Never have 2 cuddly animals struck fear in the hearts of online marketers as the Panda and Penguin, thanks to Google. And for business search engine rankings and SEO, Panda 2.0 just reinforces that fear.
In case you aren’t familiar with Google search engine ranking algorithm, let me give you a brief explanation. Google was created as a search engine whose mission was to give the most accurate, unbiased and fair results. But with everything else on the web, people learned how to work the system in their favor – it’s call search engine optimization (SEO). Some less scrupulous marketers found ways to trick the Googlebots even more.
One of the most successful techniques was inbound link building. They found that the more links that pointed back to your site, the higher the ranking. Entire websites were devoted to nothing but links. Sites were being thrown up that had little or not value, landing pages that were essentially sales letters. And with the onset of cheap offshore outsourcing, site owners could pay to have several thousand links created for much less that it cost to create a full website.
In an effort to protect the integrity of their search results, Google engineers developed more complex algorithms to detect search engine spammers and those wild west gunslinger type SEO guys that pushed the system for their benefit. The latest round of changes were labeled Panda and Penguin by Google and their effect has been dramatic. Notably, sites with little or no content of value were hit the hardest. And sites that had their link on such sites also felt the sting, with lots of sites falling drastically in the search engine rankings.
Today, the push is toward quality content. That doesn’t mean pages of endless dribble just repeating the keywords over and over again. Here are some suggestions for content creation:
- Content should be written for the consumer and provide value.
- Content can be humorous, educational, informative or even controversial, as long as it’s original.
- Avoid scraping content from other sites. Google can identify pilfered content and you won’t get any credit for it.
- Attach your authorship to all content you create.
While some of the link strategies are still effective, i.e. links from quality sites, it falls back to having quality content . If that means hiring a writer to create that content, it’s well worth it. Don’t take a chance on getting Panda or Penguin slapped.
Gary Wagnon is the chief Ninja Marketing Officer for 800biz Ninja Marketing Solutions and the creator of the Ninja Marketing Dojo. The Dojo teaches business owners and marketers online strategies that increase traffic to their site, improve search engine rankings and converts browsers into buyers.
