Common Sense SEO

There has been a fair amount of confusion across the internet about what works in the wake of Google Penguin's changes to search engine optimization and search engine results. I have seen any number of suggested steps to take that promise to reverse the effects of Penguin. For websites that took a serious kick from the update, I am sure that any kind of quick fix looks attractive, but it is probably a bad idea. Because I believe those kind of quick fixes it what prompted the changes in the first place.

I have a lot of respect for the Google model. I think they have the best interest of the searchers in mind, mostly, with a healthy dose of looking out for their own interests mixed in. They are pretty up front about that, so I don't get heartburn when the Google Plus posts show up higher than other items. Like me, Google is in business to make money.

But trying to constantly find ways around the Google algorithm changes will probably land your website in a circular path of constantly having to react to more changes. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 changes a year, Google doesn't exactly sit around twiddling thumbs. If you are trying to out-maneuver all of those changes, you are wasting a lot of time.

How much easier to just get in there and provide good content for your customers. Make sure the basics are in place and then just do the same thing over and over. You know, slow and steady wins the race. Basic blocking and tackling. Choose your favorite allegory and run with it, but if you are talking to your customers in a way that makes sense to them, well you should be attracting the right kind of attention.

Need some help with that? Contact me, I will be happy to write, edit or help you develop ideas for your website. 

What's A Google Penguin?

There is talk across the blogosphere about the ill effects of Google's latest Panda update called Penguin. Launched on April 27, Penguin plugged some holes in Google's algorithms (again) and it is now tougher to improve your search results(SERPs) using content farms. Just like they reduced the impact of link farms, Google is now reducing the impact on SERPs from sites that simply piled on SEO heavy articles. There are many websites crying foul and a few that saw their SERPs fall off a cliff. But the average site most likely never noticed the change, and that is how it should be. Content farms are churning out articles that are simply cover for keyword-stuffed strings of sentences. Of course they are not all like that, but the ones who were most affected by Penguin were. It should not have come as a surprise that Google would find a way to improve their results. It is what they do, and they do it dozens of times each year. Yes, optimizing your site for keywords is good, but keyword stuffing is just dumb. Your readers want to get good information, not sort through gibberish to find the point. There is no easy way out, no shortcut to the finish line. Marketing is a long, careful process of many variables clicking together in harmony. There is no quick fix that lasts very long and without a sound strategy behind it, no marketing tactic can succeed. All the wailing and gnashing of teeth about Penguin is, I think, scaring some folks. But the thing to remember is that if you are doing the right thing for the right reason and you aren't trying to find the Philosopher's Stone of SEO, then all will be well. Good content that is relevant to your customer base is the gold standard.

Have you heard about Facebook Edge Rank?

First there was the Google Page Rank, which indexed your website based on a series of factors that essentially determine how important your site is compared to others. On the 1 to 10 scale, Google ranks a 9 or a 10 (depending on who you talk to). Amazon is right up there, as is Facebook. A few weeks ago, folks started to talk about your Klout rating. This is a number that determines how influential YOU are among the people you interact with. Now, I'm reading about Facebook's Edge Rank, an index that determines which of your "friends'" posts you see and which of them see your posts. (Here's a great article that gives a good explanation: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7885-edgerank-the-most-important-algorithm-you-ve-never-heard-of)

So, as marketers we are challenged with an ever-changing series of factors that determine how we place our advertising, what content we should develop and how and where to place it. My dashboard is getting busier and bigger as I try to keep ahead of the latest way to measure me, my business, and my influence in the digital world.

The power of SEO

There's a great article on searchengineland.com today (http://searchengineland.com/seo-beats-ppc-social-media-for-generating-leads-99064) that indicates marketers are seeing the power of SEO. What's interesting to me is that while marketers who were part of the study said they felt like SEO was producing more leads, they are still planning to expand their spending on social media and SEM. That may be because they are shifting resources from traditional media to online media, but it also may be because it is easier to track and, therefore, justify those expenses. SEO takes a lot of time and it's a continuous process. Running banner ads is a lot less labor-intensive even if it is becoming less and less effective.

I see the cost increases on social media restricting some of that investment in the near future, but that is reflective of the results people are seeing, too.