| You
frantically look for evidence of dropped
links, pages not working, it HAS to be
something you've done! Well, the truth
is, it may not have been anything you did
- turns out Google updates their
algorithms every few months in an attempt
to improve it's search engine
optimization strategy.
In fact,
Google has shown that they are not afraid
to make major changes impacting tens of
thousands of sites, businesses and
corresponding sales and profits.
Even
more concerning, everything points to the
fact they will continue to make changes.
So what
can you do to protect your search engine
optimization strategy and the resulting
traffic critical to the success of your
online marketing?
There
are some things you can do.
1. BUILD
CONTENT WITH REAL, RELEVANT VALUE
Do you
develop content just for search engines
or just for your visitors and customers?
The
answer is both.
Truth
is, your customers search for information
based on keywords. Use tools like
Wordtracker (http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/part/wordtracker) to find those
keywords.
Plan
your articles around answering questions
associated with each keyword. Over time,
you will build highly relevant content
that will be irrisistable to the search
engines - no matter how they change them.
2. LINK
FOR QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY
One
single link with a Pagerank (Google's
term for ranking sites) of 5 is worth 10
or more sites with a Pagerank of 3.
In
addtion, as an important part of your
search engine optimization strategy, make
sure your links include a brief
description (a URL only inbound link may
be ignored), includes important keyword
and appears on a relevant partner site.
Avoid
FFA's and most link farms, they may
actually do you more harm than good.
3. AVOID
KNOWN MISTAKES
Common
mistakes people make with their search
engine optimization strategy are:
- Cross
linking unrelated sites, recent
discussion with master Affiliate
Marketing pro James Martell
recently brought this issue to
light
- Submitting
to link farms, in many cases this
will eventually get your site
penalized or even banned from the
SE's
- Duplicate
content. Many people feel the
need to duplicate their pages and
make small changes for each
search engine (also called
doorway pages) - however if this
is not done properly, you will
get penalized
- Trying
to load your content with too
many keywords. Focus on 1-3
keywords only
4. USE
GOOGLE ADS
While
still unproven, it certainly has been
found by many in the search engine watch
community that sites who use Google
Adwords or Google Adsense tend to appear
higher in listings.
5. VARY
YOUR TRAFFIC GENERATION TECHNIQUES
Too many
people rely on Google traffic for 99% of
their traffic. It's true, search engine
traffic is the most economical way to
advertise online, but there are many
other ways to vary your traffic
generation strategy.
Add
these traffic generation techniques to
your search engine optimization strategy:
- Writing
articles
- Running
affiliate program
- Joint
Ventures
- Viral
"sticky" tools
- Press
Releases
Yes -
you need to dance with Google. By
following these techniques, you can
actually lead your traffic generation
strategy rather than follow the Google
dance.
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