You’re no psychic but you can see that the state of SEO is changing. Google has penalized websites that over-utilized SEO methods, and yours or those of your clients might be on those lists. The focus on massive backlink quantities and keywords is no longer the future of SEO. But what is?
Keep Your BackLinks Natural
Before Google caught on to the tactics that SEO “experts” were using, it was common to see plans for backlinks. That’s right, they were advertising thousands of links for $10. There were several problems with this approach, of course. 1) These sites didn’t have high authority 2) These sites were often irrelevant
Ultimately, those packages might have done more harm than good, and you’ll know this if your website took a dive in the rankings. However, quality links will do you more good than thousands of poor links ever could. The key to getting these links is creating content that others want to share. When you write a blog about painting a house and a popular home improvement website links to it, you’re getting natural backlinks that both visitors and the search engines like. This leads us directly to the next point.
Create Quality Content
Quality content is directly linked to those backlinks. If you don’t have it, they won’t link you. Some SEO pros forgot about this. They were creating content with carefully structured titles, headings, links and keywords, but that content only made sense to computers. When it comes down to it, you have to service your readers first and the search engines second. If people see the value of your content, so will Google. This is, in fact, one of the tenets of the search engine’s algorithm updates. Google wanted to make it easier for website owners who had no clue about SEO to get better rank because of the quality of their content.
The social network boom has made it obvious what type of content succeeds. Lists and infographics are readily shared on Facebook. Twitter is full of retweets to posts with fantastic titles, and everyone wants to learn how to be better at what they love or do for a living. Keep that in mind when creating content.
Remember: Be Social
It seems as though SEO has taken a backseat to social media, and you’d be wise to pay attention. Google uses sharing on Facebook, retweets and +1 votes to determine where pages should be in the ranks, and if you’re creating the type of quality content that people want to post to your profiles or timelines, you’re doing it right. Furthermore, if you’re providing a way for people to easily share content without leaving your site, you’re helping your own case. Install a toolbar or icon for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks to leverage the power of the Internet and take back your hard-earned ranks.
They’re Searching Your World
Not everyone loves how Google encourages you to search your world, but it’s not going anywhere. This is why being on Google+ is important, but you need to actively grow your networks, so that your followers can share your work and more searchers have the opportunity to find it. Google+ content and even Reader subscriptions influence the SERPs, so you might as well take advantage of them.
Andrew Handley is currently writing at Samuelson Hause & Samuelson covering its baclinking and social media strategy.
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