There’s been an important update to the way Google runs their search algorithms, designed to weed out the number of junk content farms. You and your pages shouldn’t be concerned, except if you’re trying to game the system.
But you should always be alert for how such changes affect your site and make corrections when needed. If your search results have changed lately, this may explain why.
For professionals who use online content to market their services, you need to keep an eye on your analytics, and continue to follow good advice for content marketing. Here’s an excerpt from Website Magazine, an article from Mike Phillips that constitues good search marketing advice:
From the Official Google Blog: “Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.”
Be aggressive about building your user base. Search is powerful but it’s not the only way to ensure visitors to your website. Build a strong following on social networks and work hard to increase email sign-ups and newsletter subscribers.
Solicit quality inbound links. High-quality links will remain a pivotal factor in search engine rankings. Be diligent about networking with like-minded content producers and work to get links – quality links, including those with keyword-rich anchor text. In no way is it recommended to purchase links.
Produce varied forms of content. Search engines like a little variety. In addition to a company blog, consider producing video for a YouTube channel, a photo log on Flickr, or a podcast on iTunes.
Hire a good writer. This public call for quality content might warrant the hiring of a skilled writer for some businesses. Well-written, compelling content tends to attract links, garner social mentions and spread through online communities. Remember that today’s skilled writer also knows how to create SEO-friendly content.
I couldn’t agree with this more. Although I’m a long way from being algorithm-savvy and an SEO wizard, you can’t go wrong with these 4 tips.
Here’s another tip: If you want to gain mastery in SEO optimized posts for your blog, consider purchasing Scribe SEO Optimizer. Once installed in your blog platform, it will tell you how well your post will do with the search robots BEFORE you publish and tell you what you need to do better. Can’t go wrong. Use my Scribe affiliate link, and we’ll both be happy, but especially you because you won’t need to worry about all this techie stuff.