The days of gaming Google’s search algorithms seem to be coming to an end. Soon, search will be based on activities that require honest effort to gain that valuable search result placement. Content is regaining the throne as king of search and things like video and social referrals are going to weigh more heavily than purchased links and keyword laden tags. If you’re going to get on the first page of Google’s search results – you’re going to need to earn it.
Search relevance is going to take a consistent flow of quality information which is shared and appreciated by many people. Demonstrating “consistent” and “shared and appreciated by many” takes time – it isn’t going to happen overnight. It seems to me, high search results will take time as well as effort over a period of time (sounds like work). Stale content, regardless of its inherent beauty and grammatical correctness, will result in a negative effect on your search results.
Thing 1 – Feed the Beast
One of the easiest ways to develop a consistent flow of quality information is to have an integrated blog environment in your website and a process to feed it (just having blog pages doesn’t count as content – they need to have some words).
If you’re not blogging – you need to start. If your blog is not integrated with your website (Blogger, Tumblr, etc.), your website (the place folks will most likely respond to your calls to action) will not reap the SEO benefits of the regular updates.
Keep your site content current – make sure those nagging updates get processed – quickly. Changing the content on your “regular” site pages will provide the assurance to the Panda (the name Google gave to their latest Orb) that you’re taking care of your online information.
While you’re at it, take a look at your Google Analytics data and find those pages that have either high bounce rates, or short visitor durations. Give ‘em a good re-write – you really have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Changing the content helps Panda, changing the content may even make it more appealing to your visitors – two birds, one stone.
Thing 2 – Pursue Qualified Links
A connected presence is important – but you can’t just be connected anywhere. Use your social networks and Tweet about those blog posts (those tweets are links in Google’s eyes – they just don’t last very long). If you’re creating good content, you’ll get some re-tweets (more links), and maybe gain a relevant link from a related site to your wonderful content.
Another good way to get links from other sites is to submit relevant comments on other people’s blogs and find a way to tie your comment into a relevant piece of content on your site – to which you provide a link in your comment. Be careful here – you don’t want to abuse this privilege. If you’re posting blatant advertising commentary you run the risk of having your post removed, or worse yet starting a negative online campaign against you as a spammer in comments (who needs more fires to fight?).
Are you “link receptive” on your site? Do you have an obvious way for folks to submit links of interest to your site? This can lead to interesting, bona fide cross-linking opportunities. It may be as simple as adding a page or paragraph on your “links of interest” page to let folks know how they can reach you to get their link added to your site. When you reach back – you can ask for similar consideration; ah, how link quality was intended from the get-go.
If you’ve fallen victim to “link magicians”, I urge you to re-evaluate your program. There is a lot of buzz around the idea that Google’s new algorithm is actually negatively impacting your rating when they discover “farmed links” to sites.
Thing 3 – Get Tubed
Google’s acquisition of YouTube is being felt in their new algorithm. We’ve notices significant upticks in ranking as we’ve developed You Tube campaigns for our clients. This is not only a good idea for your organic search rankings – it is a great way to gain the additional exposure of the second largest search engine – You Tube.
If you really want to gain some search cred – add sub-titles to your YouTube videos. All that text is searchable content – and it’s incredibly easy to make happen. Check out CaptionTube if you want to see “easy” for getting sub-titles into YouTube.
Keep your eyes peeled
Watch what’s being written on the web about the changes and effects of Panda – it is quite the topic these days. Share some of your experiences by dropping a comment or question below – don’t know if I can answer them, but you may find someone on the team that can.