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Why Basic SEO in All the Right Places Doesn't Cut It Anymore
11/10/11
Category: SEO, Google's Panda Algorithm, News
I subscribe to SitePro News and many other sources including WebPro News, Sitepoint and SEOmoz to name just a few. I've been subscribing to these eNewsletters for years so as to keep up to date with correct SEO practices.
A client said to me recently, "I dislike the fact Google, and the other Search Engines keep on changing the 'goal-posts' - how are we supposed to maintain a comparative check on such matters."
This is a fair call considering the tough economic times we find ourselves in right now. However my response to the first part of the comment was:
"Google's 'goal-posts' haven't moved - they have always based their reputation as being THE Search Engine that provides users worldwide with the BEST Search Engine (SE) experience - as in the SE that uses the best algorithms to provide the best, most accurate and most relevant search results for its worldwide users. It has no choice but to change how it maintains its reputation from time to time. As online business owners we need to be responsive and work with SEO professionals who can help guide us.
Google also has to keep ahead of Black Hat SEO's who try to 'game the system' by using spammy linkbuilding techniques. This is why unless you REALLY know what you are doing you should not attempt your own LinkBuilding campaign unassisted, else you may accidentally get seen by Google as trying to spam the system... which will penalise or list poorly your website in the Google listings for the phrases you are trying to target - meaning your efforts could work against you."
Just this morning I also received this eNewsletter article from SitePro News which says similar but also explains why you need to invest in Social Media Marketing as well as the creation of an actual brand as part of you advanced SEO marketing activities. I've now decided to share it here. If you've got the time feel free to grab a coffee, relax and have a read.
The below article is written by Jill Whalen who is the CEO of High Rankings, an SEO Consulting company in the Boston, MA and all credits go to Jill Whalen:
Advanced SEO - Why Basic SEO is Not Enough Anymore
"When I teach my SEO classes, I begin by telling the students all the things that SEO isn't. I've always felt that it was important because they're often expecting to hear some secret formula for SEO success. And why wouldn't they, with all the myths and outright wrong/bad information that constantly swirls through the SEOsphere? When I finish telling them that everything they thought was SEO really isn't, they stare at me with their mouths hanging open. So I tell them what SEO actually is:
Making your website the best it can be for the search engines and your site visitors.
Unfortunately, that doesn't do much to alter their blank stares. After all, it's an incredibly open-ended definition of SEO. Still, it's the only one that truly encompasses what good SEO is all about, as well as why you need to do it. While my method of SEO has always been based on that principle, more people are coming around to it in the wake of Google's Panda Algorithm.
Pre-Panda, many people built thriving businesses using the following basic SEO process:
- Buy a keyword-rich domain name that encompasses the products you want to sell.
- Build a templated website around it.
- Link internally to the product pages with descriptive anchor text.
- Use those same keyword phrases in the Title and H tags.
- Submit the website URL to lots of directories.
- Drop links to the website in other people's blogs and forums.
Voila! Instant Google Success!
They'd repeat the process hundreds of times with different types of products, and then run on autopilot. While it might not have worked on every site they created, the sheer volume of websites they ran would be enough to make them a decent living.
So maybe there was a secret formula after all?
Perhaps, but after Google's Panda Algorithm was implemented, many (but not all) who followed and succeeded with that formula for years suddenly lost a good chunk of their revenue.
What Changed?
My own speculation, based on numerous websites that I've reviewed where this happened, is that Google finally decided that there needed to be more to a website than having "SEO in all the right places." And it makes sense. Why should one site do better than another just because they read up on SEO and knew the best places to stick their keywords? It shouldn't. And by allowing exactly that to happen, Google was enabling sites with old-fashioned, by-the-book SEO to beat out potentially higher quality websites.
The result was Google not always giving their own users (the searchers) the best, most relevant sites for the search query at hand. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally blaming Google here. It has to be a daunting task for a machine to know the difference between an okay (but great with SEO) site and a great (but perhaps not so great with SEO) one. Especially when so much of how Google tried to determine relevancy and quality was based on links - and even more on anchor text. It simply became too easy to game that system.
Giving Google What They Wanted
I certainly understand and even empathise with those site owners who've lost a significant portion of their income. They were just giving Google what it wanted. And because it worked so well, they had no reason to go above and beyond their basic formula. Why build a brand for your company when a keyword-rich domain would provide a better return on investment? Why spend time becoming an expert in your industry and educating your target market on the intricacies of your products when you could hire someone to write low-quality "SEO articles" and submit them to article directory sites instead?
Interestingly enough, many of the business owners I've talked to who have been getting by with formula SEO all these years have told me that they have tons of happy customers. Yet there are no obvious signs of this online, such as glowing reviews on Google Places or other online review sites (there aren't bad ones either). How are customers even supposed to remember the name of a company called something like WoodAndMetalDiningRoomChairs.com? (I just made that one up.)
Mainly, customers found these websites through Google, made their purchase and received their merchandise. There's nothing wrong with that, but there was also no personal connection made. This is further illustrated by the fact that if you look at social media sites, you won't see much chatter about these companies. In fact, many of them don't even use social media, or simply have cursory accounts. Again, they didn't need to.
No Marketing Budget
A marketing person, plan, or budget was never necessary nor even a consideration. Sadly, for those companies, they don't have much choice anymore if they want to stay in business. But ironically, now that they really need a marketing budget, there's no money in the till to go toward it.
If I've just described your business and websites - even if you haven't lost a portion of your revenue (yet), you may have thought you could hire a new SEO company to mix in a little extra SEO mojo and fix up your Google problems. But while they might find some on-page or off-page things you could be doing better, I wouldn't count on that to bring back your lost traffic and sales.
So What Should You Do?
You need to seriously rethink your online strategy. You need to stop saying, "Well, it always worked for me in the past." You need to build a brand and you need to market the heck out of it. You may even need to consolidate all your related keyword-rich domain websites into one big brand website. (Don't do that last one without consulting a professional.) You need to learn everything you can about social media marketing and start doing it. You need to get in contact with your happy customers and ask them to write reviews online as well as to evangelize about you to everyone they come in contact with. You need to also keep in contact with them in a variety of ways.
All of those things are going to make a much bigger difference over the long haul than rewriting your title tags or adjusting your keyword density. The big takeaway here is that while your website may already be the best it can be technically for search engines, it's time to make it the best it can be for your users. Both parts of that equation are equally important. It's not going to be quick or easy, but if you want to stay in business, it's probably going to be necessary."
About The Author
Jill Whalen is the CEO of High Rankings, an SEO Consulting company in the Boston, MA area since 1995. Follow her on Twitter @JillWhalen. If you learned from this article, be sure to invite your colleagues to sign up for the High Rankings Advisor SEO Newsletter so they can receive similar articles in the future!
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