4 Link Building Tips for Surviving the Upcoming Google SEO Apocalypse. Getting a penalty from Google can mean lower search engine rankings, your site's removal from its search index--even the death of your business. As Google continues to step up its war on spammy, over-optimized links, businesses must be more vigilant than ever in protecting their link profiles. The search giant readily admits links will become devalued over time as Google finds other ways of gauging the relevance and popularity of a webpage.
However, links are still very much an indicator of how high a page should rank today. Google has its hands full trying to sort out the good links from the bad and some webmasters will inevitably be caught in the crossfire. How can you keep your link profile clean and avoid penalization in the upcoming SEO apocalypse? First, it's important to understand the different types of trouble you can get your site into, intentionally or completely by accident. Websites can become devalued in Google's eyes if the algorithm picks up a problem. 1. 2. 3. 4. As Google Slowly Kills SEO, What's Next? SEO is going out and we’re still excited! After nineteen panda and five penguin updates, Google has changed the game of SEO, making marketing automation the most important tool of marketers today.
It’s October of 2013 and marketers can no longer count on Google telling them which keywords people are using to find their online content. But rather than making content less valuable, it increases the need to track user behavior. The Downward Spiral of SEO February 24, 2011 – the first Panda update hit Google search results. The goal of this and the following Panda updates was to fight low-quality content. Seven months later in October, citing user privacy concerns, Google implemented secure, or SSL connections, for everyone logging in to any of their products. Google provided a way around this. This was the opening salvo in numerous updates that Google put into place in order to combat web spam. Double-Digit Growth Of (not provided) This Is A Big Problem That’s 1 out of every 4 visitors.
Sources. 2013: The Year In Google SEO So Far. In the first half of this year, there has been a lot of SEO-related news coming out from Google. Google has pushed out many new algorithms, made many changes to the search result interfaces, penalized many websites and tactics, as well as sent out many warnings about upcoming penalties or actions. All of this was covered in depth on our sister site, Search Engine Land, but a recap is in order for our Marketing Land readers. Below, I will summarize the changes in order of Google’s Panda algorithm, Penguin algorithm, and other algorithm updates and launches. I will then discuss some of the manual actions taken and then some of Google’s warnings and statements. Google Panda Algorithm Google’s Panda algorithm launched in February 2011 and has since been at the top of the minds of webmasters and SEOs. Google Penguin Algorithm Google’s Penguin algorithm launched in April 2012, and while Panda looked closely at content, Penguin went after links pointing to a page.
Google’s Manual Actions: Public Relations is the New SEO Strategy You Need | The Cline Group. By Samuel Scott “SEO is dead.” Every time I see this phrase, I groan. The utterance often comes from someone who had been using so-called spam “black hat” or “grey hat” SEO methods and had then been penalized by Google. To them, all of the “SEO work” they had been doing had been wasted.
Such people do not truly understand search-engine optimization – it is a collection of best-practices in numerous areas that collectively aim to result in “getting found” in Google and then obtaining high levels of traffic and conversions. To put it simply: Google rewards websites that do “X” – whatever that may be. Building a Brand Online for SEO As Savoo Head of PR and Partnerships Ed Fleming notes in a story on Search Engine Journal: Why did the decision maker want us to take this strategic approach to external communications? Hiring an “SEO person” and merely telling him or her, “Optimize our website and start building links!” Which one are you using? How to Use PR to Help Your SEO Link Exchanges vs. Google Makes Non-Desktop SEO an Absolute Necessity. Did you catch Google's recent post on its webmaster blog regarding mobile website infrastructure and search results? I found it really interesting; Google announced changes to their algorithm which will favor sites with best-in-class mobile infrastructure; for once I don't think you'd find an SEO that begrudges the changes they are making.
Failure to fix annoying mobile experiences will now actively hinder your efforts to rank well within search results. The main emphasis of their post is this: if in doubt, connect the user to the content they want on a non-mobile page, rather than direct them to an incorrect mobile-formatted page. For instance, having a blanket redirect to your mobile homepage when the site detects a user is on a smartphone, despite the fact they have clicked on a deep link, has now been called out as an explicit no-no (see diagram below for what not to do).
This post marks a change in Google's attitude towards mobile infrastructure. Image Credit: Aleyda Solis. New Rules for SEO Success in 2013 | Inc. 5000. With users' behaviors and Google's algorithms rapidly and constantly changing, measuring SEO success by your ranking position for your favorite keywords means falling behind the curve. Here are the most meaningful metrics for SEO for 2013. 1. Focus on Your Keyword Portfolio, Not Rankings Search engine users are getting smarter and more specific. Today, over 70 percent of searches online contain three or more words in the search query. Focusing on "fat head" keywords is an unbalanced strategy with diminishing returns. 2. Creating great content isn't rocket science. 3. Last year's Penguin update eliminated the value of content published on untrusted websites. 4. Social media is an extremely efficient channel for distributing and promoting your content.
Never before have SEO and inbound marketing had more potential for digital marketers. Seo. How Google's Panda Update Rocked SEO in 2012. 10 Old SEO Methods You Need to Stop. I'm proud to say that I've never been responsible for a site that has been punished by any of the Google Panda/Penguin updates. I've seen my fair share of Google fallout though, usually brought forth by someone after they've seen their traffic tank. They don't know what happened, why, or much less how to fix it. Truth be told, I'm surprised by how often I've been presented with this scenario. Every single time it's 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": While we must be aware, and understand, things like Google Panda/Penguin and other major changes in the algorithms, if we focus on doing “good marketing”, all other things should fall in line, and major algorithm changes shouldn’t be a concern. And that's the crux of the issue: Here are 10 old SEO methods that I've seen come across my desk in the past two weeks and how you can do better. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. SEO Was Yesterday. 500 Startups’ PostRocket Fires Up $610K For Facebook News Feed Optimization. Businesses struggle to come up with what to post to their Facebook Page each day, and making those posts actually get seen is a difficult as the dark arts. That’s why PostRocket has raised $610,000 to help businesses blow up on Facebook thanks to news feed optimization. PostRocket analyzes your Facebook Page, and provides recommendations for when and what to post. The 500 Startups Fall 2011/Winter 2012 company pulled in the syndicate seed round from Polaris Ventures, 500 Startups, and several angels.
PostRocket’s CEO Tim Chae is actually the youngest founder ever funded by Dave McClure’s accelerator. The money will build out the team, content recommendation tech, and marketing, and hopefully get it out of private beta. The investment seems like a smart little bet considering the bloated acquisition prices Facebook marketing companies have been commanding lately.
PostRocket’s team was originally managing the Facebook presence for multi-platinum selling musician Pitbull. 30 Essential SEO Resources for Beginners. By Gregory Ciotti For many bloggers, SEO seems like some kind of black magic that only super technical people can ever get the hang of. I’ll admit, starting out with SEO can be very intimidating. The massive amounts of information (and misinformation) is enough to send any blogger into a state I like to call “information paralysis”, where they are unable to act. I’d like to alleviate some of that today. Below I’ve outlined some of the most essential and trusted SEO resources, from blogs, to tools, to guides, to forums and conferences: it’s all here. Dive in below, and don’t let the fear of learning something new stop you from utilizing this great inbound marketing aspect. It’s always good practice to keep updated on the world of SEO with the top SEO blogs.
Below I’ve outlined a few of my personal favorites, covering search engine news, tips, and algorithm changes. Blogs can be an incredible source of information. These complete guides offer a more thorough offering on learning SEO. Ntent Strategy Generator Tool – V2 Update. > Please give me the tool now! Way back in September we released the first version of our content strategy tool, and due to popular demand and awesome feedback I’m excited to be releasing an even hotter version of the tool!
This blog post takes a quick look at some of the cool new features in this latest update. Since the launch of the first version of the tool, there have been numerous updates across a number of websites forcing the xpath to return a null value, or to change the value returned. The first part of this update restores values for any empty fields, and reformats a number of elements of the tool for a cleaner, more digestible appearance.
More Insight from Google Insights We all know how useful and powerful Google Insights can be for identifying trends and finding out what is ‘hot’ right now to provide you with the ability to spot opportunities to create new content. Both sets of data for ‘Top Searches’ and ‘Rising Searches’ can now be found within the content tool: