I set up my business, Briar Copywriting in 2007 and have always done my own search engine optimisation.
Despite a few hiccups along the way, I have managed to maintain great rankings for my chosen keywords. But then Penguin came along, closely followed by Penguin 2.0.
This latest change was meant to weed out those sites with slightly dodgy links. As I have always done my own link building and have been very careful about it, it’s incredibly frustrating when I get hit despite not bending the rules. So I’m now left having to look through all my inbound links to see what’s causing the problem.
But that’s beside the point.
Why is search engine optimisation like riding a bike?
Well, I am currently training for an epic charity endurance bike ride – the RideUK24 Newcastle to London challenge that’s taking place this August (300 miles in 24 hours).
Over the weekend I cycled from Suffolk to Bedfordshire and back (stopping over night), which is total of 160 miles (carrying a rucksack – not advisable when cycling long distances).
Whatever happened I knew I had to keep going. If I didn’t:
My training schedule would go out of the window
I would have fallen off my bike as my shoes clip to the peddles
And search engine optimisation is the same. As soon as you stop promoting and link building, your website will start to plummet.
But as if that wasn’t enough to contend with, Google has the power to make or break a business over night (even those who have always abided by the rules – sorry, I’ll stop ranting and get on with the meat of this post) simply by tweaking its algorithms.
That’s great to get rid of the spammy sites so the results you see are the most relevant, but not so great when you’ve done nothing wrong and you still get hit (sorry, got back on the soap box again briefly).
So how can you make sure your site stays in favour with Google?
Well, up to last week I would have said link build naturally and carefully, never pay for links and if you exchange links, be very careful whom you do it for.
But then, I’ve always built links naturally and never bought or exchange links – so what’s the answer?
Perhaps Google can answer that one?
Over to you Google
I’d love to get a definitive answer to this one.
So if anyone at Google happens to stumble across this post, perhaps you’d be good enough to explain?
What about you reader? How have you coped with the algorithm changes? Have you had to recover from the updates? If so, how did you do it?
Leave a comment below and let’s find out what the effect of these algorithm changes really mean to business.
There are some people who are so obsessed by their rankings that they check them daily.
Personally, I think that’s madness. You’ll run the risk of sending yourself potty over the slightest fluctuations and I’d much rather spend that time generating content, working and networking and keeping myself 100% focused on my business goals.
A lot of people are noticing at the moment that their content is ranking really well to start with, but then takes a nose dive.
This latest video from Matt Cutts explains why this happens to your content.
Hopefully, that video will answer a lot of questions for you.
Sally Ormond – Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd
Everyone wants to be on the front page of the search results, but rather than working hard and building a solid base of informative, relevant content and good links, some marketers still try to find short cuts.
However tempting it may be, there is no substitute for hard work because if you do try to cut corners you will incur the wrath of Google.
So what sort of activities are we talking about?
There are quite a few, but for this particular post we shall concentrate on 7.
1. Cloaking
Nope, it’s not something out of Star Trek.
Cloaking means you’re showing the search engines one thing and your visitors something else. So you could be promoting a site for an activity such as fell walking in the search results, but when someone clicks on the link, they’re taken to a pornographic site.
A very deceptive practice, which is completely forbidden by Google.
2. Duplicate content
Yes, unbelievably this still happens. People attempt to boost their page views by creating many pages with the same content.
If you inadvertently duplicate content on your own site through the use of categories, tags or archived pages, you’ll be OK although it could still get you penalised.
3. Scraping content
Everyone knows that good rankings come from the creation of great content. But for those who really can’t be bothered and think it’s OK to scrape content from other sites, tweak it a bit and then publish it, Google is watching you and will come down on you like a tonne of bricks.
4. Unrelated keywords
The only keywords that should be used for your site are those that are actually related to the content in your site. It really isn’t rocket science.
Of course, stuffing your keywords (related or otherwise) is also a huge no-no, but you knew that, right?
5. Link exchanges
The best way to develop your links is to do it carefully, manually and with integrity. If you pay for links you’ll get banned; if you link back to everyone who links to you, you could damage your reputation.
Basically, Google will check out your external links and incoming links for the quality of the linking sites. If they have a low reputation it will have an effect on you – so be careful.
6. Hidden keywords
The below will get you de-indexed or penalised:
Plastering your site with keywords in the same colour as your background
Keywords in really, really tiny font size at the end of your site
Guess what? They show up in your code so it really doesn’t take much for Google to spot it.
7. Stacking your titles
There’s a simple rule to follow: one headline per page.
Writing more than one and stuffing them with your keywords will hack Google off. Do it properly and make the most of your heading my placing your important keywords at the start of headline, making the most of the 70 characters available to create one that is meaningful.
Over to you
The 7 scenarios above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting yourself de-indexed by Google.
Can you think of any more?
If so, write a comment below and let’s see how many we can find.
In the last post, we saw how Google employed a bit of kung-fu Panda to send badly written content right to the bottom of the pile…where it belongs. We also looked at why web content is changing and the importance of having good, strong copy that is read and shared.
Now, I’d like to share some ideas that help draw visits to your site and attract potential ‘backlinks’ (links to your site from other users).
Apparently, few people these days buy a product or service directly as a result of a Google search. Think about it – when did you last do that?
If someone comes across your website directly from a keyword search, you might well grab their interest – especially if you’ve made a good job of your site – but they are unlikely to buy your product or service straight off the bat.
Typically, people will look for other things like recommendations from sites that rate you – or criticisms from those that don’t – so it’s important to get a name for yourself and have others singing your praises. Here are a few ways to create added value content that does just that…
Add something useful
A good proportion of search engine activity comes from people seeking answers to queries. If you offer a service, why not produce a series of articles that answer some of the your most frequently asked questions?
I recently wrote an article for an experienced quantity surveyor who specialises as an expert witness. Based on his notes, I wrote about how to avoid stress while managing a building project. For anyone embarking on such a project, there is some pretty solid advice in there and so the article achieves three things:
1) It draws traffic to the site from people who are not looking specifically for the service but may have need of it in the near future.
2) It builds up his reputation as an authority on the subject, thus enhancing the essential ‘trust’ factor.
3) Others in the trade will want to link to the article. This increases his backlinks, his audience reach and his search ranking.
Create something unusual
Marketeers these days have to be pretty creative and original if they want their brand to stand out. And so we get all sorts of weird and whacky things in an attempt to generate that all-important message.
Viral videos are all the rage now, so you could go down that route if you’re adventurous. Alternatively, try for some content with a humorous take on your product or service – lesser known uses for your product might be a good start.
People share things that are funny. But a word of warning: comedy writers often talk about how difficult humour is to get right. That’s why there are numerous casualties from the viral craze – companies that have lost out because they ended up offending too many people and completely sending out the wrong message!
Make it personal
Address your customer directly in a way that shows how your product or service can enhance their lives. If you engage your customer in an emotional way, you can increase the likeability – and therefore salability – of your product. Tell stories about your product with a happy ending. Show how it can help your customer become more attractive, safer, proud. You could even target different parts of your demographic by addressing their individual cravings in separate articles.
Advertise your content
Whatever the form of your content – be it video, article or blog – you’ll need to get the word out there. Social media is the easiest, cheapest and most fun way of advertising what you’ve created. Tweet about it on Twitter, link to it on Facebook, blab about it on your blog; there are so many different ways to grab the attention of your audience.
Remember that if it’s good and relevant to someone other than yourself, chances are it will get shared.
But people won’t share badly written content, unless their purpose is to laugh at you. Good quality content stands more chance of being passed on, so make sure it passes the test and you’re away!
Link building is probably, the most important element in your search engine optimisation strategy.
Why?
Well, it is the most important factor Google uses when working out how relevant your web page or website is for ranking purposes.
When someone types in a search query, Google heads off to find the most relevant pages that satisfy the query. It ranks them in authoritative order and the factor used to determine that is, you guessed it, its link profile.
The ayes have it
Every inbound link that points to your website and web pages is seen by Google as a vote for it.
The more ‘votes’ it has, the higher its perceived authority.
The higher its perceived authority, the higher it’s ranking.
But not just any old links will do, Google’s far cannier than that. Every link must have:
Relevance – it must come from a site of the same, or closely related topic
Authority – the site should be seen as authoritative in its own right
Trust – the links pointing to the initiating site should be good quality links
So the key is to attract authoritative links from related sites. But how do you do that?
Attracting link love
Knowing you need to attract links is one thing; actually getting them is something else entirely.
Where do you start?
First, there are links from directory submissions, but make sure you opt for directories that are relevant to your industry or market.
Then you need to produce great content that people will want to link to. Generating a lot of high quality, useful information can be time consuming, which is why many companies choose to contract it out to professional copywriters. However it is created, make sure it offers expert advice, opinions, and demonstrates your authority.
Once this has got out into the search engines it may well attract links straightaway, but you may also have to do some legwork. If one of your articles compliments another authority site, get in touch with them and direct them to it to see if they want to link to your content.
You should also hang out on the same online forums as your target audience. This is a great way to interact with other industry experts and could lead to a few links.
Another method is by writing guest blogs and articles. Authority bloggers always need great content, so if you write something that’s targeted for their readers that’s well researched and put together, they will publish it and include an all important link back to your site.
Link building campaign
Setting yourself a link building strategy is vital as it should be an on-going process.
Your campaign should look at attracting:
Links from authoritative sites
Links from a number of different domains (50 links from 50 different sites is much better than 50 links from 1 site)
Deep links – i.e. not just linking to your Home Page, your other pages need links too
Anchor text links – where you keywords are used as the link text
Local links – don’t forget local directories and your Chamber of Commerce as they will help with your local rankings
But one word of warning, never ever be tempted to pay for links. This practice is well and truly frowned upon by Google and any short-term gains you may experience will soon be lost once Google discovers what you’re up to.
A natural link building strategy is by far the best way to go. Try to build your strategy into your working week to make sure it is a constant process.
