, imagine the implications for most local small business owners who use fly-by-night SEO services!
Subsequent to the Farmer Algo Update in 2011, Google continues to unleash updates, which ultimately affect the way your websites rank in the search engines.
What Really Goes on behind the scenes at Google to Effect these changes?
It is pretty fascinating to learn how Google actually goes about implementing such changes. Essentially, executives at the company ask real people real questions (for example, “Would you buy from this site?”, “Is this content useful?”) and then make changes to their algorithm that would “correct” the results.
The important thing to know is that while Google uses real people to help define the traits of high- and low-quality sites, the implementation of the changes is applied algorithmically (in other words, nothing personal).
Food for thought..
In keeping up with their perception of cleaning up spammy links and sites from search, in September 2012 Google updated their algorithm with what was infamously called the Panda update.
If you thought the Farmer update was significant, then the Panda update was tantamount to a web tsunami, because this update went after EMD domains with such impunity and force the entire internet marketing world, including a host of notable seo’s, were affected en masse.
To say millions of websites were wiped off search overnight, is an understatement!
SEO is Dead, Long live SEO!
Fast forward to 2013, Google released over 50 algorithm updates in 2012 alone, the latest being the Penguin update, which is in its second phase, dubbed Penguin 2.0.
Guess the gist of it all is, what’s a small business owner to do to maintain rankings, let along realize any?
One thing is for sure though..
To optimize your web pages for high Google rankings, take a look at the web pages that currently have top rankings on Google and try to find out what these pages have done to get these rankings. As these pages have top 10 rankings, they must have done something right
That said, and as sound as the above statement may be, there is no guarantee that the number One ranking website will still be there tomorrow, but it’s a starting point.
Another ranking factor which most SEOs seem to be negating entirely, is that of using social signals to hoist their customers’ sites up in the search engines.
Social signals are now much more important than ever before, sites like Facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+ and others can play an active role in your ranking strategy.
Avoid these, and pay the penalty of losing rank, literally.
Why Social Media Hasn’t Worked Much for Most Small Businesses
Most SEO practitioners have not educated themselves and their clients on the benefits and power of using social media the right way. Instead, they prefer to adopt the role of opportunity seeker.
You know what that means, right? Opportunity seekers are the ones who flit from opportunity to opportunity, always looking for the secret or shortcut to success. If they can’t get a quick payday, they abandon their plan and move on to a new opportunity.
Oft times, it’s easier to remain and maintain a “seo persona” of creating backlinks and submitting clients’ sites to search engines, instead of embracing social media as a compliment to seo.
When it comes to using social media, most SEOs look at these tools merely as methods to push out their marketing messages. When the people in their networks don’t respond to their offers to buy, they throw up their hands and declare that social media doesn’t work.
Marketing monologues backfire on social media platforms because the people in your network trust value and commitment. When you approach your target market as a pushy salesperson, you become irrelevant. Worst case, you’ll offend the very people you’re trying to attract.
If you:
Don’t invite fans to interact with you…
Post only promotional messages…
Drive traffic only to your website…
View each social media channel as a stand-alone network…
Measure your social media marketing effectiveness by revenue alone…
… bad news. You’re an opportunity seeker.
You can learn more about search engine optimization tips and how to leverage the power of social media with seo by contacting us for more details, or for a complimentary analysis of your web strategy.
You’ll also discover that Assegai Media LLC is one of the most affordable seo companies for your local business.
To your resounding online success..
George Feelgood.
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