The Dos and Don’ts of Dealing With Google’s Penguin Update
This is a guest post by Guy Levine of Return on Digital, a digital marketing agency that provides SEO, PPC, CRO and Social Media services to B2B & B2C clients across the UK.
It’s been a few weeks now since Google made its Penguin update, and by now, we’re getting a good idea of the implications. It looks as though Google is hoping to make the internet a spam-free environment by getting stricter in enforcing their SEO guidelines, which states that pages should primarily be made for users and not for search engines.
This new algorithm essentially deals with websites or blogs which indulged in excessive link building with no regard for quality, keyword stuffing and publishing lots of meaningless content just for the sake of traffic. These techniques aren’t likely to work anymore.
If your traffic fell because of Google’s Penguin update, you can repair the damage. Here’s what to do (and what not to do) to get your rankings back on track.
DO invest in content.
Whether your client provides more copy, you hire a full-time copywriter or you write the content yourself, content makes a big difference in search rankings. The more natural sounding the text, the better. If you create content that’s actually useful, this information will stand the test of time, and will provide a good quality link. Continue reading
From Intern to Internet Marketing Expert in 3 Months
This is a guest post by Brianne Sadowski. Bri is a marketing strategist at Blue Soda Promo, an online promotional products company.
In October, an online promotional products company let me go through their internet marketing and SEO internship program. Working with computers, graphics and the Internet was something I always dreamed of doing, but marketing? SEO? I hardly knew what those words meant.
I knew marketing and advertising went hand and hand, but I had to run home and Google the meaning of SEO. Wikipedia gave a brief overview of Search Engine Optimization:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural,” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”), search results.
In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.
I wondered: how hard could it be? I had Googled my name in the past, and everything related to me on the Internet came up immediately on the first page. Continue reading
Google Rolls Out New +1 Button
Google recently unveiled a new feature that could change search engine optimization forever. The “+1″ feature, which echoes Facebook’s “Like” button, allows users to recommend the site to others while also giving it a boost of credibility.
To use the +1 button, you have to be signed in to a Google account. In addition to helping people share relevant pages with their contacts, the +1 button will also Google tailor search results to users’ individual preferences. Here’s how it works: Continue reading
Confessions of an SEO Copywriter
Confession: I have purposely inserted misspellings into my own writing.
I have rejected really good headlines and great lead sentences for mediocre ones that start with a keyword or phrase.
I have stifled the urge to delete redundancies. I’ve even added redundancies to get one more keyword into my writing.
For a former journalist, this is painful to admit. But for an SEO copywriter, it’s all in a day’s work.
Read the rest of my guest blog post at SEOSage.org.
