Remington Begg
Have you paid any attention to Google's recent updates? If so, the main buzzwords that are getting your attention are Panda or Penguin. For many websites, search engine ranking has been a roller coaster ride with these recent Google updates. (We're happy to say that our SEO and internet marketing clients seem unscathed at this point!!!)
So what's next? Only Google can really answer that question. But from what we can see is the recent changes and direction that Google making is only going to continue. As we've been saying for a long time now. It's more important than ever to start optimizing for people rather than search engines. It's still about having relevance (measured by site content & inbound links), trust, and mix in a bit of social media and your website should be fine.
Basically the "rules" havent changed, but it's worth returning to SEO basics and doing an SEO audit on your website.
Here's a few things to pay attention to:
- On Page SEO: One of the first things Google (and other search engines) consider is the content ON your website. For each page on your site Check your title tags, headings & sub-headings, bold text, ALT tags, and filenames. They need to all be keyword-righ and UNIQUE. Google Webmaster tools has a free service that checks your pages and reports any problems. (google.com/webmasters/tools)
- Does your site have Duplicate Content: Consider whether your site has oringinal content; DUPLICATION CAN INCLUDE REPEATING MANUFACTURERS' SITES' product descriptions. Review the ratio of ads to copy: too many might mean content is too thin. Keep your content topics fresh, and focus on core business topics as this will be the type of content Google will rate.
Link Building: If you've got a history (or your SEO company does) of fake or manipulated inbound linking, your health check should indentify and work on purging links damaging your reputation (or google ranking). as a starting point, look for identical anchor text on inbound links, next, look for links from low quality sites such as blog networks and comment spam, and links from low-quality article marketing sites. Get Rid of these links that point to your site and work on getting more natural links in the future. (interested in an SEO company that pays attention to all these factors? click here)
Taking the time to go over your website and do this SEO audit will allow you to get your site to show up in the best possible position and allow you to achieve high rankings. Prepare for the "new normal" of ongoing search engine changes and you'll be all set for success.
image credit: seomoz, FindYourSearch via photo pin cc
Remington is the Lead Designer and Marketing Strategist for Impulse Creative, An Internet Marketing Agency in Fort Myers, Florida. You can connect with him using the following social networks: Google+, Twitter, Linked In & Facebook
