By choosing to use SEO as a main marketing technique, we give up a
portion of our control to a third party. That third party is Google.
Cooperating with Google and adhering to their standards can bring high rewards, so the trade of control is usually worth it. Google receives a new website submission which will hopefully provide the answer to their user’s search queries and we internet marketers get targeted traffic from our submissions. Seems like a fair trade. However, it doesn’t always work out this well.
Within the past two years, Google has been releasing algorithm updates on a large scale. These updates specifically target different types of websites. The Mayday Update, for example, targeted “Google sniper” websites (sites with only a page or two of content built with the sole purpose of getting high rankings for as little effort as possible and selling products or collecting emails) which gamed Google's algorithm to fill up popular search results with spam websites. With the Mayday Update, many marketer’s full-time incomes were gone overnight.
Google followed this with the Panda Update earlier this year. Although this update was more subtle, the results were staggering. Massive sites which were previously viewed as authority websites lost huge portions of their traffic.
Cooperating with Google and adhering to their standards can bring high rewards, so the trade of control is usually worth it. Google receives a new website submission which will hopefully provide the answer to their user’s search queries and we internet marketers get targeted traffic from our submissions. Seems like a fair trade. However, it doesn’t always work out this well.
Within the past two years, Google has been releasing algorithm updates on a large scale. These updates specifically target different types of websites. The Mayday Update, for example, targeted “Google sniper” websites (sites with only a page or two of content built with the sole purpose of getting high rankings for as little effort as possible and selling products or collecting emails) which gamed Google's algorithm to fill up popular search results with spam websites. With the Mayday Update, many marketer’s full-time incomes were gone overnight.
Google followed this with the Panda Update earlier this year. Although this update was more subtle, the results were staggering. Massive sites which were previously viewed as authority websites lost huge portions of their traffic.
The story doesn’t end there. With each of these
updates, Google has cleared the web of spam content and filler niche
websites. These spam websites aren’t the only victims, though. Much like
the food chain, when you disrupt one group of websites, you
dramatically effect the entire internet. When Google updates their
algorithm, it can drastically effect ALL websites on the internet – even
white hat websites.
In today’s article, we’ll go over a few essential tips to help your website weather any future algorithm updates.
Create a Fantastic User Experience
Create a Fantastic User Experience
The first and most important factor to remember might seem quite obvious at first. Provide each visitor to your website with a great browsing experience.
Have you ever had this experience? You search
Google looking for answers and the first site you visit is exactly what
you’re looking for. This is the effect we need to duplicate with our own
websites.
Although this factor is obvious, it’s too often
neglected due to laziness or lack of time. It’s not easy to create a
great user experience. You need to provide quality content and test it
multiple times. Determine what the market wants out of your website and
deliver that experience. If you can deliver the ideal experience to your
visitors, your odds of avoiding damage in a future update is
dramatically increased.
Outsourcing Content? Quality Check!
Content creation
can be an extremely time consuming process. Each new website created
requires pages and pages of fresh content. If your goal is to run a
large authority website, you’ll need hundreds of pages of content. For
this reason, outsourcing content is extremely popular.
Outsourcing can be a double edged sword. When you
outsource content, you’re again putting control in the hands of someone
else. If you have great writers working for you this isn’t a problem. If
you have a lower budget, however, you may find that your written
content suffers.
With the Panda Update, it has become clear that
Google uses content as a massive factor when determining which websites
are spam or fluff. It’s more important than ever to hire competent
writers and create quality unique content.
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Expert or Authority?
The Mayday Update showed us exactly what Google
thinks of “filler websites.” If your website is not an expert or
authority in your niche, your chances of being effected in a future
updunwritten law of quality contentate increase exponentially.
Expert and authority status is gained through
content and consistency. If you can provide excellent content within one
area of your niche, you will gain authority in that specific area. At
this point, it’s time to expand into other parts of your niche. This
process demands fresh content for each area you expand into. If all this
content is spot on and well written, Google will begin viewing your
website as an authority within your niche.
Although the Panda Update hit several known “authority websites,” these websites blatantly played against the unwritten law of quality content.
As a result, they were penalized. It’s worth noting that even though
these websites were obviously churning out subpar content, since they
were authority websites, Google was extremely hesitant to pull the
trigger (although they finally did).
If you run an authority website with quality content, you’re in an excellent spot for the longterm.
Keep SEO to White Hat
Last but not least, stick with white hat SEO. It
can be tempting to spam links and manipulate Google’s algorithm, but
this can be detrimental to your website’s success. SEO takes time, and
the only way to speed up that process is to game the search engine.
As we’ve seen in the past, though, black and grey hat SEO
can spell disaster to your website’s future. It’s always worth it to go
100% white hat. It might take more time, but you can be sure that your
website’s future is much more stable than a website ranking due to shady
and manipulative SEO techniques.
Keep Updated on what Google is Doing!
Although Google has the final word with your
website, by creating excellent content and staying within white hat SEO,
your website will have the best possible chance of succeeding
regardless of Google updates.
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